Part of a four-stamp set showing mountain flora, each stamp features a different flower: a purple pasqueflower, an orange-red wood lily, a bright yellow alpine buttercup and a dark pink Woods’ rose. Shown here is a wood lily.

An important part of the natural world, wildflower habitats support species such as butterflies, bees, birds and foraging mammals. Wildflowers grow in varied environments, including bogs and swamps, forests and woodlands, alpine meadows, mountain slopes, coastal bluffs and even deserts. Some wildflowers are widely distributed across the United States, while others are specific to just a small area.

Wildflowers, like many garden flowers, can have several common names; they can even share common names with unrelated plants. Botanical names are also frequently in flux as scientists learn more about the characteristics of each plant and reclassify them.

Wood lily (Lilium philadelphicum) is a red or red-orange, summer-blooming flower. The native plant grows in many habitats, including mountain meadows in Western states and the grassland prairies of the Great Plains. It is rarer in the Eastern part of the country. The bulbs were once gathered for food by Native Americans.