Another myth busted!

Is it really illegal to pick bluebonnets?



"Rarely, if ever, will you see anyone plucking one of those bright blue flowers for their scrapbooks. Why? Well, right alongside those distinctive blossoms grows a curious weed — a familiar mantra that crops up every year, as it has for generations. "It's illegal to pick bluebonnets! It's the state flower!" Every Texan has heard it, and most will argue the point, some quite vehemently.

For much of my life, I too would recite the same bit of knowledge. It had been a part of my belief system since I first heard it from my friends back in the 2nd grade. But, you know, 7-year-olds don't make the most reliable reference tools. (If they did, I'd still believe swallowed chewing gum digests in your stomach for seven years.)

But is it true? Is it really illegal to pick bluebonnets?
"The answer is no," reads a press release from the Texas Department of Public Safety, the agency that encompasses the highway patrol and whose job it would be to enforce such legislation. "There is no law against picking our state flower."

The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) will give you the same answer. Bill Powell with the Public Information Office told Texas Twisted, "There is no legislation against picking wildflowers. It is, in fact, not illegal to pick wildflowers." And that includes bluebonnets. "It's an urban legend," he said."