Searching for Minnesota’s Native Wildflowers: A Guide for Beginners, Botanists, and Everyone in Between

A beautifully illustrated, family-friendly guide to Minnesotau2019s native wildflowers and how to find them Once prairie grasses and flowers bloomed for hundreds of miles in the western part of what we now call Minnesota. Once tiny orchids grew among the roots of giant old pines, and fleeting blossoms sheltered in the shade of great maple and oak forests. These flowers that grew here for hundreds of years, though harder to find now, are still there, and this book shows you how to discover them.Searching for Minnesotau2019s Native Wildflowers chronicles the ten years that Phyllis Root and Kelly Povo spent exploring Minnesotau2019s woods, prairies, hillsides, lakes, and bogs for wildflowers, taking pictures and notes, gathering clues, mapping the way for fellow flower hunters. This book is a treasure trove of plant lore and information, the perfect companion for anyone who wants to find-or simply to find out more about-shooting stars and kitten tails, prairie smoke and Dutchmanu2019s breeches, blazing star and butterfly weed, and more native flowers than most Minnesotans imagine are blooming nearby.Readers of Searching for Minnesotau2019s Native Wildflowers will learn where to look for wildflowers and how to identify them, whether in the woods, wetlands, peatlands, or the prairie in spring, summer, or fall; around the stateu2019s 10,000 (or so) lakes; on the North Shore; or, especially, in Minnesotau2019s many great state parks. Featuring helpful tips, exquisite photographs, and the story of their own search as your guide, Phyllis and Kelly place the waiting wonder of Minnesotau2019s wildflowers within easy reach.