Wanted to share some pictures of just a few of the wildflowers that we have growing here on the ranch. It seems that every time I go for a walk there is something new coming up and with all the rain we have had this year, I am seeing flowers I have not seen before and am giving my wild flower identification book quite a workout.
When I first moved to Colorado, it never occurred to me that cactus grew here, but considering how little rain we normally get in a year this should not have been surprising.
In the spring, the tiny Barrel Cactus starts popping up all over like little land mines which you have to avoid stepping on, and when they start to bloom, they put on quite a show.
Prickly Pear proliferates here and blooms for a short period of time with large vibrant yellow flowers. It has many culinary uses including juice and jelly.
The White Thistle and White Prickly Poppy are only two of the plants we have here that produce lovely flowers and nasty stickers.
I started wondering if there were any beneficial uses for these nasty guys and was surprised to find that they are considered herbs and have some medicinal and practical uses.
I do have to wonder about the sanity of the first human who experimented on himself to see if there were any beneficial uses for these plants.
If you have ever grown Coneflowers then you know they comes in a rainbow of colors but our wild ones only come in two colors, yellow and burgundy/yellow.
I hope you enjoyed this look at our wildflowers!
Until next time, Happy Trails,
