Berlandiera lyrata hails from the limestone mesas and dusty roadsides of the southwestern United States and northern Mexico, where it has learned to live on very little. Its gray-silver foliage, lobed and lyrate in shape, sits low to the ground in a soft mound, and from spring through fall the gold daisy flowers open on slender stems each morning, each one centered with a distinctive green disk that persists long after the petals drop. That green eye is the source of one of its other common names — green-eyes — and it gives the plant a quiet architectural presence even out of bloom.

In the garden, it asks for sharp drainage above all else. Heavy clay or persistently wet soil will rot the long taproot that anchors this plant to the earth. Given the right conditions, dry and gritty, it rewards with near-constant bloom: deadhead it and it pushes more flowers; mow it back in early summer and it regrows and flowers again. The flowers are a reliable draw for bees, and deer leave it firmly alone, likely put off by the aromatic foliage. An honest, unfussy wildflower for gardens that want more life and less intervention.