I've been going out to this little five-acre prairie for the past several days - trying to catch it when the wind was calm with a heavy morning dew. I wish the surroundings were more conducive to a wide open landscape shot, but it is in the middle of town and is surrounded by buildings. This is the first year I've seen these blue flowers, which I've not been able to identify. I've included a couple of close up shots showing the leaves and flowers - would love to know what they are.
Update: After checking with Don Kurz, author, photographer, conservationist, naturalist, and one of the long-time contributors to our forum, I learned the identity of the blue flowers in the image - Carolina larkspur, Delphinium carolinianum. By the way, Don has a newly published book available, Scenic Routes and Byways - the Ozarks. I can also highly recommend his guidebooks, Ozarks Wildflowers and Arkansas Wildflowers.
It looks like a larkspur of some kind, We have a white 'Prairie Larkspur' here in Kansas. I like to use this website for Kansas floweres; http://www.kswildflower.org/index.html
It's great that you can have that nice of a scene in town.
Thanks for your comments, guys. After checking with Don Kurz, author, photographer, conservationist, naturalist, and one of the long-time contributors to our forum, I learned the identity of the blue flowers in the image - Carolina larkspur, Delphinium carolinianum. By the way, Don has a newly published book available, Scenic Routes and Byways - The Ozarks. I can also highly recommend his guidebooks, Ozarks Wildflowers and Arkansas Wildflowers. Carolina larkspur is in there, as are most all of the wildflowers you will find in Arkansas and Missouri. The indexing by color, along with the approximate bloom times in chronological order makes these guidebooks easy to use.
Posted by Wayne Rhodus on June 11, 2013 at 4:22 PM
Good to know Bill. Glad you were able to get in touch with Don. If anyone knows it, he does. Nice work on the small but bountiful wildflower scene.
Discussion
7 repliesUpdate: After checking with Don Kurz, author, photographer, conservationist, naturalist, and one of the long-time contributors to our forum, I learned the identity of the blue flowers in the image - Carolina larkspur, Delphinium carolinianum. By the way, Don has a newly published book available, Scenic Routes and Byways - the Ozarks. I can also highly recommend his guidebooks, Ozarks Wildflowers and Arkansas Wildflowers.
It's great that you can have that nice of a scene in town.