Wildflowers and the Stories Behind Their Names

by Phyllis S. Busch, Anne Ophelia Dowden (Painter)

Describes more than sixty familiar American wildflowers and presents the stories behind their popular names.

Genres: Nonfiction, Nature

88 pages, Library Binding

First published September 1, 1977

Reviews

[Kartika]

This simply lovely book was gifted to me from my Mum from her collection. It’s informative and the paintings are nicely done.

[Megan]

I picked this up for free from my library's "give away" cart because I was going to use the beautiful illustrations for collaging. I ended up reading it instead and enjoyed it more than I expected! Not exactly a page turner and not too in depth... But for a free book from 45+ years ago that I hadn't planned to read, it exceeded my expectations.

[Maddy Kobs]

The author's purpose for writing the book was to describe to readers the origins of names of these wildflowers. I personally love word origins. I also loved the illustrations of the flowers. I learned a lot about flowers and weeds that grew in my backyard.

[Barb Anders]

sweet book explaining wildflowers and the way they were named, where you find them, and fun information about them. Bonus that the book had pictures, as many were familiar to me but I didn't know their names.

[Adam Barrett]

This is a beautiful little book. The illustrations are gorgeously and accurately done. It is fun to have some interesting anecdotal stories about common names. I especially liked the explanation of Plantain and how Native Americans called it White Man's Foot because it is a non native species and they could tell if areas had been disturbed by settlers. Also, the Day flower story about the Commlyn brothers with 2 being industrious and 1being a bit lazy, leading to the scientific name commelina to describe the 2 prominent petals and the lower inconspicuous one.

[Stephanie]

Details of about 50 common wildflowers and their names, as well as a few botanical details. The illustrations were so pretty

[Amber]

The illustrations are beautiful and the descriptions are far more interesting than a field guide.

[Sheri]

This is a simple book for children that presents a number of wildflowers accompanied by an illustration and an explanation of the origin of their name. Pretty straight forward and enjoyable if you are interested in the subject matter. It is most certainly a book for beginners. I imagine it would be nice to take the book with you while on a walk through the countryside to try to spot some of the flowers.

[Lilly]

Th overall purpose of this book is to inform people about wild flowers and their origins. Generally people tend to focus on the flowers they want in their garden. I learned a lot from this book about the functions of wild flowers.