Two Quick Spring Walks in the Home Woods

Two Quick Spring Walks in the Home Woods

April 12 and 19, 2018

April 12 - Sweeps of Spring Beauty and Cut-Leaved Toothwort

April 19 - Sweeps of Prairie Trillium, with Cut-Leaved Toothwort

I cannot say I have gotten inside of my Home Woods very much during early spring, but I did take some quick forays to see what was going on during that rapidly changing season.

I did experience the joy of falling asleep to the crickety choir of Chorus Frogs from the woods' bottom and the deep, soft hoots of a Great-Horned Owl emanating from the other side of the woods. I also awoke to the Chorus Frogs and the wild, jubilant racket of bird songs, territorial calls, and the rapping of woodpeckers on trees, as the sun climbed over the horizon.

Springtime weather in Indiana is often full of rapid fluctuations, but perhaps none so much as this year. Weather from day-to-day shifted suddenly, and frequently, from deep cold, to soil-warming heat, from bright greens to snow cover and back to green, and sometimes we were just having short respites between downpours and flooding.

Despite it all, the progress of early spring wildflowers and other wildlife marched on, albeit later than usual. Both plant and animal life switched back and forth between coming out of hiding to roam the woods and waters, opening to the sun, to pulling back into snug places and closing up petals for protection.

The following are two short wanderings I made in the Home Woods, just seven days apart – but there can be a great deal of difference in seven days during an Indiana spring. Also, each walk was in a different area of the woodland.

The April 12 walk was at the “front” section – that is, the area starting below the road, from where the Creek enters our property, to the south- and southeast-facing slopes above.

The first section of Creek on our property - the green is all Asian Bush Honeysuckle, which was subsequently removed

These sunny slopes are the ones that become the most densely covered in early spring with Harbinger-of-Spring (the earliest wildflower to bloom) and is generally the area of the first blooming of this flower, in February and March.

By April 12, the leaves of Harbinger-of-Spring were taking the spotlight while tiny flower petals had fallen and fruits were starting to form.

Some trees and shrubs were just beginning to sprout leaves – most just tiny things peeking out of bud casings. Some were a little farther along, leaves just beginning to foreshadow their adult forms.

Young leaves of the Hackberry tree

Some other plants were still in their glory of bloom, and yet others were still in bud.

Small-Flowered Buttercup

Cut-leaved Toothwort

Some broader leaves of Cut-leaved Toothwort (not to be mistaken for a similar looking plant), and a Sycamore seed ball below

Prairie Trillium

Wood Poppy in bud

Toadshade Trillium were up and blooming! I had planted the starts last year that were from friend Mike (but did not get a photo of them this time.)

Other plants were unfolding their leaves to the sun.

Sweet Cicely

The beginning of Smooth Solomon's Seal

The variety of leaf shapes of Tall White Lettuce  - more colorful names are Lion's Foot and Rattlesnake Root, the latter for its historic use as an antidote to snakebite

There were some as-yet-mystery plants …

Something in the Mustard family? Or, another of the wild lettuces?

There are some plants that, year after year, I don't remember before they get their blooms.

… and some surprises!

Bloodroot in bloom (my favorite spring bloom)! Where I did not recall seeing it before! Plus, I thought I had missed the blooms!

A pair of Quadrilliums! Does this mean good luck, like finding a four-leaved clover?

There were also some plants past bloom, with developing seed pods.

An earlier blooming Bloodroot with developing fruit at the top of the stalk

I also saw … a Red Admiral Butterfly!

Alas, it was time to leave the woods and return to awaiting responsibilities and commitments. Otherwise, I could stay in the woods all day.

Deer trail winding through the trees and wildflowers, from the "front" part of the woods on toward the opposite end

Deer trail crossing the Creek near the north side of the woods

My April 19 wanderings took me straight down into the middle of the woods' bottom (well northwest of my April 12 walk) and into hills and valleys further north and northwest, then back down and back up to where I started.

