FOCUS ON THE BACKROADS – Texas Wildflowers

Every state has something that it can boast about – California has beaches, Colorado has mountains, New Mexico has amazing sunsets and in TEXAS we have wildflowers. Every April wild flowers start appearing along the highways and backroads of the state. At the first sighting, parents grab their children dressed them in colorful outfits, to take the annual “sit the kids in the bluebonnet” photo. If you were born and raised in Texas you have at least one of these pictures stuffed somewhere in an old shoe box.

The most famous of these is the official flower of Texas: The Bluebonnet. In 1901 there was debate in the Texas Legislature: would the cotton boll or the cactus be adopted as the official flower of the state. The National Society of Colonial Dames of America in Texas lobbied for the Lupinus subcarnosus – know as buffalo clover or bluebonnet. On March 7, 1901 it was passed into law that the bluebonnet was officially the State Flower of Texas. There are five species of bluebonnets – so we Texans can boast that we HAVE FIVE STATE FLOWERS (take that California).

There are many other flowers that explode from the ground during the Wildflower season turning the roadsides and pastures into seas of color – so pack up the kids and your camera – an oh yeah don’t forget to smile big for the photo.

there are so many colors in the rainbow, so many colors in the morning sun, so many color in the flowers and I see everyone. ……Harry Chapin/Flowers are Red