Well, OK, so "wild about" might be a little strong. But not by much. Your eyes would have to be tone deaf if they were incapable of appreciating the natural beauty of wildflowers. Strike that. I just remembered a fellow I worked with who was color blind. But even in black and white the essential beauty remains.
It must be confessed, though, that identifying wildflowers can be a challenge because of the sheer numbers involved. Oh, sure, I own several field guides but the truth is there are really subtle distinctions when it comes to the dozens and dozens of yellow varieties alone. So, Shirley and I just refer to any yellow flower we don't recognize immediately as "a member of the hawkweed family."
Besides, these photos do not represent botanical studies. Rather, they are my attempt to capture the many kinds of beauty we experience in our travels. When flowers appear as lone specimens or even several plants they provide one kind of satisfaction. When they make great displays of several acres or more, the impact is even more impressive. Drive the Blue Ridge Parkway in spring when the world comes alive with vibrant displays of flowering trees and plants. Cross the plains of Texas when golden wallflowers or tiny spring beauties or blue bonnets (i.e., lupines) stretch for miles and miles. You may not know the difference between a rhododendron and a mountain laurel or a wallflower and an aster but that won't keep you from exclaiming, "Oh, my! Look at that!"
Moss campion needs to be especially hardy to survive in the tundra.
Pasqueflower
Columbine
Ox eye daisy
Trilliums
Catawba rhododendron
Rosebay rhododendron
Flame azalea
Paulownia or princess tree
Close up of Paulownia blossoms
Mountain laurel
Wild geranium doesn't look anything like the garden annual you buy at the nursery.
Western blue flax
Yarrow
Goldeneye filling the meadow above
Sotol cactus
Fireweed is named not for its color but for its tendency to recolonize quickly after a wildfire.
Glacier lilies
Tulip poplar
Lady slippers
Dog hobble
Evening primrose blossoms begin fading the next morning but the plant can continue sending out replacements until autumn.
Indian paintbrush
Blanketflower
Bear grass
Blue asters
Wallflowers
Spring beauty
Harebells
Here's a specimen that came as a surprise. Looks great individually or in extensive displays. It's wild onion--readily identified by smell if you don't know it by appearance.
Yucca
Rocky Mountain phlox
"A member of the hawkweed family"
Spider lilies along the Natchez Trace
Bluets
Brittlebush
Cactus blossoms are pleasing not only for their innate beauty but also because of the contrast with the plant that brings them forth. Besides, they help dispel the perception that the desert is just brown and boring.
Globe mallow
Lupines are common...
but I hit the brakes just west of Telluride, CO when I saw a field of these with red skyrockets mixed in.
Mexican gold poppies
Scorpionweed
Desert four-o'clock
In the winter of 2016 Death Valley experienced a rare "Super Bloom" brought on by heavier than usual rains the previous fall. Hundreds, even thousands of acres of wildflowers covered the valley floor. The most common and widespread was appropriately named desert gold.
Sand verbena
Brown-eyed evening primrose
Desert five-spot
Jojoba
Ocotillo looks like a cactus because of spiny canes but is actually a shrub.
Salsify
Arrowleaf balsamroot
Mimosa or silk tree is an invasive species from China. Like kudzu, it is widely distributed in the South. Unlike kudzu, it is actually quite attractive.
Datura or angel's trumpet
