Indulge in the simple beauty of wild flowers with this identification guide and information.
As I pause to reflect back upon my youth, I would have to say that the most beautiful flowers have got to be those growing wild on the roadside or in the woods and on hillsides. The flowers that we loved so as children were not the tulips or zinnias or the ones that arrived as seeds by mail or were bought at the nursery and planted in rigid rows of dime store dirt. The ones we loved best were the wild things that grew helter skelter in the woods with the wind and the rain--the ones in the middle of briar patches scarlet and flaming orange like jewels pushed up out of the cold crowned earth immaculate...
Frilly off-white Queen Anne's Lace with all those little black bugs that would race out and buzz about your head when you would attempt to twist the flower from the stem...
Purple Thistle in other people's pastures that stung your hand if you were foolish enough to grab it...
The beautiful long, thin Red Clover that only seems to grow by the side of Highways and you only see it from the car...
White Clover that we picked and wove into crowns for our heads and made bracelets and rings to adorn us as Royalty...
The huge Magnolia blossoms with the waxy ivory petals that would bruise at the touch of a finger...
The golden colored Honeysuckle growing willy-nilly on fence posts and by the side of the woods to gather by the armload. We would sit quietly and pull off the ends to harvest that little precious drop of honey...felt we could live off that alone...
And of course the best flower of all...the powder-puff pink Mimosa with a smell so delicious you had to keep sniffing until it tickled the inside of your nose and made you sneeze.
I have enclosed a list of common wildflowers one can find here in Pennsylvania.
Common Name's of Wildflowers here in Pennsylvania
Anemone
Aster
Aster, Smooth
Bee Balm
Black-eyed-Susan
Bloodroot
Blue Flag Iris
Bluets
Blueweed
Butter and Eggs
Buttercups
Cardinal Flower
Chicory (also called corn flower)
Columbine
Cornflower
Daisies
Dandelion
Dutchman's Britches
Evening Primrose
Everlasting
Fleabane
Fly Poison
Gentian
Gentian
Geranium
Indian Pipe
Ironweed Vernonia species
Jack-in-the-Pulpit
Joe-Pye-Weed Eupatorium
Knapweed, Spotted Centaurea
Lobelia, Great Lobelia
Loosestrife, Purple Lythrum
Marsh Marigold
Mayapple
Mayflower, Canada Maianthemum
Milkweed, Common Asclepias syriaca
Milkweed, Swamp Asclepias
Mullein, Common Verbascum
Orchid, Pink Lady's Slipper
Phlox, Wild Blue Phlox
Pickerel Weed
Polygala
Queen Anne's Lace
Saxifrage, Early
Skunk Cabbage Symplocarpus
Snakeroot, White Eupatorium
Sneezeweed Helenium
Solomon's Seal,
Spring Beauties
Star of Bethlehem
Sunflower, Tickseed
Sweet (Dame's) Rocket Hesperis
Tansy, Common Tanacetum
Teasel
Thistle
Toadshade Trillium
Touch-Me-Not, Pale Impatiens
Touch-Me-Not, Spotted Impatiens
Trillium, Large-flowered Trillium
Trillium, Purple Trillium
Trillium, Red Trillium
Troutlilies
Turtlehead Chelone
Turtlehead, Lyon's Chelone
Violet, Common Blue Viola
Violet, Sweet White Viola
Violet, Yellow Viola
Virginia Bluebells
Water Lilies, Common Fragrant
Wild Bergamont
Wintergreen, Striped Chimaphila
Woodpoppy
Take the time to stop and smell not only the roses, but the wildflowers too. You will be fragrantly surprised!
