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True to the name, the Guajillo Brush section and Guajillo Hill do have a lot of Guajillo (Acacia berlandieri--Fabaceae/Mimosaceae.) The fragrance of Acacia flowers is due to the presence of coumarin compounds.  This class of aromatics is responsible for the characteristic scents of vanilla and new-mown sweet clover (Melilotus) hay as well.

Not all of the shrubs are Guajillo.  One can easily find specimens of Texas Sage or Ceniza (Leucophyllum frutescens--Scrophulariaceae).  This gray-leaved shrub is sometimes called Barometer Plant because it will usually bloom in response to rain.  Its drought tolerance and pink or purple flowers make it a favorite for landscaping in Texas.  White-flowered forms are available in cultivation.  (Image by James Manhart.)

We also found specimens of Texas Persimmon (Diospyros texana--Ebenaceae.) Japanese and American Persimmons (D. kaki and D. virginiana) are trees with smooth leaves and orange fruit, but Texas Persimmon is a shrub with furry leaves and fruits that are blackish at maturity.  The plants are dioecious, so look for fruit on female plants.  They're edible, but good luck beating the animals to them.  They're a favorite food of various mammals, especially ring-tailed cats, and it's not unusal to find piles of scat that consist mostly of Persimmon seeds.  Like many members of the ebony family, Texas Persimmon has very hard, dense wood.  (Flower image by James Manhart.)

There are plenty of wildflowers on Guajillo Hill.  Someone willing to scrunch down and look at the ground will be treated to the pretty pink-purple blossoms of Gray Coldenia (Tiquilia canescens--Boraginaceae.) This is a good plant to learn by sight, because identifying borages usually leads to peering at minute cocci (nutlets) under high magnification, looking for the size, shape, and position of the attachment scar.  These little flowers are about 4mm broad.

Probably the most noticeable wildflower here is Dudweed Paperflower (Psilostrophe gnaphalioides--Asteraceae.)  The foliage is gray-furred, but the flowers are a very bright golden yellow. (First and third images by Hugh D. Wilson.)

Another composite that grows here is Parralena or Common Dogwood (Thymophylla pentachaeta, formerly Dyssodia pentachaeta.) Its leaf segments are thin and bristle-like. The inflorescences are radiate, that is, there are both ray (strap-shaped) florets around the edge and disk (regular, star-shaped) florets in the center. (In the image, you can see some fully open disk florets at the lower edge of the disk.) In this species, the phyllaries (bracts under the head) are dotted with glands.

The Silvery Bladderpod (Lesquerella argyraea subsp. argyraea--Brassicaceae) was probably quite conspicuous at the height of its bloom, but we caught only the last few flowering individuals.  Like most members of the Mustard Family, it has tetradynamous stamens--four long and two short.  The silicles (fruit) of Lesquerella are usually round, and in this species they are smooth and borne on pedicels that have a nice sigmoid (S-shaped) curve.  The foliage is covered with minute stellate hairs.   Because of the smoke and haze from Mexico, these little stars were about  the only ones we saw on our trip.

After exploring the broad open hilltop, we went on to Guajillo Tank. This didn't have any water in it when we were there.  Much of the tank area was covered with a thick stand of Helenium microcephalum var. microcephalum (Smallhead Sneezeweed--Asteraceae.)  The ray flowers in this species are usually solid yellow; other members of the genus may have some reddish brown pigment at the base of each ray.

The maroon color in the photos above is in the ray flowers of Mexican Hat (Ratibida columnifera--Asteraceae), which is also abundant here.  We didn't so much walk across this area as wade through the plants. Anyone crouching down was completely hidden. What riches!  The large trees in the background are Mesquite.

One plant that was unexpected and scary to find was Blessed Milk Thistle (Silybum marianum--Asteraceae.)  This plant is native to the Mediterranean area.  It is widely naturalized in the New World, but we didn't expect to find it so far out in the "boonies."  The plants are scary because they're about 1.5 m tall and have fiercely prickly leaves and involucres.   There's nowhere safe to grab! The leaves are mottled with white and the big pink heads look like those of Cirsium thistles.  In the center of the image below, you can see the pale shapes of gone-to-seed heads on the tall plants. This plant has been used in herbal remedies for hepatitis since the days of the ancient Greek physician Dioscorides, and it does seem to have some beneficial antibody/immune strengthening properties.  Some of its compounds also seem to be effective remedies for poisoning by Amanita mushrooms.  You can see a drawing of the plant on this page from a German Herbal.