First Visit To Irma's Woods

Somehow a trip across the valley to view native wildflowers in a totally natural setting seemed like a great way to start this day.  This hillside slopes to the south with no land forms blocking sunlight from warming the ground.  That results in the earliest known location of plants in bloom.  Coltsfoot is not a native plant but it was in widespread use as a medicinal plant in colonial days.  Its early appearance with flowers appearing before leaves earned it a place in this post.  Here it grows only in the ditch adjacent to the road.  Sometimes it is wildly invasive but here it is well behaved as were the students in Irma's classes.

These Spring beauty flowers are newly opened.  The bright pink pollen has never been seen by us before.  We suspect that by late afternoon today it will have completed its job and be gone.  It was a genuine thrill to see something for the very first time especially at our age.

  

This plant remains unidentified so far.  We recognize the Goldenrod emerging to its left but the bud cluster above three leaves will need to be seen again before identification can be made.  Many more visits will be made here.  If we can find it again after it has grown, identification may be possible.

Actually all that was needed for a proper identification was to let some time pass.  We are now certain that this plant is Toothwort or Crinkleroot.

We believe that Hepatica wins the race to be the first native plant to open flowers with Spring Beauty coming in a close second.  The pictured plant has leaves that end in a point and appears in several different forms.  These flowers have nine violet colored petals but both the number and color vary.  Our point and shoot camera does not accurately capture the color of he flowers.  It is much darker than seen here with solid  colored petals from their base to their tip.

These six petaled white flowers are also Sharp lobed hepatica.  Several maroon colored leaves can be seen below the flowers.  Hepatica frequently carries over leaves from last summer.  These leaves are functional supplying nutrition for both the flowers and the newly emerging leaves. 

 This sad looking plant has spent several years in our shade garden.  Two deer hoof prints can be seen too close to the heart of the plant.  These need to be carefully filled in and this plant would benefit from a covering cage.  Somehow welded wire cages detract from the natural look that we are trying for.