The Nature Pages

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~at OUTRIDER

	Wildflowers of Wyoming by Diantha States and Jack States Mountain Press Publishing, 2004.
	"We had two goals in writing this book," note Diantha and Jack States in the introduction to their wildflower field guide. "The first was to provide readers unfamiliar with plant identification an easy-to-use field guide; the second was to write a book that included the common wildflowers of the six major vegetation zones in Wyoming: alpine, subalpine, montane, steppe, foothills, and plains."		Scarlet Indian paintbrush (see book cover) is perhaps the most common red paintbrush of the mid-montane and subalpine zones in western North America. It grows 24 inches tall and has narrow, entire leaves that are about 2 inches long. Blooming in July and August, dense clumps of scarlet Indian paintbrush occur in moist meadows and along streams.
	Since most of the 325 or so wildflowers described and photo-illustrated in this volume grow in similar vegetation zones in neighboring states, the guide will be useful for wildflower identification throughout much of the Northern Rockies, Great Basin and Western Great Plains.
Search our selection of new, used and out-of-print books.	Peak blooms for Wyoming's wildflowers range from May and June in the sagebrush steppes and short-grass prairies, June through August in the wooded mountains and foothills, and an all-too-brief few weeks of midsummer in the high country.
	The States' handy identification section at the front of the book provides keys to 16 selected plant families, from borage to sunflower, with photo thumbnails of wildflowers arranged by color and shape.  The wildflower profiles follow, in order of family accompanied by a color photograph of each plant in its natural setting.  Descriptions include details on habitat, ecology, geographic distribution and related species.