Wildflower Tips
TH reader “Steve” from Liberty Hill just emailed us about Melissa Gaskill’s “Trips to Bountiful” in the new April issue (available on newsstands): “This is regarding a special wildflower located on the drive route within Melissa’s very nice Wildflower Drives story,” Steve says. “She mentions Park Road 4 off Texas 29 west of Inks lake. Tell readers to be on the lookout for a special variety of Indian blanket that are all red; their ray flowers are not tipped with yellow. There are very few patches of these in western Burnet County. One spectacular patch is located on Texas 29 between the Inks Dam and Park Road 4 to Inks Lake. Look for the big patch located near two small roadside ponds; it is quite dramatic.”
The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center’s plant database lists the red Indian blanket (Gaillardia amblyodon), also known as maroon blanketflower and red gaillardia.
Tell us about your favorite wildflower finds!
April 10th, 2010 at 5:30 pm
Just FYI, another great location to see wildflowers is along FM 532 between Moulton and Gonzales. The BEST spot along that road, though, is about 2-3 miles outside of Moulton, heading West to Gonzales. On the right hand side is a HUGE field that, when the winter has been a rainy one, is absolutely FILLED with bluebonnets (about 20 ACRES are filled with the flowers). The first time this occurred was about two years ago, and since this past winter was wet, this spot is gorgeous again. Because there has been a drought in this area for so long, not even the old timers can recall seeing so many bluebonnets in one location. It truly is a lovely farm, with beautiful, green rolling hills, and the enormous amount of bright blue flowers that now fill it make it a fantastic photo op. Like I said, this doesn’t occur very often (2008 and this year are the only times that people around here recall seeing this phenomenon), so if you’re in the area, you should definitely head to this beautiful spot. But don’t wait…they won’t be around too much longer!!!