Whether you celebrate Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa, or no holiday, I come bearing gifts on this wintry day: a photo from each of Bleeding Heartland’s 29 posts about wildflowers this year. Readers often tell me this series is their favorite thing about my website.
As in 2022 and 2023, guest authors and photographers carried much of the load for this series. In alphabetical order: Emily Bredthauer, Katie Byerly, Luuk Clark, Lora Conrad, Jeff Ewoldt, Kara Grady, Marla Mertz, Bruce Morrison, Diane Porter, Kenny Slocum, and Patrick Swanson. Special thanks to Emily, Luuk, and Jeff, who contributed to Bleeding Heartland for the first time this year.
This series will return sometime during April or May of 2025. Please reach out if you have photographs to share, especially of native plants I haven’t featured yet. The full archive of more than 300 posts featuring more than 250 species is available here. I have also compiled links to several dozen posts that covered many plants found in one area, rather than focusing on a single kind of wildflower.
For those looking for wildflower pictures year round, or seeking help with plant ID, check out the Facebook groups Flora of Iowa or Iowa wildflower enthusiasts. If you’d like a book to take with you on nature outings, Lora Conrad reviewed some of the best wildflower guides last year. A book featuring plants native to our part of the country is probably more reliable than the plant ID app on your phone.
May 15: Spring at Margo Frankel Woods
Emily Bredthauer gave me permission to publish a selection of photos she took in April and May at Margo Frankel Woods State Park in Polk County. A highlight was the chance to see naked broomrape (Orobanche uniflora), an unusual parasitic plant.
May 22: Ohio Spiderwort
Diane Porter allowed me to republish seven pieces she wrote this year for My Gaia, an email newsletter “about getting to know nature” and “giving her a helping hand in our own backyards.” I recommend subscribing; you’ll learn a lot about birds as well as wildflowers.
Ohio Spiderwort (Tradescantia ohiensis) flowers are typically open only in the morning. You can see the dew as well as six stamens and one pistil on this blossom.
May 29: Black raspberry
Most of the Black raspberry (Rubus occidentalis) shrubs I used to find near our home are no longer there (I blame the deer). But these native plants are so common that it hasn’t been hard to find them not far away. This post showed foliage, buds, flowers, and berries at various stages of ripeness, with tips on how to distinguish black raspberry plants from blackberry, which is also native to Iowa.
June 5: Spring cress
Katie Byerly scoped out Spring cress (Cardamine bulbosa) at Wilkinson Park in Rock Falls (Cerro Gordo County). These plants are edible, and many people pick them for salads.
June 12: Blue-eyed grass
Diane Porter explained that these plants got their common name because the long, thin leaves look like grass. In fact, Blue-eyed grass is not a grass. It is part of the iris family. Diane explained to me that Prairie Blue-eyed Grass (Sisyrinchium campestre) is more common in Iowa, but on her land in Jefferson County, she finds only Stout Blue-eyed Grass (Sisyrinchium angustifolium).
Here’s a close view of the small blossoms, which are “smaller than the tip of your little finger.”
June 20: Poison hemlock
Usually I feature native plants for the wildflower series, but I do occasionally showcase non-natives that are prevalent in Iowa. Unfortunately, the invasive Poison hemlock (Conium maculatum) has spread across much of the U.S., especially on disturbed ground. Several colonies are thriving less than a mile from my home in Windsor Heights.
I photographed the leaves as they appear during the first year of a plant’s life, as well as the buds and flowers that appear during the second year.
June 26: Large-flowered Beardtongue
Katie Byerly had to pull over when she spotted “this beautiful patch of purple flowers” on a two-lane county road. “It was a peaceful summer evening on June 1, and I was alone but very much at home with these charming jewels.” Kudos to Cerro Gordo County Conservation for restoring the ditch where Katie found these striking plants.
July 3: Celebrating red, white, and blue wildflowers
When July 4 fell on a Wednesday in 2018, I posted a collection of native plants with shades of red, white, and blue. I used the same concept this year with dozens more images. This montage features Michigan lily (photo by Jacob Pitzenberger), Blackberry (my photo), and Jacob’s ladder (photo by Lora Conrad).
