Wildflowers of the Mountain West

Introduction

vii Introduction In the summer of 2009, while leading a group of friends to enjoy mountain wildflowers, we noticed that many in our party had a desire to know the names and a little information about each of the flowers we were seeing. We also noticed that of the fifty pounds of books we lugged up the hill, most were too technical, had poor pictures, or were too cumbersome to make quick and correct identification of most wildflowers. This led to the three of us thinking about writing a field guide that would reduce the time spent identifying a flower and increase the time enjoying nature. It is a normal instinct for us as humans to want to name nature’s creations. This helps us to categorize and organize our world, which has been an endeavor for mankind since the early plant explorers, such as Linnaeus, Lewis and Clark, and others. The same feelings that drove those earlier naturalists drive us today. In our effort to make identification easier for our friends, we also discovered that the whole nomenclature and taxonomy thing is harder to understand than a textbook written in some ancient language. The scientific name of some plants seems to change as often as the seasons, and what differentiates one species or variety from another can differ from one author to the next. We have strived (through voucher specimens, scientific literature, journals, and observations) to be consistent in scientific and common names with the majority of the botanists currently working with plants in the Mountain West region. However, as mentioned earlier, the naming of plants is a somewhat fluid science, and we are not always able to swim fast enough to stay out of the rapids. We hope this field guide aids you in identifying wildflowers and allows you to spend less time in a book and more time experiencing the awesomeness and diversity of nature. ...