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Reference List for Oregon Wildflower Identification

Site Description
The Native Plant Society of OregonThe NPSO local chapters "hold meetings, field trips, and plant shows and sales for members and non-members alike, making available the knowledge and wonder of our native plants to everyone."
Oregon Flora Image Project Excellent identification photographs of the flora of Oregon, by Dr. Gerald (Gerry) Carr, who is associated with the Department of Botany and Plant Pathology at Oregon State University. You'll need to know the scientific name of the plant you seek.
Oregon Flora ProjectFrom the website: "The mission of the Oregon Flora Project is to serve as a comprehensive resource for the vascular plants of Oregon that grow without cultivation, and to foster effective use of this knowledge by all citizens."

Flora of Oregon is a project of Oregon State University. The entire Flora of Oregon is scheduled for publication in 2015. When completed the website will contains information on all of Oregon's 4,560 vascular plants, as of May, 2014, 21 plant families have been published. The website also includes a plant atlas, photo gallery for identification, a rare plant guide with searchable database, a vascular plant checklist, and the semiannual Oregon Flora Newsletter. They also have a mobile app available for purchase from a link on their website, or from Amazon.com - linked below.

Overall this is an EXCELLENT resource for wildflower and other plant enthusiasts of Oregon.
Common Plants of the Upper Klamath Basin This is a large PDF file of a 272 page book put together apparently by Rabe Consulting and the Klamath Basin Chapter of the Oregon Native Plant Society. It provides excellent of Ferns and Horsetails; Conifers; Flowers; Hardwood Trees and Shrubs; Grasses and Grass-like Plants; and Lichens, Bryophytes, and Blue-green Algae of the 7,230 square mile Upper Klamath Basin in southern Oregon and northern California. This includes the famous Crater Lake National Park.

The book includes a photograph and description of by my estimate nearly 500 plant species.
Mountain Plants of the Western CascadesTanya Harvey is a self-proclaimed amateur botanist and gardener who is also an artist. She has combined those skills well in this website, which she is using as a repository and expository of the work she has done botanizing in the Western Cascades of Oregon while she prepares a book on the same for publication.

There are plant lists for various locations in the Western Cascades. These can be helpful in identification by knowing what plants can be found at these spots. The "Plants and Places" blog also provides excellent information and photos on the plants of the Western Cascades.
Oregon Wildflowers Mobile App by High Country Apps, LLC A description provided to me by Oregon State University: "The Oregon Flora Project at Oregon State University and High Country Apps have partnered to produce the new Oregon Wildflowers plant identification app for iOS and Android mobile devices. The app provides photographs, range maps, bloom period, and detailed descriptions for more than 940 common wildflowers, shrubs, and vines that occur throughout Oregon and adjacent areas of California, Washington and Idaho. Designed for both budding wildflower enthusiasts and experienced botanists, Oregon Wildflowers will appeal to individuals who are interested in the names and natural history of the plants they encounter. It is an excellent educational tool for all ages to learn about botany, plant communities, and ecology using the plants found throughout Oregon. Each of the 948 plants profiled has multiple photographs, distribution maps, and a detailed description. The majority of species included are native, and introduced species common to the region are also covered. Plant hunters can use the app to identify species in all ten of of Oregon's diverse ecoregions. Users can browse through the stunning photographs of plants organized by common name, scientific name, or by family to select a plant and access the related information. However, most users will likely use the identification key that is the core of the app to identify an unknown plant of interest."

The application, which I'm sure has a large database and therefore requires a fair amount of memory on your device, does not require an Internet connection to use after the initial download. This application is no longer listed as working on Kindle Fire tablets. However, it does work on other Android devices, and reportedly on IOS (iPad / iPhone).
Reny's WildflowersReny Parker's wildflower galleries, with "over 1,820 images identified to 79 plant families." Includes family and species common and scientific names, photo location. Searchable by color, shape, location, and name. Very nice photographs.
Turner Photographics Wildflowers of the Pacific NorthwestOver 7,000 excellent photographs from Washington and Oregon and northern California, by one of the co-authors of 'Wildflowers of the Pacific Northwest' (see below.) These are indexed by Latin and Common name, by blossom color, and by blossom characteristic. Good information about each species, and the detail page includes a county-level map of distribution. This is one of my first go-to sites for wildflowers in the northwestern United States.
Wildflowers WestMark Lee Dixon's & Darice Susan Dixon's wildflower website, with wildflowers organized by blossom color. They usually include multiple photographs of a plant, with at least one of the blossom and another of the whole plant or the leaf infrastructure to help with identification. Additional informative text is included, including common and scientific names. Very nice photographs.
Wildflower Field Guide - DesertUSAOver 50 species of wildflowers found in USA deserts, organized by flower color. Common name, scientific name, and desert regions in which they are found - Mojave, Sonoran, Chihuahuan, and Great Basin. These deserts touch 7 states in the western US.

This site also has good information about parks and destinations within these deserts, including, as an example, updates on wildflower status within the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. Check on the "Destinations" drop-down menu at the top of the pages.
Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center at the University of Texas at AustinPerhaps the most comprehensive native wildflower information site in the United States. "Discover more than 10,050 plants native to North America."
USDA Plants DatabaseGreat 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 AmericaOver 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.comSteven 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: Wildflowers of the Pacific Northwest (Timber Press Field Guide)
(Commission to USWildflowers.com if purchased)
"Featuring more than 1240 stunning color photographs, this comprehensive field guide will remain a trusted, authoritative trailside reference for years to come. It describes and illustrates 1220 commonly encountered species" - This book appears to be the regional guide one needs for wildflower identification in the Pacific Northwest. It has received excellent reviews on Amazon.
Wildflower Information.orgFrom 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: Western Region
(Commission to USWildflowers.com if purchased)
Covering the region from Alaska to California and east to the Great Plains, this well-produced, compact guidebook contains more than 940 photos of over 650 species of wildflowers of western North America. The color images are grouped by flower color to suit the needs of inexperienced enthusiasts. I think anyone interested in wildflowers in the western United States should have a copy of this guide. Situated in the Eastern U.S., I use the Eastern Region guide extensively.

Looking for Wildflowers for a specific state? Check here:



Number of References for Oregon: 17

USWildflowers.com Database

Family Index for 203 Wildflowers of Oregon
Thumbnails of 203 Wildflowers of Oregon
Pedicularis centranthera
White Wildflowers of Oregon (94)
Amsinckia menziesii
Yellow Wildflowers of Oregon (64)
Paeonia brownii
Red Wildflowers of Oregon (68)
Clematis occidentalis
Blue Wildflowers of Oregon (29)
Ambrosia trifida
Green Wildflowers of Oregon (7)
Equisetum laevigatum
Other Color Wildflowers of Oregon (6)







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Page updated 02/09/2021