Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Plants
Wildflowers
Wildflowers are to Texas what fall foliage is to Vermont: they're a way of life. Wildflower
tourism is so entrenched in the state that highway and local visitor centers can help you
plan entire trips around watching them bloom. So what's the best time to see the crimsons
and the blues in all their glory? Diehard wildflower enthusiasts would tell you that the time
to see the best and widest range is from mid-March to mid-April, when roadsides and fields
throughout central and west Texas, and especially the Hill Country, become explosions of
color - blankets of wonderful reds, rusts, yellows and blue. For more on finding spring
sightings, search
http://texas.wildflowersightings.org
.
A sighting of Texas' official state flower, the bluebonnet, means that spring has officially
sprung. While this wildflower - whose name derives from its small, blue, bonnet-shaped
petals - comes in several species of North American lupine, the most beloved and iconic in
Texas culture is the
Lupinus texensis
: that's right, the Texas bluebonnet. Other beloved
wildflower species include Indian blankets, also known as firewheels, the petals of which
possess a red-orange-yellow pattern that looks almost woven. Indian paintbrushes share the
same palette, but are shorter and often grow in fields of bluebonnets. Mexican hats, which
belong to the sunflower family, do resemble nodding sombreros, and they're easily found
growing alongside highways. The pink-blossomed buttercups have a blush of yellow at the
center.
Flower-crazed tourists make the epic drive to Big Bend region specifically to see the
wildflowers. The blooms peak early March to April in the lowlands and May to July in the
Chisos Mountains, but it's possible to find flowers year-round; there's often a second
bloom in late summer after the season's heavy rains. Big Bend bluebonnet, a 2ft tall relat-
ive of the Texas state flower, blooms from December through June in the lowlands. Other
varieties you may see include prickly poppy, sweet William, snapdragon, cardinal flower,
silverleaf, bracted paintbrush, rock-nettle and desert verbena.