Appendaged Waterleaf plants blanketing the northeast-facing slope down to the woods' bottom

This time I saw that signs of animal activity had increased. But, I heard no frogs of any kind that day (they had become quiet on cooler days and resumed calling during their infrequent windows of opportunity.)

White-tailed Deer tracks at the edge of the Creek

Raccoon tracks at the edge of the Creek

A Crawdad chimney over its burrow

Woodpecker holes (likely made by Pileated Woodpeckers) in an old log

An older log, turning to soil - mammals have been aiding the process by rummaging the rotten wood for delectable little critters

Whitetail Deer find the Prairie Trillium plants delectable

Skull and lower jawbone, I think of a Raccoon, seen on this day but also earlier in the year. On that earlier walk I had also found, not far from this spot, a thigh bone standing up on a rotten log, full of teeth marks from end to end.

With Bloodroot plants all gone to fruit, Spring Beauty and Toothwort were still in bloom, though partly going to fruit.

Bloodroot

Unopened blossoms of Spring Beauty, springing from decayed wood

Spring Beauty with wider leaves, at the base of a tree

Cut-leaved Toothwort in bloom, but flowers closed against the coolness

There were more Prairie Trillium in bloom this time.

Two entwined Prairie Trillium, one in bloom, one in bud

And there were more plants blooming that were either just starting or that I hadn't noticed before …

Virginia Bluebells

Common Blue Violet

Tiny white flowers of Wild Chervil

Fuzzy photo of a Dwarf Larkspur just starting to bloom - there will be many more for me to take clear photos.

A Sedge with its very tiny blooms

… and Mayapples were in bud.

Other plants were opening up branches, stalks and leaves to the sun and spring air, blooms in their future.

Honewort

The sticky, trailing Cleavers against a Mayapple

The Smooth Solomon's Seal growing and telescoping out further

Sweet Cicely, with a scent and flavor like Anise

The beginning of Virginia Knotweed, a.k.a. Jumpseed

Jewelweed, with a full set of "true leaves" and another set on the way

Fronds of Fragile Fern had grown taller and wider, spreading to cover parts of slopes.

Trees and shrubs were advancing, some with leaves making more of an appearance than they did seven days previous. Some were blooming or dropping spent bloom parts.

The outer covering of a tree bloom, discarded on the forest floor

Boxelder leaves about to open (photo above) and leaves emerging on a much smaller Boxelder sapling (right)

Elderberry leaves emerging from the base of last year's shrub

A mystery shrub or sapling - I did not recall seeing this before in my woods and hoped it would not turn out to be an another invasive plant

As always, unfortunately, invasive plants were making themselves evident, also flourishing in the spring conditions.

A very young Asian Bush Honeysuckle. Don't be fooled - they grow very fast! They have shallow roots and at this stage they are easy to pull up. These shrubs have allelopathic qualities - they prevent other plants from flourishing around them. If we let them go, they would fill in the woodland, robbing space, nutrients and sunlight from herbaceous plants and preventing tree saplings from establishing.

Garlic Mustard, with flower buds in the center. If left to grow, the stalk would quickly shoot up, bloom, and go to seed, sending thousands of seeds into the ecosystem. The resulting plants would eventually take up the whole woodland floor. These also have allelopathic qualities, further enabling them to take over. They must be pulled up by the roots (but, they also make good pesto after you pull them.)

I pulled these out after taking the photos. During late winter and ongoing in early spring, Richard and I had been working hard to control these two types of plants as well as some other species of invasive plants in our woods. This job will never end, but we want to get the problem to a more easily controllable level and to create space for tree saplings, native shrubs, ferns and wildflowers to flourish.

In springtime, even short forays into the woods rewards one with beauty and bounty. Onward marched springtime. From here on out it would be harder to keep up with all of the rapid changes, but it would be a joyful experience just the same.

Turkey Tail fungi - beautiful, and medicinal

Bloodroot posing by a log