July 11: A tour of peaceful Iowa wildflower videos
For a change of pace, I shared some of my favorite Iowa wildflower videos by Bruce Morrison and Katie Byerly. You can find much more on their respective YouTube channels (Bruce Morrison and Iowa Prairie Girl).
Here’s Bruce’s “prairie moment” with prairie rose, Iowa’s state flower.
July 18: Why the Regal Fritillary should be Iowa’s State Insect
Kara Grady’s on a mission: “According to the State Symbols USA website, Iowa has fewer symbols than any other state. And while 48 states have a designated state insect, Iowa and Michigan have none.” In this piece, Kara made her case for adding the regal fritillary to our other official symbols: the wild rose (state flower), the geode (state rock), the American goldfinch (bird), and the oak (tree).
The Reiman Gardens website has more information about this effort.
July 25: Prairie blazing star
“Mid-summer, yellow flowers start dominating the grassy field,” wrote Diane Porter. “But then prairie blazing star (Liatris pycnostachya) shoots up sizzling rose-purple shafts of color, like big fuzzy light sabers, and steals the show.”
These are among the easiest wildflowers to identify. Here’s a close view of the flowerheads, “arranged in subtle spirals along the stem.” Diane’s post also shows more detail of the florets and styles covered with pollen.
July 31: Wild licorice
As far as I know, I’ve never seen Wild licorice (Glycyrrhiza lepidota), which is mostly found in western Iowa. Katie Byerly knows where to find a patch in Cerro Gordo, “on the eastern edge of this species’ known locations.”
Katie explained, “Like other legumes, it has irregular-shaped flowers with five petals. Many flowers are crowded on the spike-like, cone-shaped raceme.” This image illustrates why flowers in the pea family are sometimes called “papilionaceous” (resembling a butterfly).
August 7: Yellow jewelweed (Pale touch-me-not)
I frequently walk my dog walk along the Windsor Heights trail during the summer, and I’m always excited to spot the first Yellow jewelweed (Impatiens pallida) flowers sometime in July.
This post also included a phone video of what happens when you touch a seed pod, which gave rise to the “touch-me-not” common name. I’m not going to disclose how many takes I needed to capture that moment.
August 14: Queen of the Prairie
Marla Mertz wrote this piece for my website in 2016. When I heard she was retiring this summer after nearly three decades with the Marion County Conservation Board, I sought her permission to republish her post about the impressive Queen of the Prairie (Filipendula rubra).
“To some observers, one may think of cotton candy,” Marla wrote. “She stands high above any prairie grasses and forbs this time of year, and your eyes can’t help but make a connection with this beauty.” Click through for closer views of these flowers, which are classified as “threatened” in Iowa.
August 21: American white water-lily
“If you’ve seen a large white flower floating on a body of water, chances are that flower was an American white water-lily (Nymphaea odorata),” wrote Katie Byerly. In this photo, you can see the white petals, yellow stamens, and sepals spread out supporting the flower underneath.
August 28: Groundnut
This native flowering vine was new to me. Diane Porter showed the foliage and flowers of Groundnut (Apios americana) from many angles. This image of a flower cluster shows “flowers are fancy as an orchid, with elaborate structures.”
September 4: White vervain: An Iowa wildflower photo challenge
“Native White Vervain (Verbena urticifolia) is notoriously difficult to photograph well,” Lora Conrad wrote in the Iowa wildflower enthusiasts Facebook group in mid-July. “Several of us have tried and admitted our failures–no, not disasters, but just not the brilliant crisp sharp photo we want of those tiny flowers and their sprangled out in all kinds of directions flower stems on that three foot high plant!!”
Why is white vervain so difficult to photograph? Lora explained, “Something just isn’t in focus or it’s too tiny to enjoy or who knows what else—but not ‘just right.’”
Here’s the winning entry, by Melissa Wubben of Warren County. You can view other worthy attempts here.
September 11: Pale-spike lobelia
Bruce Morrison is lucky to have Pale-spike Lobelia (Lobelia spicata) in his own pasture. These plants aren’t easy to find, even if you know what you’re looking for. He noted, “The plants here do not appear every year, especially during a stressful year of drought. I suspect they just go dormant until things get favorable again. This was the first summer they have returned here on the acreage since 2020. (We were in a significant drought from 2020 through 2023.)”
