Wildflowers

However beautiful a tree or a shrub may be, so is its flower. Its purpose is to reproduce and form new plants: various kinds of insects and birds pollinate them, and the wind scatters their seeds.

The flowers are arranged alphabetically in the catalogue that follows, and each one carries the name of the family it belongs to.

The families

• Amaryllidaceae. Herbaceous plants with a bulb.
• Aristolochiaceae. Herbs and woody plants, often climbers.
• Asphodelaceae. Plants with fleshy flowers; their colourful blooms are pollinated by birds and insects.
• Asparagaceae. Trees, shrubs, herbs or rosette-forming plants.
• Asteraceae. Also called composites. Plants or shrubs with leaves in a basal rosette, opposite or alternate. The flowers are small, and it is one of the largest and most varied plant families: it includes edible plants (lettuce, endive), medicinal ones (camomile, arnica) and others used in gardening.
• Boraginaceae. Mostly herbaceous plants; they are usually covered in stiff, prickly hairs and have five membranes folded inwards, like the fingers of a glove.
• Caprifoliaceae. Generally shrubs or small trees, often lianas; rarely herbs.
• Caryophyllaceae. Herbaceous, with upright or hanging stems; they have swollen nodes and simple, entire leaves.
• Cistaceae. Herbs or shrubs, perennial and also annual, with compound and sometimes simple leaves. Their flowers, in cymes or clusters, are regular and hermaphrodite.
• Convolvulaceae. The family of the bellflowers or morning glories, and of the bindweeds. Most are climbing plants.
• Euphorbiaceae. One of the most variable families, found throughout the world.
• Fabaceae. Brings together trees, shrubs and herbs, perennial or annual.
• Gentianaceae. Herbaceous plants, annual and perennial, and some shrubs, often with rhizomes. Leaves generally opposite, without stipules. Flowers bisexual, regular, arranged in cymes.
• Geraniaceae. Herbaceous or shrubby. Some species may be aromatic.
• Iridaceae. Mostly herbaceous plants, usually with rhizomes and organs such as bulbs and corms. Bisexual flowers.
• Liliaceae. Perennial plants. They are notable for their great variety of forms, sometimes herbaceous with bulbs or rhizomes.
• Plantaginaceae. Known for its ornamental species.
• Primulaceae. Perennial plants that form a rosette of leaves at the end of winter and flower when the fine weather arrives in spring.
• Ranunculaceae. Herbaceous plants with much-branched, sometimes twining stems.
• Rosaceae. Generally perennial plants, from herbs to trees. Alternate leaves.
• Umbelliferae. A family of dicotyledons with grooved, hollow stems, leaves with sheathing stalks and flowers without sepals, arranged in umbels. Carrot, celery and parsley belong to the umbellifers.