Year of The Wildflowers

Field of Sneezeweed

Upon entering the Medicine Park or East entrance of the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge the first thing that caught my eye was the abundance of color in the pastures provided by the riot of Wildflowers that seemed to go on endlessly!

Prickly Pear-Indian Blankets-Purple Coneflower-Yellow Coreopsis

A mild Oklahoma winter combined with ample rainfall has healed and once more brought this drought and wildfire plagued land back to life. I knew at once the opportunity to capture photos of the seasonal blooming native flowers would be at it's peak!

Prickly Poppy with Black Eyed Susan aka Ox-Eye Daisy

Each plant with their colorful blooms and aromas seemed to be in competition to see who could attract the most pollinators. Bees, butterflies, and other bugs were in abundance as were the winds. All very efficient at their jobs!

     It seemed to me that the less abundant the plant was, the larger the flower would be, especially in the varieties of the cactus. The Prickly Poppy above is another example with it's large bloom and not growing in abundance but common to the region.

Indian Blanket with Pollinator

The Firewheel has always been a favorite. Not a year goes by that this beauty has not signaled Spring and the start of Summer. Happy to say it is blooming in abundance this year!

TexWisGirl has reported an abundance of Wildflowers from east Texas, Val in Nebraska has shown several in bloom, Paul, all the way up on Vancouver Island in Canada reports sightings, just wondering if any more of our readers in other parts of the country and World are seeing similar abundance of the Native Plants??