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.
