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Colorful Family Fun with Wildflower History
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July fireworks may be over but your family can still enjoy a free explosion of color with wildflowers. (The slide show will help with identifying wildflowers!)
What is a Wildflower?
A Wildflower grows on its own in nature, without cultivation. (No one planted and nurtured the flower.) Wildflowers do need outside help to be successful. They need the birds and the bees. Beautiful flowers and sweet nectar allure insects and birds; and in turn, the birds and the bees pollinate and fertilize the flowers and plants.
There are native wildflowers; those are indigenous (native) to our continent. There are also naturalized wildflowers; those have been introduced from some other part of the world, and now, have become quite common.
The History of Wildflowers
The lovely wildflowers that grace our hillsides, fields and the side of our roads were not always around. We know, by looking at fossils, wildflowers appeared on earth about 80 to 90 million years ago. In the mid-Cretaceous period wildflowers began to vary. Today they are the most diverse plants on earth.
Just a few examples of evidence of wildflower in history around the world are:
- Archaeologists’ unearthed evidence of seeds used 50,000 years ago, in a cave in Northern Iraq.
- Excavations in the NileValley unearthed 25 different plants dating over 17,000 years ago.
- Chemists have analyzed Egyptian fabrics, dating 1370 BC, and found them to contain dyes extracted from wildflowers.
- In the Middle Ages Christian Monasteries preserved antiquity work which later became the base for Herbalists use of wildflowers. This led to several published works such as: 1530 Jacob Brunfels, Herbarium Vical Eicones In 1542 Leonhart Fuchs wrote his famous herbal, De Historia Stirpium. 1597 John Gerard published his famous Herbal of Generall Historie of PlantsAnd in 1624 Gaspard Bauhin published his Pinax Theatri Bonanic
- The 17th through 19th centuries saw the rapid development of the understanding of different wildflower through exquisite drawings. By explorers and botanist and scientists. (Such as, Mark Catesby, Lewis and Clark, Charles Darwin, and more.)
Today your family can go on a wildflower hunt. Who can recognize the most flowers of the wild? Or perhaps plant your own wildflower garden.
Don’t forget your journals and colored pencils, to create lovely drawings for home.
Some wonderful resources for wildflower families are:
Wildflower Information.org Home
Visit our recommended wildflower seed supplier, American Meadows.com
Visit our recommended wildflower seed supplier, American Meadows.com
A Child's Book of Wildflowersby M. A. Kelly and Joyce Powzyk
The children's book of wild-flowers and the story of their namesby George Henry Browning
Wildflowers And Their Uses: A Book For Children (1863)by Caroline Southwood Hill
Enjoy the color,
R.R.Cratty
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Wildflowers
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