Yesterday we noticed many little wildflowers starting to bloom as we hiked. Treasures around every corner. Treasures better captured with my camera and not to be picked.
Wildflowers are a feast to our eyes and I appreciate that if we leave them in their natural place that others will be able to enjoy them as well. Most wildflowers do not last very long as picked flowers anyway. Last year I saw a young family picking oodles of poppies along the trail. I don’t think they realized that poppies once picked don’t last very long, especially if you are picking them and dumping them into little buckets for your kids to carry. We occasionally pick a single wildflower to press and preserve in our nature journals. We pick only if there is an abundance and we do not take the whole plant. Rarely do I pick any wildflowers unless they are on our own property or my dad’s property, never at a National Park.
“Some flowers are so abundant that they can be picked in moderation if the roots are not disturbed, if plenty of flowers are left for seed, and if the plant itself is not taken with the flower.”
Handbook of Nature Study, page 460
I think this is still good advice today.
We are just beginning to see the fennel blooming along the edges in the sunny patches.
Same with the Fiddlenecks…they are just popping open with their bright orange-yellow in the sunny spots.
I think this was the Miner’s Lettuce blooming…I have to go back and check.
I never did identify this one last year. I am going to take my field guide with me on my next hike and see if I can figure it out this season. It is very small and it blankets the edges of the trail in the shady sections. I seem to remember that we thought it might be Spring Beauty.
Today we were going to hike in another county, but it had to be postponed. My hubby wants to work in the garden anyway and plant a few of the early spring veggies.
One last photo from the other day when the clouds and sky were so very beautiful.
Enjoy your day!
Here to, there are some first signs of Spring, although still very faint – we’re having a harsh winter in this part of the world this year. Your small white flower looks like a Chickweed (Stellaria media), could it be?
Hi, Barb.
Your little pink five-petaled flower is Spring Beauty. The other looks like chickweed. Maybe you got your captions backward.
FYI, chickweed is very high in Vitamin C and can be used in salad (which I’ve never done ‘cuz somebody probably sprayed it!)I believe it would be God’s intention to provide something with that vitamin so early in the season after being unable to obtain it from stored vegetables. I am thinking of earlier days before refrigeration.
Leslie