I just finished reading The Big Year, by Mark Obmascik and The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean. The Big Year is a book about a yearly contest for birders who travel their county, state, nation or world trying to see as many birds as possible. The Orchid Thief is an account of the obsession for orchids and the extremes people exhibit to posses them; by purchase, propagation or theft.
The combination has inspired me (maybe) to have 'a big year' for West Virginia wildflowers. Beginning January 1, 2013, I will seek, photograph and record every native or common WV wildflower that I can find. This blog is only a way for me to keep up with what I find; if anyone else finds in interesting, I will be the most surprised. Knowing my own past record, it is entirely likely that I will never record another thing here. But maybe I will.
I am obsessed with wildflowers, especially Trillium's and Orchids which are both fickle and may choose this year not to show themselves. For instance; Large Pad Leaf Orchids have not appeared in two years at known locations. I will make several trips and record what I find. I will not reveal the location of sensitive habitat. I only know the location of a dozen or so rare wildflowers because of hours and hours of reading and gleaning info from websites, journals and research papers. I will also be recording many common flowers from ditches and yards; as long as they are native or common to the state. For instance, my first flower should be dandelions in January, if the snow is gone. It is an introduced flower but is as common as weeds. I am going for numbers; a couple hundred maybe. Maybe by then I will have forgotten the whole thing and just do what I have done for years; enjoy flowers where ever they lead me.
