Blooming among the Flint Hills
Wildflowers of Butler County, Kansas
What a great week to go out and snap some pictures of Kansas wildflowers. Heath and I decided on an impromptu date night and joined the Butler Conservation District for a wildflower walk.
Butler County, the largest county in Kansas and home to a part of the Flint Hills, is a great place to connect with the Kansas prairie. According to Flint Hills Discovery Center in Manhattan, Kansas - only 4% of the original prairie ecosystem survives. It’s considered a core county in this particular prairie. This map I found is pretty helpful in determining prairie areas. Home to the most intact tallgrass prairie in North America, these hills have a I discovered valuable background information on this area and a message of hope for the future on stewardship of these lands.
Just when you think everything could be yellow in this state (secret - it’s not!), the Flint Hills has hidden gems that will surprise you. Here’s a few I captured during our walk:
Butterfly weed. Butler County, Kansas - El Dorado State Park. Want to know how to get a print of this? Start here.
If you’re a local, you’ve most likely been to El Dorado State Park or lake. I’m going to share some quick links of interest that include other Flint Hills based experiences anyway:
Things to Do El Dorado State Park
Friends of the Flint Hills Facebook group
Flint Hills Things To Do - Parks and Nature
Butler County Conservation District of Kansas
Tallgrass Tours, Flint Hills Discovery
While I wasn’t expecting to have an informational focus on this blog post, I’m glad I did. I wanted to recognize, even if only parts of it, what an amazing area we have here. Side note, I did not catch all of the wildflower identifications, however, there is this fantastic database with all of the wildflowers and grasses. I just came out to take pictures of flowers. And yes, I’m the girl laying on the ground snapping a photo of flora and fauna.
Until next time,
Jess
