Wildflowers of the United States

Reference List for Massachusetts Wildflower Identification
Site	Description
New England Wild Flower Society	The New England Wild Flower Society's mission is to promote the conservation of temperate North American flora through education, research, horticulture, habitat preservation, and advocacy. "Founded in 1900, the Society is the nation's oldest plant conservation organization and a recognized leader in native plant conservation, horticulture, and education." This seems to be a very active and vibrant native plant society, representing the six New England states - Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. Their relatively new "Go Botany" site is a truly excellent tool to help you identify wildflowers found in this region. Try it!!
Kris Light's Website of East Tennessee Wildflowers and Hiking Trails	This site has as of this writing 715 different East Tennessee wildflowers in the various photo galleries, which can be searched by common name and scientific name. In addition, Kris Light has made wildflower photo/ID trips to Alaska, Arizona, California, Florida, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Texas, and Utah, and has additional wildflower photos from those states
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.
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: Wildflowers in the Field and Forest: A Field Guide to the Northeastern United States (Glassberg Field Guide) (Commission to USWildflowers.com if purchased)	This is a photographic field guide discussing more than 1,500 species of wildflowers found in the Northeastern United States. Plants are arranged arranged by flower color. Within color flowers with other similar attributes such as leaf arrangement and petal arrangement are grouped together. Based on the little bit I've been able to see of the book on Amazon, it appears to be pretty good, but it may have sparse supporting descriptions of the plants that are frequently needed if you want to identify to the species. It received good reviews (4+stars) on Amazon.
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.
Item at Amazon: New England Wildflowers: A Guide To Common Plants (Wildflower Series) 1st Edition, Kindle Edition (Commission to USWildflowers.com if purchased)	"New England Wildflowers is the most complete guide available to the common wildflowers and flowering plants found in Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine." More than 300 plants with photos organized by color. Now available in a Kindle edition.
Item at Amazon: Summer & Fall Wildflowers of New England (Commission to USWildflowers.com if purchased)	"...a revised, second edition of Marilyn Dwelley's indispensable guide to summer and fall wildflowers in New England. Each listing includes a thorough text description, as well as details about range, growth habits, and habitat. Includes Latin names and families, in addition to common names, and more than 700 color illustrations." This book is well-regarded by reviewers on Amazon, one of whom reports that the plants are organized by blossom color. Note that the illustrations are drawings rather than photographs.

Looking for Wildflowers for a specific state? Check here: Number of References for Massachusetts: 11