Going To Seed

Walking with Becky has always been a unique experience.  She is curious about what might be underfoot and her pace is beyond slow.  This new small Hepatica plant was her discovery today as I had simply moved on by without seeing it.  It is possible that a from seed new plant takes awhile to establish itself.  In our reading we frequently encounter the statement that seven years must pass for a new native plant from seed to produce a flower.  We have no way of knowing just how many years were needed to produce this next generation plant at this stage of its development.

A short distance away we again encountered this well established Hepatica plant.  Our earlier visits saw a huge mass of pure white flowers.  The forest floor beneath this beauty is now covered with cast off flower petals.  Seed production seems to be underway.  We have never taken the time to search for mature seeds as there is much to do tending our gardens.  Now we are more than content to take leisurely strolls and perhaps learn something new.  We will need to find this group of plants again as the seeds mature.  Up until now that Hepatica seeds even existed never crossed our minds.

 

Each species of plant follows its own schedule for reasons that remain unknown.  This Mayapple plant is just now sending up its plant parts.  We detected no movement while watching this plant but are certain that it will look different in short order.  This is a sight that we have never before seen in spite of the fact that our woods is home to an impressively large patch of these plants.

Just a short distance away we found this plant unfurling its leaves.  They will very soon be much larger.

Spring beauties have long captured our attention.  They grow in several different places in our forest.  We would like to include them in our native plant garden but their growth habit has to date prevented that.  From what we have read, this plant grows from a pea sized bulb that is located a considerable distance from a flower.  As its growth season is drawing to a close, one must follow the now dying just below the soil surface long stem from the flower to its location.  We have never tried to do that.  It is possible that this appearance on the side of a moss covered stone is all one plant.  There is no indication as to which end is the beginning of the plant.  It seems that a great deal of destruction would be required to locate a small root mass.  So we visit Irma's woods where several huge stones are home to extensive groups of this plant.  Beautiful to see but impossible to own.