Welcome Spring! Texas Wildflowers are Here!
Spring in Texas has announced its arrival, with mid-70 degree days, thunderstorms and rainy weather. The birds are emerging from winter shelters with birdsong to attract mates, and trees and grass emerge from their dormancy periods and begin to turn green again. Butterflies have emerged from their cocoons and sip nectar from new wildflower blossoms. The wildflowers are my favorite part of spring, and the kids enjoy getting close and getting to know them well. While the Big Show of bluebonnets has begun, don’t miss the opening act of yellows, pinks, blues, purples, and whites covering meadows and providing food for pollinators.
The first wildflowers to arrive are the yellow dandelion and the purple-flowered henbit. Those are prevalent right now, so start your wildflower identification journey with teaching the kids those two. As you explore and discover more wildflowers, then a good field guide will help the kids enjoy the Texas wildflowers.
Kids get excited about wildflowers since they demand attention with beautiful bursts of color plus they are close enough to see well. We have several field guides to identify wildflowers, and our very favorite to keep with us is Wildflowers of Texas by Geyata Ajilvsgi. Field guides are a collection of photographs with descriptive details so that readers are able to identify specimens while they are in the field. This book is great for beginners as well as seasoned biologists because the author groups the flowers by color (instead of by flower family, which requires a little more advanced knowledge). Geyata also gives interesting facts about the plants such as origin and usage in traditional medicine. This is a must in our field bag for most outings Spring through Fall.
We also have some pocket field guides, which are laminated pages with fewer flowers and less information, but is great for portability. The Texas Trees & Flowers Pocket Field Guides are a handy addition to have as well.
Special needs:
There is much research on special needs kids showing improvement in symptoms when they are outdoors and in nature. Finding wildflowers is great visual and observational skills to practice. It is also helpful to find differences in flowers to exercise the brain.
Know before you go:
Bring plenty of water and sunscreen.
Chiggers like tall grasses near the water, so use insect repellant if you have concerns. Most of the time we go out we do not use insect repellant at all because it’s not needed. Watch for fire ants as you would anywhere outdoors.
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