words fail me

I went for a three hour walk with a friend in some nearby woods that are famed for their wildflowers.

The stream in this bed was sometimes above ground, and sometimes below ground. A mystery for another day.

That green haze on the forest floor is a veritable carpet of flowers. Without further ado:


Dutchman’s breeches.

Squirrel corn.

In the above shot alone, there is dutchman’s breeches (lacy leaves at far left, and all over), squirrel corn (flowers at lower right), blue cohosh (tall stem on the left), trillium (self-evident, right?), wild ramp (fat narrow leaves), spring beauty (one eensy flower, right).
There was so much blue cohosh, I didn’t even bother to try to do it justice. The ones here were much further along than those at home, and I’ve found trying to capture cohosh is hard – the lightest, slightest breeze sets them to dancing.

But here’s a nice shot at a cool stage – the structure of the plant is opened up, but the leaves have yet to fully unfold.


The trillium were simply epic. A ton of them. And huge. Oh, and there’s trout lily in the background, and blue cohosh. Sick.

Gaaaaggghhhhh!

Jack-in-the-pulpit – these are the only ones we saw, perched on a rock ledge.

Weep-inducing Columbine.

Heart-stopping wild bleeding heart.

Crowfoot, a miniature early variety. As you can see, this is going to seed at a decent clip.

Trout lily up the wazoo. And a token spring beauty.

False ginseng.

Early saxifrage.

Miterwort.

Wild ginger’s freaky flower – I’ve always pegged this for a carnivore.

Red baneberry.

Multiple flavors of violet. You know you’re on system overload when you can’t even manage to take down enough detail to key out your violet species.
I was wearing chaco sandals, and after having done my 13 mile run yesterday, I’m not sure who got tired first: the soles of my feet, or my wonder-intake-capacity valve. I may need to eat an entire garlic pizza and soak up five episodes of “Eureka” just to recalibrate back to something approaching normal.