Most of the hundred common spring wildflowers can be found throughout the Washington, D.C., area wherever
suitable habitats occur. By careful searching in a variety of habitats at the proper times you
should be able to locate all 100 wildflowers in nearby places in the course of a single spring
season. Visit stream banks, rock outcrops, bottomland woods, moist and dry upland woods,
lawns, fields, roadsides, and marshy places.
Some of the best places in nearby Maryland and, indeed, the whole area are along the C&O
Canal and Towpath. Almost anywhere along the Towpath where the terrain varies is likely to
yield rich rewards. Perhaps the best stretch near Washington is from Great Falls Park, Maryland,
downriver to the Bear Island area, opposite Widewater on the Canal. This is the stretch traversed
by the Billy Goat Trail. At Great Falls Park, look for catchfly, moss-pink, and trailing-arbutus,
as well as the more common wildflowers. On Bear Island, not
really an island, look for harbinger-of-spring, twinleaf, wild columbine, smooth rock-cress, fringe-tree, hepatica, bastard-toadflax, and
golden ragwort.
In the District of Columbia, nearly all of the species can be found somewhere in Rock Creek
Park
. Many also can be found on Theodore Roosevelt Island.
Nearby Virginia has many good sites. Almost anywhere that you can gain access to the banks of
the Potomac River is likely to be rewarding. Several places are notable. At Ball's Bluff Regional Park, just east
of Leesburg, find twinleaf, Virginia bluebells, blue phlox, and many others. Turkey Run Park
(the picnic area between George Washington Parkway and the Potomac, not the Farm) provides
easy access to a diverse spring flora. Here you can find both Dutchman's-breeches and squirrel-corn, false mermaid, green-and-gold, lyre-leaved sage, squaw-root, wood-betony, and yellow
stargrass. Scott's Run Nature Preserve (formerly Dranesville District Park) has a good assortment, including such less common finds as
perfoliate bellwort, pennywort, and showy orchis. Riverbend Park to Great Falls Park rivals the
Great Falls to Bear Island area across the river in Maryland.
Stunning displays of Virginia bluebells and spring beauties can be seen in mid-April in Bull Run
Regional Park
in Virginia and along the Little Patuxent River (where it is crossed by the
Davidsonville Road, Rte. 424) near Crofton, Maryland. The localized wetland species, golden-club, also occurs at the latter site.
Most of the wildflowers on this list can be seen in Fern Valley at the National Arboretum,
where they have been planted in a natural setting. Here they tend to bloom a little earlier than in
their native habitats.
HAPPY BOTANIZING. Remember to leave the plants where you find them for others to
enjoy.