Spring Wildflower Parade
April 2017
Spring Beauty, Larkspur, Trillium at Ouabache Trails Park on April 7
One of the things everyone
loves about springtime is flowers. Whether in gardens or the wild, it
always seems to be a parade of blooms through the season.
In the woodland, the
Harbinger-of-Spring (Erigenia bulbosa) heralds the season and seems
to be the first domino that sets off a cascade of blooming spring
ephemerals. After the canopy fills in with tree leaves, the woodland
flower parade slows down considerably, just as a new cascade of
blooming starts up in the sunny areas.
I am not going to extend
my show here all the way back to the first Harbinger-of-Spring and
the other earliest blooms, because that would be an overwhelming task for an area so rich in spring wildflowers. I will focus only on April,
a transition month (these days), from various local areas.
We had a very mild winter
that included an early spring-like section of time in February (the
first Harbinger-of-Spring I saw in bloom was in January!) So, the
march of early spring blooms began extra early. It also progressed so
rapidly that I felt I was trying to grab a speeding cart to see what
was in it, and I missed seeing some of the earliest blooms.
By late March some new
plants were just coming up as seedlings or small plants. Some were
fading - like, of course, Harbinger-of-Spring, its tiny salt-and-pepper flowers dropped - it had gone to seed
and developed yellowed leaves.
Some spring flowers were in bud. A few
were even just starting to bloom.
Some of the earliest, like
Spring Beauty (Claytonia virginica) and Cut-leaved Toothwort
(Cardamine concatenata, formerly Dentaria laciniata) were still blooming through April, even at the
same time they were developing seed pods on the same plant.
Spring Beauty on April 5
Cut-leaved Toothwort on April 5
April 26 - in seed
One of the earliest
bloomers, False Rue Anemone (Isopyrum biternatum,) is a long-bloomer and was mostly in seed by late April, but a few straggling blooms
could be found.
Dutchman's Breeches (Dicentra cucullaria) was gone by the latter part of April.
Spring Cress
(Cardamine bulbosa,) another early but long-bloomer, here with both
flowers and developing seed pods on April 7.
White Trout Lily (Erythronium albidum) in early April. Yellow Trout
Lily (Erythronium americanum) had bloomed a little earlier – one of
the blooms I missed – and was developing seed pods by this time.
Another
exquisitely beautiful early bloom I missed was Sharp-Lobed Hepatica
(Hepatica acutiloba.)
Wild
Chervil (Chaerophyllum procumbens) with its minute blooms, was still
blooming later in the month.
Smooth Rock Cress (Arabis
laevigata,) an early bloomer, was starting to develop seed pods in
early April. By late April the plant was completely graced with the
long, sickle-shaped pods.
April 7
April 26
Bloodroot (Sanguinaria
canadensis) is the ephemeral of ephemerals. Its exquisite creamy
white flowers appeared very early with a leaf wrapped around the stem.
Wind or rain can knock the petals off easily. By April this year a
green seed pod was already held above the fully opened leaf, then the
leaves soon obscured the pod.
Wild Ginger's (Asarum canadense) flower is practically hidden on top of the soil between the two fuzzy leaves.
In bud on April 7
Some Wild Ginger in bloom on April 7
The
fading flower of Wild Ginger in late April.
Cleavers (Galium aparine)
in bloom in mid-April, and with green seeds later in the month.
In March, Mayapples
(Podophyllum peltatum) had started to push through the leaf litter
and then unfurl their umbrellas, covering sections of forest
floor and giving hope to morel mushroom-hunters that it would soon be
time to look for those delicacies. By early April the Mayflowers were
in bud …
Home woods, April 5
… and by mid-April they
were in bloom.
April 10 - Home woods: Spring Beauty, Appendaged Waterleaf and Mayapples at the bottom of a slope.
By the end of April some
had developed little green “apples” that would later turn yellow.
It is always fun to watch
the Trilliums rise up and bloom - another spring plant that can cover
swathes of woodland. And, they are so photogenic!
April 10 - Home woods: Different stages of Prairie Trillium (Trillium recurvatum,) from
first year plants (one leaf) on up.
Home woods - Prairie
Trillium in bud and bloom on April 5. The species name “recurvatum” refers to the
sepals, which curve down below the leaves when fully opened.
Two
pale-flowered Prairie Trillium
April 6 - Ouabache Trails Park: Toadshade
Trillium (Trillium sessile) in bloom. Unlike Prairie Trillium, the
sepals remain on top of the leaves. Also, the leaves are sessile, or
fully attached, to the leaves, instead of having leaf stalks.
Ouabache Trails Park - Drooping
Trillium (Trillium flexipes,) late in April, but also seen in bloom a
little earlier in the month.
The same is true for
Jack-in-the-Pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum.)
April 5 in the home woods - young and emerging plants
Unfurled plants and the new bloom
April 21 - Home woods: Though many Jack-in-the-Pulpit spathes (the modified hood-like leaf
over the flowering spadix) are green, some sport deep maroon stripes
or brushes of maroon.
A couple
of Jacks.
Some Jack-in-the-Pulpit
spathes were fading and dropping to the ground in early May, just
before the spadix started to swell with early green fruit that would
turn crimson by autumn.
Some more spring blooms:
Dwarf Larkspur (Delphinium
tricorne)
April 6 - Ouabache Trails Park
In both bud and bloom on April 7
Swathes of Dwarf Larkspur - early April in Ouabache Trails Park
Blooms
were beginning to fade in late April.
