Thanks to heavy rains and warmer temperatures, Texas state parks are enjoying an early spring this year. Rolling waves of bright blue, deep red and rich yellow blanket Texas’ hills and plains in an impressive wildflower display.
Texas is blessed with more than 5,000 species of wildflowers, and this spring has seen a proliferation of wildflower populations. The state’s more than 90 Texas State Parks present some of the best and safest places to view and photograph nature’s bounty of wildflowers and blooming shrubs and trees.

For example, at Lyndon B. Johnson State Park and Historic Site, visitors have ample opportunity for wildflower viewing. With easy, accessible trails and no entrance fees, LBJ makes for an easy day trip from San Antonio or Austin.

“This year, we are seeing lots of visitors walking the trails, taking photos and just enjoying the wildflowers,” said LBJ Park Superintendent Iris Neffendorf. “Lady Bird Johnson often enjoyed the park nature trails during wildflower season.”

Neffendorf said LBJ has seen an abundance of Texas bluebonnets along the park trails, with a good mix of Indian paintbrush, evening primrose and wine cups.

In Central Texas state parks, visitors can expect to see bluebonnets, Engelmann daisies, beeblossoms, Carolina woollywhites, blue-eyed grass, Texas yellowstars, Dakota vervain, Drummond’s skullcaps, four-nerved daisies and plateau bladderpods.

From parks in south central Texas to the coast, a multicolored blanket of wildflower species has erupted. A checklist of colorful blooms on the landscape includes: light blue sandyland bluebonnets, Indian paintbrushes, green milkweed, winecups, longbract wild indigos, Texas vervains, sandhill woollywhites, blue-eyed grass, spider lilies, white pricklypoppies, spiderworts, prairie bluets, showy primroses, puccoons and coralbeans.

In East Texas parks, rampant Texas groundsels blanket sandy fields and post oak savannahs. Flowering eastern shrubs and trees include rusty blackhaw, redbuds, plums and hawthorns, which flourish in forest and pine savannahs.

Texas experienced an early spring this year, with some wildflowers sprouting up an entire month earlier than their average blooming period in a brilliant display of color. Texas Parks and Wildlife Department botanist Jason Singhurst attributes much of this year’s impressive wildflower population across Texas to ideal growing conditions.

“We had an unseasonably warm winter, which allowed soil temperatures to stay above average and encouraged spring wildflowers to bloom earlier than normal,” Singhurst said. “The late winter and spring rains stimulated a firestorm of wildflowers blooming across Texas.”

In addition to the dominant wildflower species Texans are accustomed to seeing, like bluebonnet and Indian paintbrush, Singhurst said there are plenty of other wildflowers – including purple paintbrush, Engelmann’s daisy, yellow stonecrop, fox glove, wild indigos and violets – creating some unique color landscapes in Texas.

“Most of the state has had a great spring wildflower response,” Singhurst said. “State parks and wildlife management areas, especially in the upper coast, Hill Country and north central Texas, have been extremely impressive.”

For other places to see wildflowers in Texas, check out the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin, which as of last week, reported Mexican gold poppy, Texas bluebonnets, buttercups, mimosa and Berlandier’s sundrops, among other species. For up-to-date reports on in-season Texas wildflowers, visit the center’s website. The Texas Department of Transportation also offers maps of wildflower sightings across the state.

In addition, the TPWD Pinterest page is regularly updated with wildflower sightings from several parks across the state, including Big Bend Ranch State Park, Franklin Mountains State Park, Brazos Bend State Park and Inks Lake State Park.

Park visitors can share their wildflower pictures—and see what’s blooming around the state—on the Texas Parks and Wildlife Instagram, Facebook and Twitter accounts (http://tpwd.texas.gov/socialmedia/). In addition, check out the TPWD Pinterest board for more pictures of wildflowers.

Recent sightings reported by TPWD staff in Texas State Parks include:

Bastrop State Park – Dewberries
Davis Mountains State Park – Yucca plants
Dinosaur Valley State Park – Mexican plum trees and bluebonnets
Eisenhower State Park – Blue false indigo
Estero Llano Grande State Park – Twisted rib cactus, coralbean and colorful retama trees
Franklin Mountains State Park – Orange poppies, purple lyreleaf jewelflower and feather dalea
Garner State Park – Pineapple cactus
Guadalupe River State Park — Bluebonnets
Hill Country State Natural Area – Texas honeysuckle, firewheel and blooming redbud trees
Lyndon B. Johnson State Park and Historic Site – Bluebonnets
Meridian State Park – Indian paintbrush and bluebonnets