Wildflowers

April 21, 2010

Lubbock Lake Landmark

70F 7-10 mph wind

Clear, cumulus clouds on the horizon

and

April 28, 2010

Lubbock Lake Landmark

85F 20mph wind South/Southwest

Sunny and partly cloudy

At last we got to use our wildflower guides. 

Because of the heavy rainfall Lubbock got this past year, wildflowers are flourishing. Dr. T said that they may even see wildflowers that haven't appeared in years, and many of them wouldn't be in our guides.

Wildflower guides are organized in various ways. Some are organized by color, some by family. The book I have organizes them by families. They are also region specific. Mine is, of course, a book featuring flowers of the Western Plains.

As we crowded around a tiny yellow flower, stumbling through the pages of our guides, Dr. T stuck her arms straight out at her sides and stood rigid. "When you see that cross shape like this, think mustard."

We finally identified our first flower--a Bladderpod, a little yellow fellow with four symmetrically placed petals.

I enjoyed identifying the flowers. Unlike birds, they stay still and let me get really close to them. 

We also identified: Prairie verbena, tansy mustard, a type of onion, scarlet globe mallow, orange globe mallow, yellow daisy, fringed puccoon, feather dalea, pink paintbrush, and purple ground cherry.

The first thing we do is try to determine the family. Once we do that, we turn to that section, and flip through the pictures. When we think it looks like one of the flowers in the book, we read the description. If all of that checks out, we can finally say we know the name of the flower.

On the second day, we identified: