Wyoming’s state flower is the Indian paintbrush, characterized by its bright tube-shaped flowers. It was adopted in 1917 after controversy and opposition from a botany professor who believed it was a poor choice.
Wyoming’s state flower is the Indian paintbrush, known in Latin as castilleja linariaefolia. It is characterized by its bright tube-shaped flowers that range in color from vivid orange to the deepest red. This flower gets its common name from its resemblance to a multi-pronged brush with fine bristles. The Indian paintbrush has a unique history as Wyoming’s state flower, and it really wasn’t adopted without some struggle and controversy among some of the state’s citizens in positions of influence.
Indian brush flowers have a structure that differs somewhat from other types of flowers. The outer petals are known as sepals and inside they enclose smaller, lighter colored flowers. The green leaves and stems, as well as the sepals, are also covered in a series of fine hairs that make up much of the Indian paintbrush’s namesake.
Although Wyoming officially became a state in 1890, Wyoming’s state flower was yet to be decided in 1916. State leaders first considered the Indian paintbrush after poll results showed the flower was the favorite among state school children. The Wyoming chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution has also endorsed the adoption of this plant among other possible choices for state flowers. Further support from academia soon garnered more attention from the Wyoming state legislature.
One of the most prominent proponents of Wyoming’s proposed state flower was a university political science professor named Dr. Grace Raymond Hebard, who was the first to draft and introduce a bill to measure the state flower’s passage into law. . Indian Paintbrush actually received the strongest opposition from one of Dr. Hebard’s colleagues at the University of Wyoming, a botany professor named Dr. Aven Nelson who believed the flower was a poor choice for several reasons. He argued that the Indian paintbrush grew too little throughout the state, had a good number of subspecies that were difficult for the average layperson to distinguish, and actually functioned as a parasitic flower that fed on the nutrients of other nearby trees and flowers.
Dr. Nelson believed that Wyoming’s state flower should be easily identifiable and could be easily planted in gardens. His arguments were eventually outvoted due to Dr. Hebard’s lobbying efforts. The Indian paintbrush became the state flower by law in 1917.
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