Wildflowers

Flowers to me, particularly wildflowers out in the wild, present some pretty solid evidence of some sort of greater power in the world.  When a person really investigates and examines the structure of flowers and learns about the coevolution of flowers and the creatures that pollinate them, it seems to me that there is some greater thing going on there more than just the passage of an unimaginable amount of time and some slight genetic mutations that work better than others and are therefore selected and passed along to future generations of the organism.   There is magic in the world, magic in the sense that there are so many unexplainable mysteries out there and flowers, to me, represent this magical realm.  Agree or disagree, it don't make no never mind (what up Alabama folks!), I hope you enjoy the magic of these wildflowers currently blooming here in my part of the world.

I'll start it off with lupines which are one of the largest, conspicuous and easy to identify flowers here in the hidden gem.  There are several species of lupine and they grow from sea level just above the tide line to the windswept rock gardens of the alpine ridges. 

This is Indian Paintbrush, another easily identifiable flower and one that is usually found with lupines on grassy beaches. 

Shooting Stars

There are not many brown or brownish-black flowers out there so this guy is also very easy to identify.  It is most commonly called a chocolate lily but is also known by the name black lily or rice root as its small bulbs or corms look like rice and are edible.

These are some really pretty fuzzy flowers from a plant called buckbean.  Buckbean is a common aquatic plant that grows in muskeg pools. 

A couple of different violets there.  The top one is a yellow wood violet, the bottom is an early blue violet.  The flowers and leaves of violets are edible and could make a colorful addition to a salad, particularly a salad of wild plants!  Violets are also interesting in the fact that their seeds are released through a sort of explosive mechanism.  Another interesting folkloric tidbit, there was a belief that wearing a necklace of violets would prevent drunkenness.  If someone out there tries this and finds it successful, please let me know!

Yellow marsh marigolds

The flowers of one of the most poisonous plants in the area, baneberry.  Sounds dangerous!

These last two flowers are called invasives or non-native but are still attractive.  The top one is a Robert geranium, the bottom is one that we all know and love to hate, the ubiquitous dandelion.