Sorry, you need to enable JavaScript to visit this website.
Article Image Alt Text
  • Article Image Alt Text
    Bluebonnets decorate the landscape of Big Bend National Park in West Texas. Big Bend is approximately six hours by car from Dripping Springs. PHOTO BY MARC WIZ

Texas parks go ‘technicolor’ with wildflowers

Spectacular displays of blue, pink, red and yellow are blanketing the state, and Texas State Parks offer picturesque settings for family photos of this year’s parade of wildflowers away from busy roadways.

Texas is home to nearly 6,000 species of plants, and recent rains are assured to accompany a colorful wildflower explosion from spring through late fall. More than 90 Texas State Parks offer some of the best and safest places to view and photograph nature’s bounty of wildflowers, blooming shrubs and trees.

“Vibrant spring wildflower displays have been remarkable across the Texas landscape recently,” said Jason Singhurst, botanist with the Texas Parks and Wild- life Department. “With recent rains carpeting a large percentage of Texas, we are experiencing dazzling wildflower dis- plays and should expect increasing wild- flower concentration through April and into May.”

Always remember to exercise caution when taking wildflower photos on busy roadways by using your emergency lights and being mindful of disturbing wildlife resting or hiding in that location, such as nesting birds, or undesirable encounters with venomous snakes and fire ants. The TPWD Flickr page is regularly updated with wildflower sightings from state parks and wildlife management areas across the state, including Big Bend Ranch State Park, Government Canyon State Natural Area and Matador Wildlife Management Area.

Park visitors can share their wildflower pictures — and see what’s blooming around the state — on TPWD Instagram, Facebook and Twitter accounts.

At present, every region of the state is showing different varieties of wildflowers, including:

Central Texas:The rolling upland hill- sides, canyons, and creek and river bottoms are providing a colorful and teeming wildflower wave that is layered with bluebonnets, Engelmann’s daisy, Texas star, blue sage, Indian blanket, Mexican hat, prairie fleabane, prairie verbena, greenthread, two-leaved senna, four- nerve daisy, Drummond’s onion, green lily, old plainsman, golden eye phlox, white milkwort, wine cups, perfume balls, phlox, Missouri primrose, white heliotrope, antelope horn milkweed, sundrops, white rain lily, Drummond’s skullcap, Blackfoot daisy, foxglove and Lindheimer’s paintbrush. The Hill Country canyon woodland ground flora is draped with Texas silver puff, rock lettuce, false dayflower (“widows tears”), plateau spiderwort, baby blue eyes, red columbine, Texas milkweed, blue curls and roundleaf groundsel.

Coastal Texas prairies, barrier islands, and the South Texas “Sand Sheet”: An wide arrange of wildflowers are on dis- play including prairie nymph, prairie clovers, betony-leaf mistflower, Indian blanket, silverleaf sunflower, seaside goldenrod, showy nerveray, erect day- flower, Texas groundsel, woolly whites, longbract wild indigo, coralbean, Rio Grande greenthread, American snout- bean, coast germander, sand rose gen- tian, sand verbena, phlox, sea lavender, sea oxeye, sea rocket, Gulf Coast Camphor daisy, saltmarsh mallow, beach morning glory, and side-cluster milk- weed.

East Texas:The Pineywoods’ hard- wood slopes and bottomland forest flora has been extraordinary with a plethora of wildflowers including trout lilies, trilliums, Solomon’s seal, mayapple, partridge-berry, golden Alexanders, violets, purple meadow-rue, groundsels, Carolina vetch, wisteria, flowering dogwood, yellow jasmine, crossvine, jack-in-the- pulpits, Virginia sweetspire, hawthorns, white-flowered milkweed, azalea, fringe tree and silver bells. Wetlands are profuse with spider lily, bluestar, spring cress, Canada garlic, and blue iris. Upland and wetland pine savannas are dominated by old plainsmen, Carolina pucoon, yellow colic-root, candy root, prairie snout- bean, Queens’s delight, sundews, silky prairie clover, meadow pink, false dragonhead, downy phlox, rose vervain, spiderworts, Carolina larkspur, bull nettle, and toad flax.

North Texas:The landscape is generous with Indian paintbrushes, brown eyed Susan, winecup, American basket flower, Barbara’s buttons, American wild carrot, showy evening primrose, plantain, Texas prairie parsley, fleabane, prairie clovers, blue-eyed grass, buttercups, snakeherb, butterfly weed, false dragon-head, sundrops, beeblossum, Texas skeleton plant, larkspur, coneflowers, blue mealy sage, wild indigo and over- whelming numbers of green milkweeds.

West Texas:The lower Big Bend wild- flower displays are accumulating and include Big Bend bluebonnet, whole- leaf Indian paintbrush, rock penstemon, several crinklemat species, rigid paintbrush, yellow rocknettle, yerba raton, dogweed, paperflower, shrubby skeleton-leaf goldeneye, twin-leaf senna, limoncillo, several species of salvias, pur- ple wooly locoweed, ocotillo, lechuguilla, fragrant yellow huisache, cenizo, yuccas, and many cactus species that are on display along the Rio Grande River road and at Big Bend National Park and Big Bend State Natural Area.

Wildflower enthusiasts can sport the Bluebonnet conservation license plate, and support Texas State Parks all year. Proceeds from license plate purchases go to enhance the visitor experience, including supporting educational interpretive programming and conservation efforts at state parks.

To buy the bluebonnet or one of the other seven designs available, visit www. conservationplate.org/stateparks or your local county tax assessor-collector’s office. Buyers do not have to wait until they receive a renewal notice, they can order at any time and the cost will be pro-rated.

All conservation plates are available for cars, trucks, motorcycles, trailers and RVs.

• Submitted by Texas Parks & Wildlife

Dripping Springs Century-News

P.O. Box 732
Dripping Springs, Texas 78620

Phone: (512) 858-4163
Fax: (512) 847-9054