Typically, central Texas has hordes of visitors during the month of April that come to see the fields of bluebonnets and Indian Paintbrush. Granted, the mixture of the heavenly blue of the bluebonnets and the brilliant orange of the paintbrush leaves a mind picture that’s hard to forget!

But, those same visitors during April miss so many of the other beautiful wildflowers that abound in central Texas during other times of the year. How lucky are the ones who live here all year long and get to experience these other wildflowers without having to travel great distances.

One of the most prolific flowers that we have is the Prairie Verbena (Verbena bipinnatifida). Regardless of how dry our soil becomes, these verbenas somehow find enough moisture to grow and bloom along roadsides and in pastures and fields. They can grow easily in sand or in little pockets of soil that have been deposited on top of granite boulders or in the black, sticky gumbo-like soil found in many places here in central Texas. They’re one of the first wildflowers to attract attention in early spring and many times a field is completely covered in these purple blooms.

Another flower that’s seen in abundance is the Prickly Pear (Opuntia phaeacantha). These plants produce masses of orange to yellow flowers on top of their very prickly pads. Prickly pear is a plant that farmers and ranchers fight to eradicate since they sometimes grow as tall as 6 feet tall and 8 feet across, taking up valuable land area. A goat or a cow can very easily stumble into one of these plants and quite possibly break off a leaf, drag it a short distance, and in no time at all another plant has started in that spot. However, these same plants can be a lifesaver to ranchers when drought has caused the grass to turn brown and completely dry up. Then the ranchers can, and do, burn the needles off these pads so cows can eat them more easily. As in many things, there are distinct advantages and disadvantages in having prick ...

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