It’s wildflower season in Houston!

By Navdeep Khatri

Pack a snack, some water, a bottle of sunscreen, and hit the bike paths to see how many flowers you can identify. Or, join Houston BCycle and Buffalo Bayou Partnership on April 30 for What’s Growing On? a nature-focused bike tour.

Whether you’re riding alone or with friends, you’re bound to see some of Houston’s native trees, plants, and flowers on the city’s most popular bike routes.

Add this floral guide to your phone to help identify all the pictures you take.

Flowers

Purple coneflowers have stems tapering into iridescent cones, usually 2 to 5-feet tall. These deciduous evergreens are butterfly magnets blooming in spring, summer, and fall.

Black-eyed Susan is a perennial with golden yellow petals and black centers. You’ll find bunches of these blooms throughout Houston gardens; they thrive in direct sunlight during summer and fall. Flower heads grow up to 5 inches across.

Texas lantana are clusters of blooms in yellow to orange growing on small shrubs. They thrive in full to partial sun, well-draining soil, and are drought and salt tolerant. Birds enjoy snacking on lantana’s black seeds, and you may see butterflies sipping on the nectar.

Autumn sage blooms from late spring until a hard frost. These drought-hardy perennials grow about 3 feet tall and wide, and their red flowers have small green leaves.

Shrubs​

Red Turk’s cap is a native of Texas and Mexico, growing 2 to 3 feet tall in full or partial shade. Bright red flowers (resembling hibiscus) have overlapping petals. Marble-sized fruits draw birds and wildlife. With similar blooms in white, these ornamentals are also known as Drummond wax-mallow, Texas mallow, Mexican apple, red mallow, and bleeding heart.

Camellia is a flowering evergreen shrub in two major species -- the japonicas and the sasanquas -- and you’ll find them both growing around the Houston area. Blooming between fall and spring, camellias have creamy white or pink flowers and sharp green foliage. These shrubs typically grow 10 to 25 feet tall and 6 to 10 feet wide.

Jasmine shrubs are evergreens growing throughout Houston. Stretching up to 7-feet tall, primrose jasmine develops long arching stems with bright yellow flowers that bloom in spring and winter.

Gardenia thrives in Texas’ warm climate and in many areas of the south. This evergreen shrub has fragrant white flowers -- jump off your bike to breathe in a bit of heaven! (But watch out for bees and butterflies, they love it too).

Agarita sports single yellow blooms in the spring and then red berries, both attractive to birds. The foliage resembles the sharp-edged grayish-green leaves of holly.

Flowering Trees​​

Sometimes called the “lilac of the South,” crape myrtle trees can grow more than 40 feet high and bloom in shades of red, pink, purple, lavender, and white. New crape myrtle cultivars are making their way to commercial landscapes and public gardens.

Southern magnolias are a must-see on any bike ride, and you’ll find a few varieties throughout Houston’s riding paths. Large glossy green foliage and scented white star-shaped flowers are hard to miss.

Hawthorns can grow up to 20 feet high and wide. With attractive peeling bark and luscious foliage, small flowering hawthorn trees draw birds and wildlife.

Chaste trees often have split trunks, growing up to 15 feet high. Bright purple flowers and scented leaves are waiting to be admired.

Texas olive trees grow 15-feet tall and wide, with large creamy white flowers blooming from spring to fall. You’ll find this multiple-trunk, evergreen to semi-deciduous tree in landscapes around Houston. Dark gray bark and deep green oval leaves attract birds to small fruits that look like -- but are not -- olives. 

Biking around Houston is fun, especially when you take time to enjoy the scenery. Stop and smell the flowers!

Navdeep Khatri is an avid cyclist and runner. He began his love of cycling and jogging as a college student when a bike and his feet were his sole means of transportation. Now, he and his wife share a car, but everyone in the family has their own bicycle.