Identifying
Wildflowers
Identifying wildflowers can be a wonderful activity providing hours of
quiet pleasure and appreciation for nature’s beauty and diversity.
As you become more aware of the wildflowers on your property or along
a favorite trail, you will enjoy welcoming them back each season.
They become familiar friends.
Identifying
wildflowers for the first time requires close attention to the symmetry
and design of the flower and the type and arrangement of the leaves.
Wildflowers are short-lived, and species change from month to month.
“To
find new things, take the path you took yesterday.”
John
Burroughs
Once
you start observing the wildflowers around you, your curiosity will
be aroused. The seasonal
varieties may surprise and delight you,
and you will be enticed (as I was) to learn more about them.
The
reference book most useful to me has been:
NEWCOMB’S
WILDFLOWER GUIDE
Other
informative and interesting resource books:
National
Audubon Society Field Guide to Wildflowers
Wildflowers of the Adirondacks by Anne McGrath and Joanne Treffs
Trailside
Notes
by Ruth Schottman
Wildflowers
and Shrubs
by William Carey
Grimm
Peterson’s A Field
Guide to Wildflowers
Wildflowers
of New York
by William Chapman,
Valerie Chapman, et. al.
Wildflowers
Around the Year by Hope Ryan
Who
Named the Daisy? Who Named the Rose? A Roving Dictionary of
North American Wildflowers by Mary Durant
Please
contact me at dcollin7@nycap.rr.com with
interest or questions.
Diane
