Wildflowers in Bloom

 I used to have a wildflower identification book!

Gee, I wonder where it went? Like a lot in my life, it just disappeared over the years.

I remember once, back in the late '80s, my husband and I took a less used road traveling through North Carolina, iding wildflowers along the way. That's when I had that book.

So.... no book but lordy mercy, who needs a book when they have google!!

On my and Michael's travels this time we identified some flowers that I had often wondered about. 

First was the yellow flower, tall on a thin stem, that looked like a dandelion. Dandelions don't grow on tall stems. So, what was it?

Michael pulled over and broke a blossom off for me while I got a couple snaps from my car seat. Those two look so much alike but this is a dandelion.

low to the ground with jagged leaves

And

here is the Meadow Hawkweed

on a long stem. The leaves are long and skinny. 

We also found out that a tree with purple blossoms blooming alongside the road ... no leaves yet... was a Purple Robe Black Locust. 

I hope I did not bore you to death with that. I just love learning new things. How many of you already knew that the yellow flower was a Meadow Hawkweed? 

Oh, and just look at the back row of petals on that blossom.

the rest of the petals are yellow but that back row is greenish/brown. So pretty when the sunlight shines through it.