Identifying wildflowers offers 'family style' fun
By Gary Raham
Nature Writer and Illustrator
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I recently ran into a familiar family while hiking at Coyote Ridge Natural
Area: the mustard family. Yellow bursts of prairie wallflowers (Erysimum
asperum) welcomed my fellow travelers and me all the way to the first hogback.
The shifting seasonal patterns of wild blooms can be a little bit like
meeting a favorite aunt or uncle. You don't have to talk much. Just enjoy
the company. And even though as a biologist I've been a bit of an animal
chauvinist, I've found flower identification rewarding and not as tough
as I once thought--especially if you concentrate on flower family characteristics
and don't get involved with all the sordid intimacies of species identification.
The mustard family is an easy one. Look for four-petaled flowers, often
yellow, in the shape of a cross. Other characters include a superior ovary
and six stamens--four long and two short.
"Wait a minute," I hear you say. "What's all this ovary and stamen stuff
you're babbling about. I tuned that out in high school." Of course. But
reviewing a little of that old basic biology, is just like riding a bike.
Really. Here are some terms you will run across in even simple plant keys,
like the excellent Rocky Mountain Flower Finder by Janet L. Wingate, Ph.D.
(Don't hold the Ph.D. against her. The book is easy to use and has lots
of great illustrations.)
- Flower sex stuff: staMENs are the guy parts--long filaments coming
from the center of the flower topped with a colorful pollen-producing anther.
Pistils are the female part, a flask-like structure consisting of a roundish
ovary (filled with ovules-that-become seeds), a "neck" called the style,
and a platform on top called the stigma that receives the pollen.
- Petals and sepals. Petals make up the color show for flower admirers.
Sepals are (usually) the green, leaf-like structures beneath the petals.
(Petals attach at the base of superior ovaries, by the way, and at the
top of inferior ovaries.)
- Leaves. Leaves can be simple (like an aspen or iris leaf) or compound
(like verbena). Compound leaves will not be confused with multiple simple
leaves if you remember that the leaf bud (stipule) always lies at the base
of the leaf. Leaves may also have net-like veins (like aspen) or parallel
veins (like grasses). Leaf edges can be entire (smooth), toothed (jagged)
or lobed (like a maple leaf). Finally, leaves can be attached to their
stems opposite each other, in an alternate pattern, in a whorl at each
point where they occur on the stem, or all at the base.
- Flowers can also be grouped in various ways: in an umbel, raceme, spike
or panicle. The easiest way to show this is with a simple sketch.
This brings me to my next point: The best way to really see a flower is
to draw it. Now wait--I can see your eyes widen and hear that ragged intake
of breath--no talent is required. A simple sketch with a few notes about
things I've mentioned above will do wonders in successfully keying down
your discovery after the hike and remembering it later. You may want to
go sketch-trekking with a son or daughter, or even a spouse. My wife, an
athlete, not an artist, enjoys drawing with me on vacations. Not only do
we record a unique remembrance of our vacation, we get to spend some quiet
time together in a beautiful place--or recognize the natural beauty in
a more humble place.
Hope to see you on the wildflower-lined trails this summer!
Gary, when he wears his "master naturalist" hat for the city of Fort Collins,
leads free hikes in natural areas. This summer he will be leading a program
called "The Wildflower Diaries: chronicling the wild natives and aggressive
aliens of Colorado's foothills" on July 9 at Reservoir Ridge (east of the
north end of Horsetooth Dam). Call Zoe Shark for more information at 416-2480.
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