About

I had been going to the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge on short day trips for years… mostly bird watching. But who could ignore the fabulous flower shows each year? I started photographing wildflowers and trying to identify them. I had a dozen wildflower books, how hard could it be? So many obstacles became apparent: only the most showy were commonly illustrated, the WMWR 59,000 acres include diverse habitats, wildflowers have multiple common names, Latin names even change over time as research continues. I took photos of leaves, stems, seeds, etc. to identify some of the more challenging plants and then slowly found the best experts and resources.

General Information

The Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge is managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The Visitor Center is open 9–5 daily except for Christmas and New Year's Day. The Center has a wildflower notebook with photos and descriptions, maps and exhibits. The gift store is operated by the volunteer group, Friends of the Wichitas. The Refuge rangers and staff are knowledgeable and helpful!

Books

• Diggs, Lipscomb, O'Kennon; Shinner & Mahler's Illustrated Flora of North Central Texas, Botanical Research Institute of Texas and Austin College, 1999. Great resource, most plants are found in Oklahoma. Detailed line drawings, keys, often several species of each genus. 1600 pages!
• Folley, Patricia; The Guide to Oklahoma Wildflowers, University of Iowa Press, 2011. The most recent Oklahoma plant publication that I found back then. Good information and photos.
• Freeman and Schofield; Roadside Wildflowers of the Southern Great Plains, University Press of Kansas, 1991. Good photos, line drawings of leaves, thorough descriptions, keys.
• Ladd and Oberle, etc.; Tallgrass Prairie Wildflowers, A Field Guide, Falcon Publishing Company, 1995. Great photos and many plant details.
• McCoy, Doyle; Oklahoma Wildflowers, Published by McCoy, 1987. A good source for clues, good photos, some Latin names have changed.
• Niehaus, Ripper, Savage; Southwestern and Texas Flowers, Peterson Field Guides, Houghton Mifflin, 1984. The family names have changed but I have found evidence from the line drawings and Latin names that have given me clues to be able to find the plant on the internet.
• Tyrl, Bidwell, Masters, Elmore, Jansen; Field Guide to Oklahoma Plants, Second Edition, Oklahoma State University, 2008. Complete botanical descriptions of common plants with excellent line drawings and definitions of botanical terms.

On-line Resources

• Field identification of the 50 most common plant families in temperate regions, by Lena Struwe, Rutgers U. A beautifully illustrated free downloadable PDF file that gives information about plant families. www.sci.sdsu.edu/plants/plantsystematics
• Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, U of Texas at Austin. This site is helpful if you have a scientific name to look at possible matches. Go elsewhere to verify that you have the right name. www.wildflower.org/explore/
• Kansas State Libraries, Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses site has many wildflowers found in Oklahoma and very good descriptions. Other neighboring states, Missouri and Illinois especially, have good indexes and photos. www.kswildflower.org
• Missouriplants.com — A great location for a complete plant description with some excellent photographs. missouriplants.com
• Oklahoma Biological Survey, Oklahoma Vascular Plants Database. One can locate species by county. www.biosurvey.ou.edu/atlasdesc.html and Catalog of the Woody Plants of Oklahoma: www.biosurvey.ou.edu/shrub/shrubndx.htm
• OU Bio-survey — Features a good list of common names and nice photographs by Charles Lewallen. Remember, many scientific names have changed since this site was completed. www.biosurvey.ou.edu/okwild/toc.html
• Pasture and Roadside Flowering Plants, Goodwell and Texhoma Texas County, Oklahoma — Kurt Schaefer. Fabulous photos, especially the close-ups, and photos of the plant, stems and leaves — the perfect way to document plants. opsu.edu/…/PlantsInsectsOfGoodwell
• Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation, Plant Image Gallery — indexes by scientific name and common name, with good photographs. www.noble.org/apps/plantimagegallery/PlantList
• USDA, Natural Resources Conservation Service — Type in a genus to see all synonyms and variations; shows which states a plant is found in, with images and line drawings. plants.usda.gov/java/stateSearch
• US Wildflower's Database of Wildflowers for Oklahoma — Go to the family list for wildflowers to open more photographs of individual plants. A good resource. uswildflowers.com/stateref.php?State=OK

Organizations

• Friends of the Wichitas — Helps with tours, trail maintenance, trash removal, invasive plant control and other volunteer activities for the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge (which covers almost 60,000 acres). Members receive a monthly newsletter and notices of activities. www.friendsofthewichitas.org
• Oklahoma Native Plant Society — A great source of information from knowledgeable people. The organization has several chapters, informative meetings, a journal, newsletters, a photo contest, and links to other sources. oknativeplants.org