Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Wonders of Wildflowers

        One of the pleasures of spring and summer is the constant parade of wildflower blooms. We are fortunate to have some natural habitat which provides us with an interesting variety of blooms. I am not a plant expert in any way. I can appreciate and recognize those who do have expertise , knowledge and talent in this area.


        So I'm doing a small post on flowers and I don't have any pictures. My photography is brownie hawkeye technology! Just kidding. I do have a small digital camera which has limited capabilities.


       There are several blogs which I follow where the authors are excellent photographers and display a good knowledge of plants. I appreciate these bloggers and follow them regularly and suggest that you take a look at their blogs.


       Since I have spent time on large tracts of natural habitat when I was young, I came to appreciate wild flowers. Several years ago my brother took me to one of these undisturbed areas when the western wood lily (lilium philadelphicum) was in full bloom. I had forgotten how abundant they were in this area. It was a real treat. My summer is complete once I find brown eyed susans(gaillardia aristata). Who could not love the prairie crocus(anemone patens)? Finding them come up right after the snow melts is a real treat. When hiking in high mountain meadows the crocus is very common in July.


      Last Saturday I had to visit the Gaetz Lake Sanctuary just to see yellow lady slippers(cypridium calceolus). They are numerous in certain areas of the sanctuary.
     Now I could continue with flower sitings I like , but these are highlights for me. We get a treat from our wildflowers all spring and summer