Now for the big "however." Though the point of this unexpectedly long treatise was to debunk a long-standing myth and to prove once and for all that you really can pick bluebonnets, I'm going to tell you something you may not be expecting:

Don't pick the bluebonnets.

Legal or not, it's just inconsiderate. Counties spend a great deal of money seeding Texas byways for everyone's enjoyment. They're not there just for you. Take all the pictures you want, but leave the little beauties for the rest of us.

Besides, as Tela Mange noted, "It's horribly bad manners to pick them, because bluebonnets are annuals; they have to reseed in order to come back next year." The fewer there are, the fewer there will be.

Plus, you can't assume that any land is public property, even along the highway. As TxDOT public information officer Wendy Hopper warned, widths vary for right-of-ways. "That's why we kind of hesitate to recommend that people, you know, pull over on the side of the road or in a field and go pick them, because that field may be private property. … And it's usually not marked."

But even when just taking pictures, you should still consider the safety issues. Mange advised that you should pull completely out of the right-hand lane onto the shoulder, as far from the highway as you can get. Pulling off needn't be prompted by an emergency, but be sure there are no signs saying you can't stop. And be wary of traffic; any one of those vehicles can decide to veer off the roadway and introduce itself to your torso at 70 miles per hour.

Then you'll be enjoying those bluebonnets through six feet of freshly dug earth.