My Tennessee family wanted to meet in Little Rock earlier this month to visit for a weekend, and with the semester over, Karen and I made the trek up to Arkansas to see them. After they left, we decided to spend a few days driving around looking at wildflowers in the diamond state.
Arkansas is a floristically rich state. And, since readers responded so positively to my field notes from our excursion with Thomas Rainer last year (part 1 and part 2), I wanted to share some observations from our travels this spring. I love these trips because they help me better understand how plants grow, where they like to grow, and their floral and faunal associations. Visiting wildflowers in situ helps me become a better horticulturist, and I hope that some of the images and notes I share below help you.
Baptisia sphaerocarpa (yellow wild indgo) was in full bloom. Every time we saw it, it was riding that hydric/mesic line whether it be here in a ditch just up from a larger creek as seen here or along the wet edge of a field drain.
I wasn’t the only one enjoying Baptisia sphaerocarpa. It’s the bee’s knees for insects.
If you are an avid reader of the blog, you’ll remember last year where we saw a field of Baptisia sphaerocarpa that was just coming into bloom. We hit it perfectly with this trip. I have never been so mouth agape in my life seeing so many yellow wild indigo in bloom. Again, this field was a wetter spot.
One thing that I’ll add is that about these Arkansas populations of Baptisia sphaerocarpa is the leaves seem a bit greener and less silvery than my Texas progeny. My theory is that Baptisia sphaerocarpa in Texas likely have more drought tolerance traits (like silvery leaves).
We saw other Baptisia in bloom like this Baptisia bracteata var. leucophaea (longbract wild indigo). Most of them had finished flowering, but a handful still remained in bloom. I liked the darker stems and veins on this plant.
And, of course, my beloved Baptisia alba (wild white indigo). These were rarer, and we only saw them twice.
Thistles get a bad wrap, but they are actually one of our best plants for insects. I loved how this Cirsium carolinianum (Carolina thistle) dotted it’s flowers along this forest edge.
Coreopsis grandiflora (large-flowered tickseed) is such a cheerful plant growing on the roadsides, and I have found myself taking it for granted. Besides in these grassy patches, we found it hugging gravelly hillsides.
We saw a few clumps of Oenothera fruticosa (narrow-leaved sundrops), again in edge habitat where they brightened the forest floor. The buds and stems have hints of red.
Driving back roads I noticed from my truck this flushing red Hamamelis virginiana. Many plants have red in the new foliage to help deal with excess sunlight, and I have seen some blushed tinges on Hamamelis but never this rich!
Matelea (milkvines) are funky natives in the southeast. Here the vining Matelea baldwyniana (Baldwyn’s milkvine) flowers look like a cluster of galaxies. It also serves as a host plant for Monarch larvae!
At Chanticleer years ago I admired their use of Silene virginica (fire pink) under trees along the elevated walkway, strategically placed so that one looks at them at eye level. Seeing the plant in glades here in Arkansas, I can see how nature can inspire such garden design.
I’ve written of my love for Hymenopappus in the past, and on this trip I found a nice patch of the frillier-leaved Hymenopappus scabiosaeus (Carolina woollywhite). This native is a good upright ruderal for spring blooms.
It seemed we saw Penstemon arkansanus (Arkansas penstemon) along dry ridges everywhere we drove while Penstemon digitalis (foxglove beardtongue) tended to hug the wetter areas.
Even a fire can’t kill these Heuchera americana (coral bells) growing along a rock cliff. Talk about a tough plant. This species is one gardeners often kill because they give it too much moisture.
Last spring, Monarda russeliana (red-purple beebalm) was just coming into bloom, and for this trip we found many clumps in full flower along forest edge.
After the shady forest, we visited some full sun sites. At this roadside pull off, Echinacea pallida (pale purple coneflower) rises out of a carpet of Valerianella longiflora (long-flower cornsalad).
A close up of Valerianella longiflora flowers. They had this lovely purple-maroon color to the flower tubes. As a ruderal, this species would be a nice filler under taller plants.
The raggedy rays of Echinacea pallida look so dainty and were fun to watch blowing in the breeze. If you look closely, you can see the dissected leaves of Silphium laciniatum (compass plant) starting to rise for their summer blooms.
I was amazed to see the harsh conditions where Echinacea pallida grew. These clumps are growing in cracks in the rock strata!
I loved this roadside vista of Echinacea pallida, Delphinium carolinianum (Carolina larkspur), and Coreopsis grandiflora. It had this mountain glade/alpine feel.
This trip was first time seeing Parthenium integrifolium (wild quinine) in the wild! Here it grew in a large clump along the tree line just up from the Echinacea pallida. I remember fondly seeing it at the Lurie Garden years ago and was curious what its native habitat was. This plant has been used by native Americans for many ethnobotany purposes and supposedly as recently as World War I as a quinine substitute for malaria.
A close-up of the button flowers of Parthenium integrifolium. They also make good cut flowers.
Nemophila phacelioides (Texas baby blue eyes) was in full bloom. We kept seeing it growing in people’s front yards underneath shrubs and along edge habitat. As a ruderal, it seems to fill the same niche that bluebonnets do here in Texas, though in wetter spots.
We returned to one of the sites where we found Amsonia hubrichtii (Arkansas bluestar) last spring. Plants were in full bloom and thriving right alongside this waterway. Last year, we visited six Amsonia hubrichtii sites, and all were located next to water. My theory is that the seeds are dispersed in waterways, but as many of you know, the plant is quite adaptable for drier sites.
At one rocky site, we found Amorpha fruticosa (false indigo) growing out of the rocks, illustrating it’s durability. However, nearer water’s edge in the scourge habitat it was an aggressive colonizing thug! Again, it amazes me how habitat influences growth.
And, I was delighted to find Streptanthus maculatus (clasping jewelflower) for the first time in the wild. Kind of funny that I grew this uncommon wildflower before I saw this in situ. It, too, was growing on this rocky ledge.
On our last day, we stopped to visit the site where I found Echinacea pallida in the past. A glimmer of purple caught my eye, and after a u-turn I was ecstatic to see Asclepias purpurascens (purple milkweed) in the wild for the first time! There was a healthy colony of several plants blooming.
A close up of the purple puff ball known as Asclepias purpurascens
I thought it was so neat how the Asclepias purpurascens flowers open from one side to the other. Many individuals exhibited this pattern.
And, last I wanted to share with you this neat two-sided painting we saw near the front of someone’s driveway. The blue sky version was on the north side, and the sunset was facing south. It definitely gave me some ideas about integrating art into the outdoors. And, with all the beauty of the region, sometimes you just have to paint a picture (or snap a photo).