Here’s one of his images of a spike stem with many flowers:
September 18: Hog Peanut
Lora Conrad wrote this informative piece about a plant often called American Hog Peanut or American Wild Peanut (Amphicarpaea bracteata). She captured images of the plant at various stages of development, which is helpful, since the leaves on seedlings look quite different from mature plants.
These purple and white flowers are on a hog peanut vine that has wrapped itself around another plant.
September 25: It takes a village to find a False Foxglove
Kenny Slocum did some real detective work on this one. As the naturalist and natural resource manager for the Clayton County Conservation Board, he’s more knowledgeable about wildflowers than 99.9 percent of Iowans. Even so, it took him a year and consultations with three experts to confirm the ID on this plant as the rare round-stemmed false foxglove (Agalinis gattingeri).
October 2: The whimsy of Silky Prairie Clover
For his debut at Bleeding Heartland, Luuk Clark introduced readers to another rare plant: Silky prairie clover (Dalea villosa). It’s classified as endangered in Iowa, and I’ve never seen one.
“The charm of this plant lies in its form, feel, and flower,” Luuk wrote. “No more than two feet high, it develops a great clump branching out in every direction, as if putting out feelers to test for a new direction to migrate. The leaves and stem are unique in being densely pubescent or hairy, giving it a soft silvery lining on its deep green foliage.”
October 9: Water parsnip
“Water parsnip (Sium suave) grows along the edges of lakes and marshes and in wet prairies,” wrote Katie Byerly. She photographed these plants at a couple of different locations in Cerro Gordo County.
October 16: A wildflower tour of the Iowa Great Lakes region
Jeff Ewoldt grew up in Spencer and periodically returns to northwest Iowa. After he posted a collection of photos in the Iowa wildflower enthusiasts group in September, I was eager to share the images with Bleeding Heartland readers.
Jeff’s photo of yarrow (Achillea millefolium) prompted Lora Conrad to comment in the Facebook group, “That is the finest detail photo of Yarrow blooms I have seen. One can see the details much better in your photo than when looking at the flower.”
October 23: Late September wildflowers at Cordova Park
Emily Bredthauer allowed me publish a superb collection of pictures she took at Cordova Park, “a 1,050 acre area comprised of woodland, prairie, and bluffs overlooking Lake Red Rock in Marion County.” Two of the wildflowers she found were new to me: lanceleaf fogfruit (Phyla lanceolata), and clammyweed (Polanisia dodecandra), shown here.
October 30: Willow aster
I find many of the asters difficult to distinguish, and would not have known whether the flowers in this post were Willow aster (Symphyotrichum praealtum), smooth blue aster, or sky blue aster. Diane Porter showed willow asters in exquisite detail and explained how to clinch the ID on this species, with the help of “inexpensive 10-power loupe, a magnifier that fits in your pocket.”
November 6: Sauntering through the Southern Loess Hills on the LoHi Trek
For the third time, Patrick Swanson took part in a multi-day group hike called the LoHi (Loess Hills) Trek. In 2021 and 2023, the treks happened in the spring. This time, the group walked through parts of Mills and Fremont counties in southwestern Iowa in mid-October, long after the blooming period for most prairie wildflowers. Here is a soapweed yucca (Yucca glauca) plant he photographed.
November 13: Sassafras
Lora Conrad showcased one of her favorite smaller trees, Sassafras albidum. I don’t think I’ve seen these, which makes sense, because “it has been found in the wild only in one or two counties along the Mississippi River” in southeast Iowa. The two Sassafras trees Lora planted on her property are a male and a female. Her post shows flowers and foliage from both kinds of tree. This is one of her pictures of bright yellow flowers on the female tree during the spring.
November 20: Cutleaf grapefern
Diane Porter covered another native plant that was unfamiliar to me, showing Cutleaf Grapefern (Sceptridium dissectum) at different stages. I love when Diane gets her microscope out. This photo shows two open sporangia on the left, which have shed most of their spores, and a sporangium on the right that will split to emit thousands of spores:
November 27: Wild petunias and their springing seeds
Diane Porter closed out this year’s wildflower series with a wonderful essay about Wild Petunia (Ruellia humilis). I’ve often seen these blooming but have never collected the seeds. Diane photographed not only the flowers and the seeds (“round and flat, like miniature poker chips”), but also the seed pods, before and and after they burst open. Here are ripening seed pods.
