What's the deal with wildflowers?
(ecologically speaking)
Hello! Happy almost-Summer! All this lengthy daylight has had me feeling amazing lately. I hope you’re having a pleasant start to your Summer season, too.
The art below features my paintings combined with photos of nine species of wildflowers I found on a walk a few weeks ago, back when the wildflowers were still in full force.
Have you ever wondered why people get so excited about wildflowers? I have!
As an artist, I know wildflowers are awesome because they spill bright colors across the landscape with the passing of the time, and because their fascinating shapes and patterns make tiny worlds in their inflorescences (scientific term for the flower part of the plant).
As a scientist, I wanted to know ‘why’ they are awesome, ecologically speaking. So I Googled: ‘Why are wildflowers important?’
Wildflowers are important (and awesome) for many reasons, with the main reason being that they are a super valuable part of our ecosystems. They are especially important for pollinators, and pollinators are obviously very important (and awesome*). Wildflowers provide food, habitat, philosophical awakening, and much more to the bugs that notice them.
Some pollinators have really excellent self-awareness and only go for specific kinds of wildflowers that they really like. Most pollinators prefer wildflowers that are native to their environment. Ultimately, as usual, more biodiversity (having lots of different kinds of stuff) is better.
Without all those blissed out bugs thriving on the good vibes that wildflowers deliver, the higher trophic levels (aka the food chain) would go hungry. Wildflowers make bugs happy, and lots of things eat bugs. Wildflower roots also help stabilize and maintain healthy, wealthy soil that supports lots of life.
Lastly, it’s also just really fun to know the names of plants that you see outside. I think that’s a big part of why wildflowers are so beloved - it’s like unexpectedly running into an elusive old friend. I definitely gained a much higher level of appreciation for flowers once I took a botany class and learned what the different petal structures are called, because I was then able to notice the incredible variation in form between different species that all have very similar basic functions. Here are the names of all the wildflowers I found on that walk:
***awesome pollinators? I made a zine about that! For only $4 I’ll ship a little book of handmade drawings and information about how bees do what they do straight to your front door. Go to mickeyfishbackshop.com to check it out.
Another cool thing that happened since I last emailed you was that my pet shrimp had some shrimp babies! Now there’s approximately 10-20 more teeny blue shrimp in my house. It’s always nice when that happens, because it means I have created a little ecosystem that is healthy enough to be deemed suitable habitat by the shrimp for them to go forward with expanding their colony.
Even though the Spring wildflowers are mostly gone by now, I hope you find some cool flowers popping up around you soon! Summer starts on Thursday, so happy Summer! Enjoy the sunshine! Bye!
I’m so very grateful to see this in my email tonight. I could not have needed this more to remind me of someone good in my life, on my planet I am connected to- and yes, I ordered all three zines. Xox
I love learning fun ‘sciency’ facts and words like ‘inflorescences’ from your posts! Thank you!