With May almost gone and hot Summer temps on our heals it was definitely time for a Spring Wildflowers Identification Hike. It has rained quite a bit and I knew that more flowers would be popping up over the forest floor. We live in a county with over 20 preserves and reserves and less than an hour from 4 state parks so it was time to visit a few and do some wildflower identification. We cannot pick flowers in these areas so we won’t be using our DIY flower press except for the ones we find at home or grandma’s house!
First we gathered our supplies for a short hike which included out hats, sunscreen, water, magnifying glass, and field guides. We own two field guides specific to wildflowers: Spring Wildflowers of Ohio is free from ODNR and the other we bought called Fandex Family Field Guides: Wildflowers.
We meet up with another homeschool family at John Bryan State Park and found some spring wildflower blooms along the trail. One of the first flowers we were able to identify was the Golden Ragwort and since I learned it’s name I have seen it everyday since!
We think we found a group of Virginia Waterleaf flowers but upon closer inspection and reading the details from the filed guide I think we found Foamflower.
Here’s what Foamflower looks like in the Spring Wildflowers Field Guide-
We discovered a group of Wild Geraniums that were almost finished blooming!
Here’s what Wild Geranium looks like in the Spring Wildflowers Field Guide-
Lil’ Red helped look through the Spring Wildflower guide when we found some purple flowers. We didn’t find then in our book but the kids were a little restless and didn’t want to stop along the trail very long!
We quickly learned how tricky it can be to identify Spring Wildflowers but by closely examining their leaves, stems or stamen it can help make identification a little more easy. We used the leaves on this one to identify it as False Solomon’s-Seal.
Here’s what False Solomon’s-Seal looks like in the Spring Wildflowers Field Guide-
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