_Museum Pictorial No. 8
Published May 30, 1953
Denver Museum of Natural History
Denver, Colorado_
The purpose of this booklet is to portray a few of the common
wildflowers of Colorado in such form that they may be recognized and
their names learned without the use of any botanical key. The color
plates here published show fifty different flowering plants, each of
which grows in abundance in some part of this state. Most of them are
found also in other areas, particularly in the Rocky Mountain states.
With the description of each plant, some reference is made to the life
zone in which it grows, but no attempt is made to give the geographical
extent of its range. In every instance the photograph reproduced was
taken on Kodachrome film of a living plant in its natural setting. All
of them are shown in full bloom as we see them in Spring or Summer,
except milkweed, page 43, and cattail, back cover. These appear in seed
as we find them along the roadsides in October.
The flowers are here arranged in substantially the order that the
families to which they belong appear in most botany manuals. Some
references to these plant families, and to the genera and species into
which they are subdivided, will be found on page 57. With each plant we
have given the common name most familiar to us. As there is little
uniformity in common name usage, others may know them by other names. We
have added in each case, in italics, the Latin botanical name, with
abbreviated identification of the botanist first using that name. The
English form of the family name is also given. We have tried to select
flowers representing as many plant families as possible, and among them
to cover plants from different altitudes and from different types of
soil and growing conditions.
Some of these photographs were taken at close range, with a long focal
length lens, to show on a large scale the beauty of very small flowers.
Others were taken with different equipment so as to include the form of
the complete plant and show plainly its natural setting. In all cases
the size of the flower and of the entire plant are given in or may be
inferred from the descriptive text. The figures used are approximate,
and considerable variation from these sizes will be found. The colors
are as accurate as colorfilm and high class press work can make them.
The pictures here reproduced were all taken by the authors within the
past twelve years. Most of the plants were found within a few hundred
feet of some well traveled road. A few of the pictures were taken in
adjoining states, but in every such instance the species shown is found
in the same sort of environment in Colorado. Many of these flowers are
reproduced as part of the setting in habitat life groups in the Denver
Museum of Natural History. Look for them there, and also get acquainted
with them in their native haunts. They add decided interest to outdoor
ramblings.