Texas Wildflowers

We went out this morning and hubby decided to take us to see if there were any wildflowers yet. Since there has been such a big drought around here the wildflowers are not like they were last year but we found a few. It's nice to just look at the wildflowers and then try to identify them when we get home. My little one enjoys a challenge.

This first one is called Texas Vervain or Texas Verbena(Verbena halei). This was used as a medicinal herb.

The next one we identified as Spotted Bee Balm(Monarda punctata). If you click on the picture it is just starting to flower. We learned this plant contains the antiseptic drug thymol.

Then there is the Texas Thistle(Cirsium texanum). We read a little on this one and we'd like to get some of this one. This one attracts butterflies and we found out that goldfinches eat the seeds of this flower and they also use the silky fluff of the ripened seeds to line their nests. This year was the first year that we had goldfinches so this would make a great wildflower to have and maybe they will come back.

We had a nice time just driving through the back roads and looking for flowers. We'll have to do this again in a few weeks and see what else we find.

We used this site and these books to identify our flowers.