March 5 ~ Wildflowers

Today I drove down to check the mail and noticed two types of wildflowers on the side of the driveway and thought...hmmm...time to take a walk with the camera.

I found more than 2 different wildflowers, 13 different types in all, WOW!!

Of course some were really tiny and I was down on hands and knees trying to avoid the fire ants and get some really cool photos...and then I spent 2 hours trying to identify them, ugh! I may be incorrect on some of the identifications but I tried with 3 different books...and each book different...grrr...

Pointed Phlox

Cockle burrs...not a wildflower but rather a HUGE pain in the rear, specially when Julie gets them in her mane and tail...I loved the blue sky in the background!

Daisy member of the Aster family...I admit by the time I got to this one I had had enough of identify flowers...not sure what type of daisy but I know it is a member of the Aster family!

Wine cup also known as a Poppy Mallow

This wasn't blooming yet but is a Texas Thistle...I've heard some people refer to them as Bull Thistles...Not something I would want to step on barefoot!! OUCH!!

Dewberry bloom...The berries are something like a LARGE blackberry.

Pink Evening Primrose

Okay this flower threw me off....I spent at least an hour looking for it and was very frustrated as I could not find it in any of the (3) Texas wildflower books I have...It has 6 petals! Well I decided to look at another photo I had taken and realized the other flowers only had 5 petals...grrr...that 6 petaled flower threw me for a loop....I still wasn't able to fully identify it but think it is from the Phlox family...It is very tiny and growing close to the ground...I'll keep researching and see if I can find out exactly what type of flower it is but after an hour I was finished!!!

Warty Caltrop...a very tiny flower and considered a weed!

Took me awhile to figure this one out too but I think it is a Corydalis.

This one has me stumped...it's not a very clear photo to begin with but none of the Texas Wildflower books had one that was even close to it...I think it is from the Pea family.

This was another one that took me awhile but I think it is a Sleepy Daisy also a member of the Aster family.

False Garlic also known as Crows Poison. Normally one of our first wildflowers to bloom in the spring...

I notice there are a lot of wildflowers blooming that normally don't bloom until our spring season is almost over with and think that is really strange as spring has basically just started for us...We don't have the wildflowers blooming in mass like we did last year and I wonder if we will get that type of mass blooms this year.

I hope you enjoyed your wildflower tour and I will try to do this once a week so we can see the different types of wildflowers blooming in this area.

(On another interesting note Texas has over 5,000 wildflower species and I have 3 wildflower books...one lists 381, another lists 370 and the last one lists 482...a far cry from 5,000 but they do lists the most popular and common ones. I hope you now know why it takes me forever to identify and why sometimes I can't identify a wildflower....)