Texas State Flower: Bluebonnet

Adopted {Bluebonnet (Lupinus texensis) and any other variety of bluebonnet} on March 8, 1971.
Adopted {Bluebonnet (Lupinus subcarnosus)} on March 7, 1901.

Scientifically named Lupinus texensis, the bluebonnet is also called buffalo clover, wolf flower, and (by the Mexicans) el conejo. Bluebonnets have long been a favorite of Texans. Historian Jack Maguire refers to Texas' state flower as "an institution, almost as well known to outsiders as cowboy boots and the Stetson hat." On March 7, 1901, the Texas House of Representatives adopted the bluebonnet, originally Lupinus subcarnosus, as the official state flower. Imagine if one of the other ideas - the open cotton boll ("the white flower of commerce") or the flowering prickly pear, for instance - had won the nomination. The Society of Colonial Dames of Texas vigorously lobbied for the obvious choice. This only began the long list of official bluebonnet designations.

Since this flower has look-alike "cousins," the state legislature, in 1971, named all lupine species as the official state flower. On March 8, 1971, Texas Legislators decided that the official Texas flower should not exclude the showier and more prolific Lupinus texensis. Just to make sure, the new state flower resolution included "any other variety of bluebonnet not heretofore recorded." This means that the six species of bluebonnets native to Texas are considered the state flower. It seems fitting that Texas also has six flags in its history.

One of the most beloved wildflower advocates made her voice heard when her husband, Lyndon B. Johnson, became president in 1963. Lady Bird Johnson, just two years later, along with Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall, a group of philanthropists, designers, publishers, other officials and civic leaders formed the Committee for a More Beautiful Capital. This was Lady Bird Johnson's first contribution to the "Keep America Beautiful" campaign. On her 70th birthday, December 1982, Lady Bird celebrated by donating 60 acres of land on the Colorado River near Austin and the funding needed to found the National Wildflower Research Center. Now called the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, she stated the goal of the center is "to educate people about the environmental necessity, economic values and natural beauty of native plants."

In west Texas, the tall Big Bend bluebonnet grows up to three feet high . The shorter, more common Texas Bluebonnet, grows east of a line going from northeast to southwest Texas. It reaches a height of 15 to 24 inches, and blooms from early March to early May. Named for its color and, it is said, the resemblance of its petal to a woman's sunbonnet, the bluebonnet is the state flower of Texas. It blooms in the early spring and can be readily found in fields and along the roadsides throughout central and south Texas. After it rains, look for a drop of water in each bonnet or bowl-like petal. As the Texas bluebonnet flower ages, one of the top petals turns purple-red.

Blooms March through May.

This flower is part of the Legume family.