Which state flower gets your vote?

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Mark Emmons Photography

November 4, 2008

By Phil Beatty The McAlester News-Capital Tue Nov 04, 2008, 10:23 AM CST

From time to time I like to write about state flowers. In the past I’ve written about Texas, Tennessee, Wyoming, Massachusetts, South Carolina, and Connecticut. It’s time to look at Arizona, Alaska and Michigan.

The Arizona state flower is the blossom of the saguaro cactus which typically blooms in May and June.

There may be hundreds of flowers on a saguaro cactus that bloom just several at a time over a period of more than a month.

The saguaro flowers have a short life; they open at night and close permanently during the next day. Many of the blossoms will become pollinated and, later in the summer, the flowers become red-fleshed fruits that turn the state red. The Saguaro is a large, tree-sized cactus species that grows to old age and serves it state well in its conservative nature. It has a stately no non-sense look. The spines give it a strong defense which seems to strengthen with age.

The cactus can serve about anywhere in the state and has sometimes been labeled a “maverick”.

The Alaska state flower is the Alpine forget-me-not or Myosotis alpestris. It was chosen in 1949. The alpine forget-me-not is a perennial that grows 5 to 12 inches high in alpine meadows. Their conservative nature gives back many of its resources to the state. The flowers are very showy with a feminine appeal.

The sky blue flowers are a quarter to a third of an inch wide. They have a white inner ring and a yellow center which gives it an appearance of a rich wardrobe. It grows in Alaska’s Denali National Park with its attractive rugged but feminine appeal.

The Delaware state flower is the peach blossom or Prunus persica. When I think of peaches I think of Georgia but Delaware has its share. In fact, the state of Delaware encourages the planting of the state tree to spread the wealth of the peach tree. The peach tree is native to China but a horticulturist by the name of George Minifie supposedly brought the first peaches from England to the United States in the early seventeenth century, planting them on the east coast. The flowers are produced in early spring before the leaves.

They are solitary or paired, pink, with five petals. Peaches, along with cherries, plums and apricots, are known as stone fruits.

A little trivia is that peach trees are the second most commonly cultivated fruit trees in the world after apple trees and can be found in Washington, D.C. where they are only second to the cherry trees. Some say they are considered a Washington insider tree.

So there you have it, the Arizona saguaro cactus blossom and the Alaska Alpine forget-me-not. If you had to choose which one would it be?

Phil Beatty is a special correspondent for the McAlester News-Capital. Contact him at phil_beatty@yahoo.com.

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