Spring’s Wildflowers Bring Another Pop Quiz!

I have to admit the rapid-fire bloom of Nebraska’s spring wildflowers stirs in me the same anxiety as a fill-in-the-blank pop quiz. Each year, with photographs of last year’s plants and guides in hand, I go back into the field to identify the ones that stumped me. Subtle, year over year differences in morphology, color, texture, fragrance and context make recognition especially difficult for me.

Last year, I again took my camera into the field and photographed over thirty plants. I easily recognized a few of them, but most I could not confidently identify. I was failing nature’s pop-quiz again! Some of the plants are pictured below and a few are even captioned with my guess as to their identity. This spring, I am looking forward to completing last year’s quiz. Please help me out. Leave a comment if you recognize any of these plants.