For purposes of this site wildflowers are flowering plants,
other than trees, growing outside of cultivation.
All but a few pictures were taken in Delaware; the others are of plants that are known to grow,
or to have grown at one time, in Delaware. Consulting
The Flora of Delaware,
I get the numbers below. About one-third of the total are represented on this site.
Scientific and common names shown on this site are taken from
The Flora of Delaware.
Also from that source, and from the
rare plant list, is species origin and rarity information as defined below.
| Native |
"A species that occurred in Delaware prior to European settlement,
or has migrated into the state independent of human activity."
The terms below are applied to native plants:
| Common |
State ranked S4 or S5; secure under present conditions. |
| Uncommon |
"state ranked as S3, 21 - 50 known populations ...
not a high priority for conservation at this time" |
| Rare |
Marked "Conservation Conern" in The Flora of Delaware.
Ranked as S1 or S2, 1 - 20 known populations. |
| Globally rare |
Vulnerable to extinction; global rank G1, G2, or G3. |
| Historical |
"not collected or reported for 15 or more years" |
| Extirpated |
"no longer exists in Delaware"; its habitat is gone |
|
| Adventive |
"native to North America, but not to Delaware" |
| Alien |
"not native to North America"
| Invasive |
Aggressive alien or adventive species that displace native vegetation. |
|
| Introduced |
These are non-native plants that are not widely established,
but may be found growing apparently uncultivated.
These species are not listed in The Flora of Delaware. |
| Uncertain |
Status uncertain, or of uncertain nativity. |
Except where labelled differently, these pictures were taken at various locations
in New Castle County, Delaware.
Many were taken at
Delaware state parks
and at Middle Run Valley Natural Area.
All of the pictures on this website were taken with digital cameras.
Most pictures dated September 2005 and later were taken with a Nikon D70.
Most pictures dated March 2002 - August 2005 were taken with a Nikon Coolpix 5000;
a few were taken with a Coolpix 2500.
Pictures dated 2001 through February 2002 were taken with a Coolpix 990;
pictures dated 1999 and 2000 were taken with a Coolpix 900s.
Some of the close-ups were taken using a Raynox MSN-200 macro lens for Nikon digital cameras.
Those dated 1997 and 1998 were taken with an Epson PhotoPC 500 digital camera and Tiffen close-up lenses.
On the computer I use
PIE,
ACDSee,
and
Photoshop to work with the images.
Wildflowers of Delaware and the Eastern Shore
Claude E. Phillips
Delaware Nature Education Society, 1978
Newcomb's Wildflower Guide
Lawrence Newcomb
Little, Brown and Company, 1977
Wild Flowers of the United States (The Northeastern States)
Harold William Rickett
The New York Botanical Garden, 1966
National Audobon Society Field Guide to North American Wildflowers (Eastern Region)
William A. Niering and Nancy C. Olmstead
Alfred A Knopf, 1979
A Field Guide to Wildflowers (Northeastern and North-central North America)
Roger Tory Peterson and Margaret McKenny
Houghton Mifflin Company, 1968
The Flora of Delaware, an Annotated Checklist
McAvoy, W., and K. Bennett
Delaware Natural Heritage Program, 2001
If you would like a copy, here is the
order form.
Herbaceous Plants of Maryland
Melvin L. Brown and Russell G. Brown
University of Maryland, 1984
Woody Plants of Maryland
Russell G. Brown and Melvin L. Brown
University of Maryland, 1972
Plant Identification Terminology: An Illustrated Glossary
James G. Harris and Melinda Woolf Harris
Spring Lake Publishing, 2001
All pictures and text on this web site (www.delawarewildfowers.org) are copyright 1997-2008 David G. Smith.
(Contact information below.)
My
family is from Virginia and Tennessee,
and I was born in Kentucky,
but Delaware's been home most of my life.
I have no training in botany or photography; to support my hobby I am a computer programmer.
Here I am with a Cypripedium acaule.
You can contact me at
This address was not working from sometime in December 2007 until February 25, 2008.
If you sent mail in that time, please resend!
(Also note that this address may change, so don't save it.)
Thanks to Kay Lancaster, Rufino Osorio, Bill McAvoy, Karen Bennett,
Keith Clancy, and members of the GARDENS e-mail list.
