Wildflowers of the United States

Reference List for South Carolina Wildflower Identification
Site	Description
South Carolina Native Plant Society	The South Carolina Native Plant Society is a non-profit organization committed to the preservation and protection of native plant communities in South Carolina. We work to make this happen by providing programs and activities designed to: educate and inform members and the general public about the importance of native plants support efforts by government agencies to protect habitats and endangered species encourage the use of native plant materials in public and private landscaping promote the commercial availability of native plant materials
2bnTheWild.com	Daniel Reed's excellent 2bnthewild Site has photographs, identification information, and other interesting information about wildflowers (and other wildlife subjects) from the Southeastern United States. Since "Southeastern United States" isn't defined I've chosen my own list of states from the perspective that Daniel appears to be located near Memphis.
Hiking Trail Wildflowers and Plants by the OFHC	As of Aug 22, 2009, 325 species by the 30 members of the "Old Friends Hiking Club" taken as they hike the trails of northeast Georgia, southwest North Carolina, and northwest South Carolina. Flower lists are available sorted by common name, scientific name, or time of year the photo was taken. The thumbnail description also tells which trail on which the photo was taken.
Southeastern Flora	Some very nice esthetically-pleasing identification photographs of a large number of wildflowers. Search criteria includes flower color, plant form (tree/shrub/herb/vine), leaf type, leaf arrangement, and species/common/family name. Note: If you don't know the entire name, use "%" at the end as a wild-card in the search. From the site: "...Currently there are over 1020 species listed on this site and over 14,400 pictures to help you identify what you're looking for..." This is an increase of 90 species in the 2 months between 8/15/09 and 10/15/09.
Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center at the University of Texas at Austin	Perhaps the most comprehensive native wildflower information site in the United States. "Discover more than 10,050 plants native to North America."
USDA Plants Database	Great resource for native plants! Their own description: "The PLANTS Database provides standardized information about the vascular plants, mosses, liverworts, hornworts, and lichens of the U.S. and its territories." Provides these important (to me) pieces of info: 1) Listing by state and county within a state where specific species have been identified. 2) Scientific name synonyms are listed. 3) Scientific names are matched to a widely-used common name. 4) Photographs of many species. 5) State by state list of all the species identified in that state. Official Citation: USDA, NRCS. 2009. The PLANTS Database (http://plants.usda.gov, 22 June 2009). National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70874-4490 USA.
Flicker Wildflower Field Guide, North America	Over 9,000 Flickr member photos tagged with wfgna. The WFGNA group has good tagging requirements for their excellent photos, so you'll find, in addtion to the photo, the state in which the photo was taken, and at least a common name and the scientific name as identified by the contributor. After you get to the linked page you should add search criteria, including the state name, the color of the plant, or scientific name, to reduce the number of photos. Several states have several hundred photos(California has over 1,500!) so you'll probably want to add color to the search criteria.
WildflowerSearch.com	Steven K. Sullivan has done a tremendous job of putting together a database and search engine to help in identifying wild plants. Not only can you search by plant scientific and common names, you can narrow the results using location (currently lower 48 states and parts of Canada and Mexico), flower shape, color, size, habitat, and observation time. His database currently includes over 7,000 plants. Definitely worth checking out.
Item at Amazon: A Guide to the Wildflowers of South Carolina (Commission to USWildflowers.com if purchased)	A Guide to the Wildflowers of South Carolina by Richard D. Porcher and Douglas A. Rayner takes an interestingly different approach to grouping the more than 700 described species by habitat, while most other field guides group the photographs by color or by plant family. This is much more than a wildflower identification field guide, however, including information on the natural history of certain plant groups, itineraries for wildflower expeditions in South Carolina, essays on a variety of related topic, and more.
Item at Amazon: Wildflowers of Tennessee, the Ohio Valley and the Southern Appalachians: 2nd Edition (Commission to USWildflowers.com if purchased)	A product of the Tennessee Native Plant Society, this excellent and comprehensive field guide covers over 1250 species using 800 photographs and valuable descriptive text. While the focus is Tennessee, it's area of coverage includes the entire states of Kentucky and West Virginia, as well as large parts of 13 other states. In addition to the description of the plants it has an interesting look at botany from a historical perspective of the region. While the main part of the book is organized by plant family, there is a color-keyed section of thumbnails that allows a quick scan for identification, and there are illustrated keys for 12 of the families. This is my favorite wildflower identification book that I have, and I consider it a "must have" for wildflower enthusiasts in the region.
Wildflower Information.org	From the site: "WildflowerInformation.org is a resource for wildflower enthusiasts and gardeners. With a growing interest in the environment and natural gardening, our objective is to offer comprehensive information that is easy to use, and accessible for those from the casually interested to the expert." While this information doesn't appear to be on the website itself, WildflowerInformation.org seems to be owned by American Meadows, the "recommended wildflowers seed supplier" of WildflowerInformation.org.
Item at Amazon: National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Wildflowers--E: Eastern Region - Revised Edition (Commission to USWildflowers.com if purchased)	"...gives full descriptions of more than 650 species found east of the Rocky Mountains, along with notes on several hundred more. The eminently sensible organization relies on first-impression visible characteristics..." I use this guide frequently, and unless I have a good idea what family a flower is in, this is usually still my first stop. In my opinion, a must-have for beginning wildflower enthusiasts; augments more locale-specific wildflower references.

Looking for Wildflowers for a specific state? Check here: Number of References for South Carolina: 12