State Flowers of the United States
This is a citizen-science enabled collection in the
Encyclopedia of Life
in this collection observed
Add Observations
San Diego County, California, US
San Diego County, California, US
San Diego County, California, US
San Diego County, California, US
Washington County, Florida, US
at side of trail. It is late in the year for poppies? This was the only one seen anywhere.
Lives up to both Latin & common names. Early Goldenrod & Late Goldenrod seem to be the 2 common species around here, with Late blooming (surprise, surprise) later of the 2 (although they overlap quite a bit). And it's certainly gigantic -- a good 6' tall, with broad, spreading flower plumes. Leaves of the main stem are all about the same size & are 3-veined (see inset).
Took this shot last month. Had been hoping to get a better one of this species, since it's abundant around here. But I never did, & now my camera is out of commission, so this one will have to do.
I think this is a white variant (or hybrid) of Common Blue Violet, Viola sororia, but honestly, I'm ready to give up on identifying violets! Pretty, whatever it is.
Common Blue Violet, whatever that's going by. Looks like there may have been a lot of lumping going on recently in violet taxonomy -- if there's a botanist out there who can shed light, by all means do! My old Golden Guide says "lots of species, ID difficult because lots of hybridization." And it gives this one as V. sororia, Woolly Blue Violet. But my flower looked distinctly, suspiciously unwoolly, so I did a search. biology.smsu.edu/Herbarium/Plants of the Interior Highlands/Flowers/Viola sororia.jpg shows a plant that is comparably glabrous, so I think I've got the right animal. But www.nps.gov/plants/pubs/chesapeake/plant/2039.htm suggests that that species was lumped with V. papilionacea. plants.usda.gov also lumps them under V. sororia. So that's what I'm going with.
A pine barrens specialty here in NJ. This is my attempt to salvage something from a commando-raid photo shoot on the way to visit my in-laws in S Jersey. The flowers were past peak, & this is not really what I wanted, but it will have to do until next year.
Read Mizzbee's comment below to learn about the function served by this flower's unusual form.
California Poppies can grow as either annuals or, less commonly, perennials. The perennials are usually just slightly larger clumps within the carpet of annuals, but this was a true prize specimen, growing all by itself on the edge of a shallow wash.
These poppies at the edge of an arroyo offered a ground-level perspective.
Annual plant, perennial favorite. 4" (10 cm) wide, 6' (2 m) tall. Native only west of the Mississippi, but occasionally naturalized here in the East. Check out the individual disk flowers at large size.
A rare white mutant. Also present: Goldfields.
Large numbers of a white variety were being found near Bartlett Lake in Arizona in 2009. I do not know whether these, found in the Antelope Valley in California in 2003, are the same mutant or an independent one.
Found along a canal in London. In the US, it's a weed; in Britain, it's a wildflower. :-) And I think it well deserves the title.
Welcome to the State Flowers of the United States Collection! In this collection you can do the following:
1. Browse the State Flowers of the United States; and,
2. Make and share observations on the web or though the iNaturalist iPhone app.
eol
created this project on May 2, 2012
