Wildflower Crime:
Role of Wildflowers in Protecting the Environment Goes Unreported!

Everyone driving along a smooth country highway, glancing (or staring) out the window at the wildflowers says, “Oh look!”

Some know their names. “Oh look at the field of wild mustard.”

Some don’t. “Mamma, what’s that yellow flower out there?”

Others are undecided. “Look at those bluebonnets!” “Wait, I think they’re lupines.” “Hmmm, maybe it was larkspurs my grandmother grew.”

Whether you have fond memories of picking wildflowers as a child, passing wildflowers as a traveler, or just now beginning to notice and appreciate wildflowers, you’re among billions of people who notice wildflowers in fields of monochromatic splendor, or see a single glimmer of color up close, a wildflower so tiny they’re sure they’re the only one who notices it, and are amazed at the gift we’re given to have wildflowers on earth. Wildflowers a gift, like joy, we seldom seek, yet always appreciate.

Poets have waxed and waned over the beauty of wildflowers, but wildflowers seldom make the evening news. That’s a crime!

Firefighters are eulogized nationwide when a single one falls, attempting to save a person, or even an old building. Police officers are heralded, and bridges are named after them, when one dies fighting alleged crimes, or even in a motorcycle accident on the way to work.

Yet wildflowers, arguably as good-looking as fire and police officers, do not get public attention, except in years of extreme rainfall where their collective beauty and resilience is undeniable by seven billion people. But the contribution of wildflowers is as significant as, if not more significant than, the contribution of the aforementioned paid public servants.

Wildflowers, when prospering, keep weeds under control. Before you say, “These darn flowers are weeds,” please understand there are legal definitions (by state) of…

• wildflowers
• native plants
• exotics
• invasive species
• noxious weeds

Wildflowers do their best to preserve the local environment, supporting both plant and animal diversity. When invasive or noxious (prohibited) species enter an area, in addition to eradicating the invaders by pulling, plucking or pesticides, people looking out for the environment need to reintroduce native wildflowers. Dropping a few seeds in the loamy hole left by pulling an invasive species is perfect.

The greater the plant diversity in a region, the greater the animal diversity. Invasive and noxious species overtake an area, usurping minerals and moisture allocated for the original inhabitant, until a zone—often hundreds of thousands of acres—is overwhelmed by a single worthless plant, that eats, drinks, and offers nothing in return to either home owner, farmer, or wild animal.

It’s a tug-of-war of galactic proportions. The gentle, oft-trampled, oft-overlooked wildflowers fight nobly to save the habitat we love: the greens and golds, the reds and yellows, the cottontails and quail and deer.

But how can wildflowers survive if every spring and fall we survey our yards, gardens and grounds, sow hybridized grasses, and dig deep holes for bulbs imported from other continents?

During the dreary winter, we lament urban sprawl and loss of the white-tailed deer, the jackrabbit and cottontail, the Bob White and Meadowlark, and wish that only the human invaders would stay away.

Far in the corner of your lot, an undiscovered wildflower, small with neglect, has heard your lament, identified the human who has invaded, and weeps.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lin Ennis is a writer and amateur naturalist living in Sedona, Arizona. Her love of wildflowers, and indeed all of nature, is evident in her prolific contribution to several nature-related websites, including, most notably, www.naturedomainsindex.com.

This article courtesy of http://getwildflowers.com. You may freely reprint this article on your website or in your newsletter provided this courtesy notice and the author
name and URL remain intact.

Submit Your Article