The best way to find our spring wildflowers is to get out on the trails and use your eyes. However, Pat Cromwell, Diane Mikrut and Gay Vekovius added a twist—using GPS waypoints to locate wildflowers.

  In preparation for the April 10 meeting/outing of the North Central Arkansas Master Naturalists, Pat, Diane and Gay pre-hiked the trail on April 5 and established waypoints to 11 wildflowers: 

White Violet, Phlox, Trout Lily (Yellow Dogtooth Violet), Yellow Violet, False Rue Anemone, Large Bellwort, Celandine Poppy (designated as a mystery for MNs to identify), Wild Ginger, Green Trillium, Ozark Spiderwort and Dutchman’s Breeches.  In addition 14 more wildflowers were seen and named by the pre-hike group for MNs to look for.   

The pre-hike GPS orientation included an exercise in marking a waypoint and an exercise in starting a “go-to.”  Gay pointed out that the accuracy of the GPS means you will get close to the wildflower, but will have to use your eyes and the flower descriptions provided to locate the flowers exactly.  She also said that some of the flowers blooming on April 5 might not be blooming on April 10, and that turned out to be true of the Dutchman’s Breeches. 

 It was located anyway by our enthusiastic group. Dwan Garrison passed out the wildflower books for the NITS in attendance (Wildflowers of Tennessee, The Ohio Valley and the Southern Appalachians by Dennis Horn and Tavia Cathcart).  This book made identifying several other wildflowers an interesting challenge for the group. During the post-hike picnic Rose Maschek a local butterfly enthusiast/photographer showed up and told us of a Harvester Butterfly she had seen on the trail along with the location.  She later sent a picture.       

All seventeen attendees found all the wildflowers indicated by waypoints as well as the “spotted flowers,” and many other flowers as well.  MNs commented that it combined learning with fun, physical activity and great companionship.