Avalanche lilies, Mount Rainier National Park / Rebecca Latson

I’m pretty certain everybody is ready for springtime weather and flowers. If so, then this quiz is especially for you. As per usual, I’m not as original as I thought, because Professor Robert Janiskee penned a spring quiz back in 2011, about a year prior to my joining the Traveler. While the majority of these questions deal with spring wildflowers, one or two are about wildflowers, in general, no matter what time of the year they bloom. See how much you know before looking at the answers at the bottom of this piece, and then take a look at that 2011 quiz, to further test your “spring” knowledge.

Prickly pear cactus bloom, Big Bend National Park / Rebecca Latson

1. Spring (April – May) is a great time to see blooming cacti at Big Bend National Park. Prickly pear is one such cactus that begins blooming in April with shades of yellow, orange, and melon blossoms. Once the blooming is done and the flowers drop off, what is left are fleshy fruits on the prickly pear. These fruits go by another name:

               a) tunas

               b) pitayas

               c) nopals

               d) cochineals

Glacier lilies, Mount Rainier National Park / Rebecca Latson

2. Spring in the mountains does not always equate to spring in the lower elevations. The Paradise area of Mount Rainier National Park, for example, still has quite a bit of snow thickly blanketing the trails up there, lasting into July. So, the first “spring” flowers you’ll probably see in the higher elevations of the park will be glacier and avalanche lilies pushing through the ground. In the lowlands of this park, however, you’ll know spring has arrived by the appearance of:

               a) alpine forget-me-not

               b) skunk cabbage

               c) alpine aster

               d) pasqueflower

Trillium grandiflorum, Great Smoky Mountains National Park / National Park Service

3. “Over 1,500 kinds of flowers are found in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, more than any other North American national park.” Starting the “yearly show” of blooms is a group of flowers known as:

               a) spring ephemerals

               b) spring perennials

               c) spring annuals

               d) spring biennials

4. Let’s stick with the Great Smoky Mountains for a little longer. An event called the Wildflower Pilgrimage is held at the end of April in the Great Smokies. People from all over the world convene to take classes on just about anything and everything flower, shrub, tree, and botany-related. Not including 2021, how long has this annual event been taking place?

               a) 50 years

               b) 60 years

               c) 70 years

               d) 80 years

Indian paintbrush and penstemon, Crater Lake National Park / National Park Service

5. Castilleja is the scientific name for the paintbrush wildflowers (Indian, pumice, magenta, scarlet). This flower shows up in many different national parks and other public lands during spring and early summer, including Big Bend, Mount Rainier, Crater Lake, and Arches national parks. These bright, beautiful little flowers are quite opportunistic, digging their roots into neighboring plants to steal nutrients. They are therefore considered:

               a) an obligate

               b) mutualistic

               c) holoparasitic

               d) hemiparasitic

Beargrass, Glacier National Park / Rebecca Latson

6. During your visit to Glacier National Park, you might come across large and small patches of beargrass like I did during a hike to Redrock Falls. True or False: beargrass is not a flower and bears don’t particularly like it.

               a) True for both

               b) False for both

               c) True and False

7. If you visit the southern portion of Joshua Tree National Park around May, you’ll be treated to desert willow blooming in various shades of pink. True or False: desert willow is not a willow at all.

               a) True

               b) False

Blue camas and Nez Perce encampment, Big Hole National Battlefield / National Park Service

8. A visit to Big Hole National Battlefield in Montana is the location of the battle that took place on August 9th and 10th during Nez Perce Flight of 1877. This park unit not only introduces you to the history, but also to the plants, animals, and ecosystems surrounding the Nez Perce (nimí pu). Plants and fish were the primary staples of the traditional Nez Perce diet. The blooming of kouse, camas, and balsamroot were signs to the nimí pu that spring had arrived. These edible wildflower plants are known as

               a) root foods

               b) cassavas

               c) arracachas

               d) swollen roots

Visitors in a field of golden wildflowers, Death Valley National Park / NPS-Kurt Moses

9. Death Valley National Park is famous for its spring superblooms. On average, these superblooms tend to happen how often?

               a) once a half decade

               b) once every three years

               c) once a decade

               d) once every two decades

Jack-in-the-Pulpit, Catoctin Mountain Park / Alicia Lafever

10. Spring brings a plethora of wildflowers including spring beauties, wild ginger, jack-in-the-pulpit, and yellow violet to Catoctin Mountain Park, in Maryland. Several Maryland-listed endangered, threatened, and "watch list" plant species also reside in the park. One such wildflower listed as threatened, by the state, is the ____.

               a) yellow trout lily

               b) cardinal flower

               c) purple-fringed orchid

               d) bloodroot

Trivia

A day in the Tidal Basin, National Mall and Memorial Parks / NPS-Victoria Stauffenberg

The annual Cherry Blossom Festival is one of Washington, D.C.’s grandest traditions. “Strolling among the blossoming cherry trees in Washington, DC has been a cherished rite of spring for more than a century in the Nation's Capital. But in the trees’ homeland of Japan, the tradition of viewing the cherry blossoms, known as 'hanami,' dates back more than 1,200 years! Helen Taft, wife and First Lady to President William Howard Taft, was the first presidential spouse to observe the traditional Japanese custom of hanami.” To read more about the roles of first ladies and cherry trees, click here. To read more about hanami, click here.

