Texas Bluebonnets, Every Last One of Them

While we were living in Colorado, my wife and I thought we might be able to make it down to Texas for the Bluebonnets in March. After all, we were in the neighborhood, weren't we?

As it turned out, no, we weren't. Sure, we were in the general vicinity, but we were still a thousand miles away.

We did consider a long weekend, driving day and night to get down there for the blue bonanza, and by all accounts it was turning into one of the best blue bonanzas in years. But as we mulled over this possible road trip, we took a job on the coast of Washington, which meant we had a much longer and costlier road trip ahead of us. That put the ol' k-bosh on a trip to Texas. The Texas Bluebonnets would have to wait.

To make up for it on a much smaller scale, my wife found a blooming Texas Bluebonnet for sale at a local nursery. She brought that home, and we made do...

So what's the big deal anyway? Why would we consider a college-kid road trip for some wildflowers? Well, Texas Bluebonnets are a lupine; a lupine that covers hundred to thousands of acres in a shag carpet of blue. And anyone whom has been reading my articles, even if they are only paying attention part of the time, knows I have a nearly obsessive fondness for lupines, particularly when they grow in such staggering abundance.

In addition to being a lupine, the Texas Bluebonnet is the state wildflower of Texas. The interesting thing about it is the moniker does not apply to a single species. That is to say any lupine species native to the Lone Star State is considered a Texas Bluebonnet.

How that happened goes back more than 100 years.

In 1901 Buffalo Clover, or Bluebonnet (Lupinus subcarnosus) was passed into law as the official botanical emblem of Texas, and that was after debating the virtues of Cotton Boll and cactus as state wildflowers. There were no dissenting votes on the Bluebonnet. Not everyone was happy with the choice, however.

L. subcarnosus is a small lupine species; it spreads its blue glory across coastal and southern Texas. Those of a bigger-is-better frame of mind felt that L. texensis was a much better choice as state wildflower. It is a much showier species, and covers much more of the Texas landscape. The bigger-is-better folks were on to something.

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