Wild Blue Phlox (Phlox
divaricata)
Fresh, sweet-smelling blooms of early April in the home woods
With
Spring Beauty, Dwarf Larkspur, and Wild Ginger in early April, Ouabache Trails Park
Some still in bud in early April
Wild Blue Phlox was still
blooming at the end of the month.
Common Blue Violet (Viola
sororis)
Home woods, April 5
Though more sparse in the woodland, Common Blue
Violet was densely decorating my yard and gardens in mid-April. This
called for the making of Blue Violet jelly.
Teatime at Hidden Yurt Homestead with Patti
I did make sure to leave
plenty for the butterflies.
Very few were in bloom
later in the month.
Yellow Violet (Viola
pubescens)
Early April, Ouabache Trails Park
Mid-April - Home woods
Cream Violet (Viola
striata) started blooming earlier in the month and was still fully
blooming in mid-May.
Smooth Solomon's Seal
(Polygonatum biflorum) was just emerging in early April, then bearing
flower buds by early May.
April 5 - just showing up
April 7 - reaching up
April 21 - Home woods
False (Starry) Solomon's
Seal (Smilacina racemosa) was barely starting to bloom by the end of
the month.
April 21 - Home woods – in bud
Appendaged Waterleaf
(Hydrophyllum appendiculatum) had emerged by early April and had
swollen flower bud clusters b mid month. I found it blooming by late
April.
Home woods - early
leaves of Appendaged Waterleaf are sometimes are more vividly
“watermarked” than later leaves, and more deeply lobed.
April 7 - Ouabache Trails Park
April 19 - Home woods - in bud
April 26 at Ouabache Trails Park - blooming in
a sunnier wetland – the ones on the shaded slopes of my home woods
were still in bud
A related and very similar
flower: Fernleaf Phacelia (Phacelia bipinnatifida)
April 9 - Ouabache Trails Park
Blue-Eyed Mary (Collinsia
verna)
April 9 - Ouabache Trails Park
Small-Flowered Buttercup
(Ranunculus abortivus) - blooming in early April.
Later, some were going to
seed.
Wood Poppy (Stylophorum
diphyllum)
April 15 - Home woods
Sweet Cicely (Osmorhiza
claytonii,) with its licorice-scented leaves, was blooming throughout
April, then in seed in early May.
Butterweed (Senecio
glabellus) takes over fallow farm fields in early spring, but is seen
more sparsely in open, sunny spots of woodlands.
April 19 - home woods
April 19 - Patti's woods: Bright
yellow Butterweed stands out among other plants near a natural
spring.
Wild Geranium (Geranium
maculatum) provided splashes of pretty pink in the spring woodland
but had faded and gone to seed by late April.
Home woods - April 5
Another surprise splash of
color to find was the Violet Wood Sorrel (Oxalis violacea,) its
leaves making a bright-tasting trail snack.
April 19 - Patti's woods: Violet Wood Sorrel in the foreground, with Broad Beech ferns behind it.
The striking arrangement
of Wild Stonecrop (Sedum ternatum) flowers against dark, succulent
leaves appeared on slopes and overhangs.
April 26 - Ouabache Trails Park
The bell-shaped flowers of
the Bladdernut shrub (Staphylea trifolia) appeared briefly in late April, to be followed
by swollen green seed capsules in early May.
Paw-paw trees (Asimina
triloba) had deep maroon blooms drooping from its branches in
mid-April.
I am always amazed when I
come upon the blooms of White Baneberry (Actaea pachypoda.) Later,
these will turn to fruit resembling doll's eyes, its other common
name.
April 26 - Ouabache Trails Park
Another pleasant surprise
for me is to again see the Mitrewort (Mitella diphylla) in bloom –
the tiny flowers resemble snowflakes. Its other common name is
Bishop's Cap, because that is what the seed pods of May will
resemble. I love the look of a collection of Mitrewort gracing a
spit of ground.
April 26 - Ouabache Trails Park
Philadelphia Fleabane
(Erigeron philadelphicus) was showing up in sunny spots in early
April. Its stems had stretched taller by late in the month.
April 9
April 26
Also in sunny spots late
in the month, but only in the wetland, Pink Valerian (Valeriana
pauciflora was opening its inflorescence of pink fireworks.
April 26 - Ouabache Trails Park
This was, by no means, all
of the spring blooms I saw at three local areas (my home woods, my
friend Patti's woods, and Ouabache Trails Park.) By the end of
April there were more plants in bud as well as some just emerging,
and some more gaining height before later blooms. Add to this the
many types of flowering catkins dropped by the trees overhead (many
knocked down by wind and rain) and the various trees, shrubs and
vines yet to bloom.
Pink Valerian was one of
the earliest blooms in the more open, sunny areas, particularly in
the wetland. Many of the wetland plants would be blooming in early to
late summer (Jewelweed, Pokeweed, Common Boneset, Late Figwort,
Honewort, Wood Nettles, Monkeyflower, Water Plantain – to name a
very few.)
And the unusual, elegant
Green Dragon (Arisaema dracontium) would send up its long, skinny,
spathe and spadix in May.
April 21 - Home woods
The parade will go on, and
I do hope I will be able to keep up with it all!
Home woods: Dwarf
Larkspur, Mayapples and Prairie Trillium in the home woods in
mid-April.