A bright yellow little sunflower, Padre Island National Seashore / Rebecca Latson

Sunflowers are bright, cheerful yellow flowers. Looking at them might bring a smile to your face and give you a “sunny” disposition – particularly if you are already enjoying a beautiful day at Padre Island National Seashore during the spring. According to wildflower.org, “Incas believed that sunflowers were the physical manifestation of the Sun God on Earth.”

Narrow-leaved yucca, Canyonlands National Park / NPS-Neal Herbert

Here’s an interesting bit of NPS.gov wildflower trivia for Canyonlands National Park : “The yucca and the yucca moth have a fascinating nighttime association. After mating, the female moth gathers pollen from one yucca flower, packs it into a ball, and then flies into the night, locating other yucca flowers primarily by “smelling” with her antenna. She visits several flowers, each time laying some eggs in the base of the pistil and packing some of the pollen from her pollen ball down the pistil for her young to feed on. Thus, she fertilizes the yucca flowers. Yucca flowers are only pollinated by yucca moths, and yucca moth young only feed on yucca pollen.”

Quiz Answers

1a

“The flowers of cactus species vary in size and color but are actually quite similar in structure. Many species have huge, eye-catching blossoms ranging in color from sunny yellow and flamboyant red-orange to rich magenta. They all have an outer ring of showy tepals (combined sepals and petals), a mass of numerous pollen-producing stamens, and a single pistil in the center. Once pollinated, the pistil grows to become the cactus fruit. The fleshy fruits are called "tunas" on prickly pears …” To read more about cacti, click here.

Skunk cabbage, Mount Rainier National Park / National Park Service

2b

“Generally the first plant to bloom in spring, the bright yellow "flower" of the skunk cabbage (Lysichiton americanus) is actually a modified bract, or leaf. The true flowers form a dense yellow-green spike that gives off a distinctive skunk-like smell. The glossy green basal leaves can grow to be up to 5 feet (1.5 m) long. Very common and easy to spot emerging from wet swampy ground throughout the park.” To learn more about Mount Rainier wildflowers, click here.

3a

Ok, you might have thought the answer would be spring perennials, and, I suppose these wildflowers are perennials since they grow back every year. But, according to the NPS.gov website for Great Smoky Mountains National Park, this group of wildflowers goes not by the name spring perennials, but rather “spring ephemerals ... Ephemerals are so named because they appear above ground only in late winter and early spring, then flower, fruit, and die back within a short two-month period. They emerge from February through April, and are gone (dormant) by May or June.” To read more about Great Smoky Mountains National Park wildflowers, as well as trees and shrubs that bloom in the park, click here.

4c

The Wildflower Pilgrimage has been around for the past 70 years. To learn more about this event and to register for the 71st Wildflower Pilgrimage, which will be virtual due to Covid-19, click here.

5d

The Castilleja (paintbrush) wildflower is hemiparasitic, part of a family of herbs and shrubs with the scientific name Orobanchaceae. They have chlorophyll, so they don’t derive all of their nutrition from the host plant. This is why you will usually see paintbrush growing near other plants and wildflowers.

6a True for both

Beargrass is not a grass and bears do not particularly like it. “The plant [beargrass] is native to Montana, but can also be found in subalpine meadows and coastal mountains throughout the Pacific Northwest, extending from British Columbia to northern California and eastward to Alberta and northwestern Wyoming. Beargrass can grow up to five feet in height with long and wiry, grass-like basal leaves at the base of the stalk and a cluster of small, dense white flowers at the top. Bears do not eat the plant, but they will use leaves as denning material. Sheep, deer, elk, and goats are known to eat beargrass.” To read more about Glacier’s iconic wildflower, click here.

Desert willow along Indian Cove Nature Trail, Joshua Tree National Park / NPS-Hannah Schwalbe

7b True

Desert willow is related to catalpa trees and in the family Bignoniaceae whereas true willows are in the family Salicaceae. 

8a

“Root foods and fish were the primary staples of the traditional Nez Perce diet. The “root foods” include all plants (usually hehen, “soft” herbaceous plants) with underground parts used for food: roots, bulbs, tubers, corms, and rhizomes. Nez Perce people enjoyed a great diversity of root food plants.” To learn more about these root food plants, click here.

9c

“Death Valley is famous for its spectacular, spring wildflower displays, but those are the exception, not the rule. Only under perfect conditions does the desert fill with a sea of gold, purple, pink or white flowers. These tend to average once a decade, with the most recent superbloom years being 2016 and 2005. Although there are years where blossoms are few, they are never totally absent.” To learn more about wildflower seasons and what it takes for a good bloom in this national park, click here.

Purple-fringed orchid, Catoctin Mountain Park / National Park Service

10c

“The purple-fringed orchid is rarely seen in the park and it appears that their population is declining, perhaps due to over browsing by deer and lack of suitable habitat. Special measures have been taken to prevent the loss of this unique orchid. Wire cages are placed around individual plants to protect them from deer. The Resource Management staff at Catoctin also performs yearly surveys to monitor these rare, beautiful orchids and preserve their existence. Unfortunately, other orchids haven't been as successful, such as the lady slipper orchid that was commonly found at Catoctin, but has since disappeared.” To learn more about some of the wildflowers as well as prime wildflower viewing areas within this park, click here.

References

In addition to material taken from the NPS.gov sites for these national parks, I also used the following for help:

https://www.lonelyplanet.com/articles/best-national-parks-for-wildflowers-usa

https://www.wildflower.org/learn/wildflower-facts

https://oleaeuropea.wordpress.com/2011/07/27/indian-paintbrush-a-pretty-parasite/