Walking in Forbidden Woods

Down the road from us, there is a wooded area that we have driven by for more than fifty years.  Every spring I would try to see what was growing there, but wildflower identification at traffic speed is not among my talents.  The woods are on a curve, the shoulder is pretty much non-existent and the land is posted so we have never stopped.  We wondered if the landowner's described blue arbutus  might still be growing there. This spring we got permission from the landowner to walk in his woods.  We saw what my Mom always called Princess pine and Canada Mayflower but we found no arbutus of any color.

Partridgeberry seemed very happy there.  Close to home this native wildflower is rather common.  We still delight when we see its single red berry formed by two tiny white blossoms.  It continues to grow across a path in our woods that Ed frequently walks.  We have even seen it growing up an old decaying stump.

This Canada Mayflower is almost ready to open its tiny white flowers.  This plant is the source of most of the green seen from the road.

Starflower was the second most prevalent plant here.  It has beautiful  white star shaped flowers when its buds open.

Being a purple loving person I was delighted to find this lovely violet. In this woods it is a rare jewel.

I took a picture of both the flower and leaf in case I want to make a better identification later.  We had certain expectations about what we would find in these woods. We were surprised that there were no trout lilies.  They literally cover the ground at home.  It  seemed strange not to find them here.  It was fun to wander in the forbidden woods! Thanks to our neighbors for letting us do that.  We did discover that we have all of the wildflowers that grow there at home.  I guess we thought they had something we did not. Now we know the truth!