It's Bluebonnet Time in Texas

Motorists in North Texas are enjoying swathes of bluebonnets along roadsides these days. There is even a patch in the Butterfly Garden at Hagerman NWR.

Texas A&M's Aggie Horticulture site quotes historian Jack Maguire:

"It's not only the state flower but also a kind of floral trademark almost as well known to outsiders as cowboy boots and the Stetson hat." .... "The bluebonnet is to Texas what the shamrock is to Ireland, the cherry blossom to Japan, the lily to France, the rose to England and the tulip to Holland." 

According to The Handbook of Texas,

"On March 7, 1901, the Twenty-seventh Texas Legislature adopted the bluebonnet, flower of the annual legume Lupinus subcarnosus, as the state flower.  On March 8, 1971, the legislation was amended to include L. texensis and "any other variety of bluebonnet not heretofore recorded." ... In 1933 the legislature adopted a state flower song, "Bluebonnets," written by Julia D. Booth and Lora C. Crockett. Also in the 1930s the Highway Department began a landscaping and beautification program and extended the flower's range. Due largely to that agency's efforts, bluebonnets now grow along most major highways throughout the state." 

From the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center we learn that the species most often planted along the roadsides is Texas lupine, Lupinus texensis  - known by assorted common names:
Texas bluebonnet, Bluebonnet, Texas lupine, Buffalo clover, Wolf flower.

A member of the pea family,

"Texas lupine has larger, more sharply pointed leaves and more numerous flower heads than similar lupines. Light-green, velvety, palmately compound leaves (usually five leaflets) are borne from branching, 6-18 in. stems. These stems are topped by clusters of up to 50 fragrant, blue, pea-like flowers. The tip of the cluster is conspicuously white."

Texas lupine is one of the six Lupinus species which are collectively designated the state flower of Texas.

One legend of the bluebonnet is the story of an orphaned girl who sacrificed her only possession from her mother, a doll with a blue feather, in a plea to stop the bad times of drought and famine that her tribe of Plains Indians was experiencing.  In return, the Great Spirit sent blue flowers, a herd of buffalo, and rain.

"From that day forward she became known as She Who Loved Her Tribe Dearly. And, every Spring, the Great Spirit sends the bluebonnet back to remind us of the young girl who was willing to give her greatest possession to save her tribe."

Keep your eyes out for our beloved State Flower!