DISCOVER WILDFLOWERS!

One of the many joys of Summer is walking through a field or a meadow and being surrounded by wildflowers. The variety of color and scent that wildflowers have to offer, whether found growing in a field, in the woods, by the water, or along the side of the road, is amazing. Helping your children to become more familiar with some of these jewels of nature is not only a great way to have some summer fun together; wildflower identification is a wonderful hobby that will surely instill in your kids a deeper appreciation of their environment and the beauty that surrounds them.

The main things that you and your kids will need are a good field guide to the wildflowers in your area, a small magnifying glass, and a notebook for each member of the team. There are many excellent books of this kind available at your local library and bookstore. Peterson's Field Guides publishes an excellent one for the beginner. Look for one that has the flowers arranged by color. This makes for easier identification.

If you are fortunate to live in the country or have easy access to a large park with meadows and woodland trails, you and your kids have your very own botanical laboratory!

Pick a day when you know the weather will cooperate. You can walk together as a team, or spread out after agreeing on a time and place to meet and compare your findings. Whichever way you go about it, before long, someone in the group will triumphantly proclaim the first discovery of the day.

Let's suppose that this first flower is the familiar common "Day Lilly." Open up your field guide and turn to the section with orange colored blossoms. Look at each picture carefully and you will eventually find one that matches your flower. Whichever member of the group found it, should record the discovery in his or her notebook. Be consistent in form when entering each new flower. It may look something like this:

Date 6/8/07

Color Orange In this area you may do a simple drawing or add additional observations about the find.
Common Name Day Lilly

Latin Name Hemerocallis fulva

Notice that the last entry is the official Latin Genus/species name. This system of nomenclature is used to accurately describe virtually every living thing on earth! Children as young as ten are fully capable of learning these names. Make it fun! Turn it into a game! Once

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