More Wildflowers!

Pictures belong to: Kentucky Wildflowers(copyright 2010)

Larkspur. This dandy little wildflower is gorgeously purple but also has a spur behind the flower. I love that. It's like a cowboy wildflower. Notice the darker purple stem looking thing is the spur...the stem is green. YEE-HAW!

Recurved Trillium. I would not even have thought of this as a flower. The middle is very maroonish and turns a very plain brown after it blooms. After observing it closely, I find it fascinating. I like to pronounce the 'c' in that word, making it fa-skin-ating which sounds much more exciting. I particularly love how the green leaves look-it reminds me of Hostas.

Mayapple. The flower on these is very rare indeed. We passed many 'crops' of them and saw nothing. It is only when the plant is forked that it flowers. This entire plant is poisonous except for the fruit that flower turns into. Only God could make non-poisonous fruit from a poisonous plant. Oh, by the way, you probably don't want to eat the fruit beyond a taste though. It has a laxative effect, at least that is what one of the gentlemen on our hike said.

Henbit. I have tons of this in my yard. Really, tons. Apparently it is very prolific. We did not see this on our hike, I just thought some of my fellow KY folk might enjoy knowing what that is.

Jacob's Ladder. You can just ever so slightly see the leaves at the bottom right. They look very ferny sort of like a ladder...hence the name. The flower is so delicate. Why can't I trade in my Henbit for some Jacob's Ladder? Where is the wildflower swap shop?

I find it amazing that more people have not added these wildflowers to their flower beds. These are native to our state and would absolutely thrive. It is now my gardening goal...starting with some butterfly weed known as milkweed. My oldest child dreams of raising a 'family' of Monarchs.