Neighborhood Wildflower Walk

Lately my husband and I have been skipping the gym in favor of our new exercise program. We're calling it the "Walk N Weed".  Two miles around our neighborhood, followed by 1 hour in the yard weeding or doing other needed garden tasks.

Tonight on our walk I noticed the wildflowers looked particularly spectacular, so I made a quick dash home for my camera.  When I look at scenes like these, I wish I could paint.  

This field looks like it is predominately Indian Paintbrush until you look closer and see the Wine Cup, Pink Evening Primrose, and Spiderwort.

At home, I'm forever pulling out Wild Onions. The white flowers are pretty, but the plants pop up everywhere driving me crazy.  Here in this curbside setting, they work with these Bluebonnets and Spiderwort.

Here's an interesting tidbit about Bluebonnets that you may not know.  Bluebonnets that have not been pollinated have a white center.  After pollination the center turns red signally bees to move on to a different flower.  See if you can pick out the red and white centers in the closeups below.

There are so many beautiful wildflowers, but here's one of my top 10.  I've always known it by the common name, False Indigo, Baptisia bracteata var. leucophaea.  I've also heard it called Ground Wisteria, which is probably due to the clusters of flowers which hang on the plant pulling it downward.  Most of these plants have finished blooming, but I found a few stragglers to share with you.

Cream False Indigo is a member of the pea family.  The plants are well-rounded and bushy, measuring about 1-2 feet tall.  The bumble bees love them and I do too.