Flower Books

Any parent hiking with several children who plans on always reaching the hiking destination is delusional, especially if the trail is more than a mile in and out.   When I first returned to hiking, my five children had invested hours training me about what I could expect from preschoolers.  Their training was brutal but successful.  When hiking with the kids, I packed snacks, lunches, water, a camera, and flower identification books.  I grabbed a school backpack for each child and divided all our supplies between the backpacks.  Meanwhile, the kids fought over who got to carry the backpack with the M&Ms.

The flower identification books I brought were to keep me entertained and stop me from whining and being cranky on the hike.  I figured it might be years before I completed any hike, so I might as well keep myself busy learning about wildflowers while we out.  I loved it!  Wildflowers were everywhere, and they were gorgeous.  Opening the book and trying to identify them provided a time for rest and something to do as we dawdled along.  Stumbling on beautiful plants concealed in the brush and reading about them in a book was fun akin to finding hidden treasure.  Years later I was astounded by how many wildflowers the kids could identify.  I may have been a complete failure in teaching my kids to keep a clean room, but they do know a shooting star, Indian paintbrush, and a rabbit foot crazy weed when they see one.  And they know not to eat the rabbit foot crazy weed which, you must admit, is useful information.

The flower books I use the most and like the best are Dr. Dee Strickler’s three volume set: Alpine Wildflowers, Forest Wildflowers, and Prairie Wildflowers.  These are my favorite because the pictures are large and easy to see.  It was disappointing when I went to replace one of my worn out flower books and found these books were out of print.  Donald Anthony Schieman’s book Wildflowers of Montana is a current flower book that I use and enjoy.