Choosing A Wildflower Guide

No matter how much I dread our Texas summer weather, there is nothing prettier than spring's wildflowers.  While the book that I used in my Field Biology of Plants class, Roadside Wildflowers of Texas is no longer available, there are three good books to cover most of the state, and some great regional books, too.  Whether you are looking for a Texas guide, or one for your own region, there are two main methods for how the books are arranged, and a couple of others.  Here is what they are and their advantages:

• By flower color - these are popular because you can hit the ground running, and start identifying flowers the day you open this book.  You may have to flip through a lot of pages, and check both blue and pink for some of the more purple flowers, but they are incredibly easy to use.  Trouble is, if there is no flower, you'll have a heck of a time identifying the plant! 

• Taxonomic order-if you take the time to learn your plant families, you'll be able to use any wildflower guide (and as shown below, the majority of the guides are in this order), and be able to identify the family of most unknown wildflowers.  Since we aren't being tested, most of us don't sit down to learn the families, so these books are usually second choice!

• Alphabetical - Usually by family, another reason to learn families!

Here is how some of our most popular wildflower books are arranged.