Burning Cardinal Flower

Once again I have lifted the words of John Burroughs as the best possible description for the native treasure Cardinal Flower.  In an essay comparing our native flowers to those found in England, he used the three words in my title as a succinct complete description for this plant.  This picture may look familiar but this second shot was taken early in the morning while moisture from night fog still coated the leaves.  Ordinarily the stunning color of the flowers captures and holds the focus of the eyes but in this light the glistening dark leaves also star.  The other connection here joining this plant with Burrough's words  is the dark area of woods.  On one of his outings he described finally finding this uncommon plant and its affect of breaking the gloom of the deep woods.  

As the newly opened flowers approach the top of the stalk, the time for observing just how this plant creates viable seed is nearly over.  Out working early in the day allowed me to witness the ever so brief fertilization ritual of Cardinal Flower.  The central tube that is surrounded by five petals is tipped with what looks like a white beard.  As the moments of fertilization approach, these white hair like structures explode with a dense coating of yellow pollen.  Try as I might, I cannot find a photograph of either the initial appearance of the white beard or its coating with pollen.  By 8 AM that time had passed and the fertilization process was well underway.

 

In this photo, the location of the white beard has been penetrated by a stigma and style.  The flower in the lower left corner clearly shows the condition of the stigma extending past the opening of the tube.  Its pollen load is already moving toward the ovary at the base of the flower.  Soon this stigma will become limp and shrunken its work having been completed.  In the center of the photo, two yellow pollen covered stigmas are visible.  Our belief is that Cardinal Flower is a self pollinating plant.

 

 

This view shows some dropped pollen staining a leaf.  It also shows several pollen coated stigmas.  Once again we state that all of this activity unfolded early in the morning and the pollination was complete while the birds and the bees remained asleep.  For me the remaining mystery is how the pollen is transported from the tip of the stigma to the ovary buried deep within the base of each flower.  I am reminded that the function of corn silk is to carry a pollen grain to an area that will grow a seed.  Removing a single flower and cutting it open hoping to discover just how an enormous number of pollen grains found their way to the base of the flower crossed my mind but just when to do that remained unknown.  As noon approached, we did see a Humming bird working open flowers in the garden near the house.  Is it possible that its search for nectar is somehow part of the movement of pollen to the deeply placed ovary?  

A Little Good News

First, the bad news.  In the garden near the woods 210 onion plants were carefully placed in the ground.  Yesterday we discovered that most of them had been pulled from the ground and eaten.  Onion eaters are not common but written reports of meadow voles' appetite for them were found.  Spring traps and sticky traps have been set but nothing yet.

Several years ago we purchased Toothwort  plants in response to the words written by John Burroughs.  His description of these flower's scent made them a must have plant.  After years of scant growth and no flowers, finally we have something to smell.  Nose to the ground was required but the trip was well worth the effort.  Their fragrance was wonderful and several deep breaths were taken.  Many small plants now fill the place where we planted one and some will be moved to the new garden down by the road.

This variety of Toothwort is slightly smaller that distinction possibly influenced by the remembered names of Greater and Lesser.  Here again, new plants are numerous and they too will be moved down the hill.

Yellow violets underwent rescue and a move to proper ground.  We have discovered that the ground beneath trees cannot be penetrated without damage to the trees,  This area sported cover from bags of leaves for two years.  Quack grass roots were gently removed and man made woods dirt was brought in.  The violets were planted in that finely screened soil.  Mower chopped fallen leaves were applied to a depth that might limit weed growth.  A more natural forest soil will be produced by the rotting leaves.  We now need to find a way to limit the return of the neighbor's pasture grass.

Favorite Summer Natives

Searching for a native plant in bloom is commonly a spring activity.  Summer sweet first came to our attention while Amy and I were on a hike.  Walking into a cloud of incredibly sweet scent led us to this flowering bush.  Our captive specimen came to us from a friend's garden.  She objected to a root runner spoiling the balance of her plants.  The offshoot came home with us and has since taken over a huge section of our planting bed.  One of its daughter plants will anchor a foundation planting at the south west corner of the house.  The glossy dark green foliage looks great when not hidden behind numerous white flowers.  Having the wonderful scent near the house will be an added bonus.

Most of the flowers have yet to open.  Even so a tiny spider has found the pollen on an early flower.  When more of the flowers have opened, the brown pollen stains will detract from the bright pure white mass of blossoms.  I try to see the stains as golden in color but that helps little.  In addition to the sweet aroma, there is the remembrance of that special time together when Amy and I discovered  this native treasure.

We were introduced to Cardinal flower in the writings of John Burroughs.  A single purchased plant deposited seeds and produced six new plants at its base many years ago.  Now we have these brilliant bright red flowers throughout the garden.  Late frosts are hard on these plants and those pictured were among the eighteen that were potted up and carried into the basement when cold threatened.  That may be overly protective but it does allow me to plant these where I want them.  Their red flowers near a stone wall creates an unbeatable picture.  Hummingbirds also find them irresistible!

For years I have been trying to get a clear photo that shows the unusual structure of a single blossom.  A long upward red tube opens into five petals.  Three droop down while two curl upwards.  Between the up pointing petals is a white tipped tube.  This photo shows single blossoms in profile in addition to the centered star of the show.

We do have fall asters to look forward to but for me the season of brilliant native plants has reached its peak with these two wildly different plants.

Trout Lily Buds And Flowers

Several years preceding my retirement were filled with dreams focused on how to pleasantly use endless days filled with free time.  John Burroughs' writings described his time spent tramping about outside close to nature.  That brought back pleasant  memories of much of my childhood time spent doing exactly the same thing.  A picture of a retirement lifestyle defined by living on remote private land gradually came into clear focus.  In 1994 dreams became reality with the purchase of the last piece of a former farm.

Trout lily was first encountered by me in a Burroughs' essay entitled Among The Wild Flowers.  It was there that he suggested several names more appropriate for this plant than the then used Adder's Tongue or Dog Tooth Violet.  Lily had to be in the name since the structure of the flower is not a violet but is a lily.  Trout accurately reflected a fish very popular to Burroughs and the timing of that fish rising to the surface of the water to feed on the first hatch of insects at the same time of year that these flowers appeared.  His suggested name became widespread and remains in common use today.  Erythronium americanum was well known to me because of frequent rereadings of this essay before I ever found the plant growing in the wild.

I was as giddy as a child on Christmas morning when a trout lily in flower was first found in our newly purchased woods.  A single yellow blossom floated above twin fresh green leaves that were mottled with brown patches.  All of this striking color had just pushed above the brown fallen leaves that carpeted the forest floor.  Further exploration revealed single leaved plants by the hundreds but only an occasional twin leaved plant in bloom.  The relative lack of flowers here made the rare find of a yellow lily flower seem precious to me.

Burroughs also wondered about just how a trout lily plant produced flowers.  Seeds fell to the forest floor and the life cycles that followed took the lily bulb ever deeper into the soil.  When the bulb was more than six inches under ground, two leaves and a flower were produced.  At more shallow placements only a single leaf grew.  Here the glacier left extremely stone filled soil and few bulbs are able to reach the deep placement necessary for flower production.  In our more than two decades spent living here we have seen many single leaved plants return year after year but the flowering plants remain rare.

A careful look at the above photo will find a flower bud still tightly wrapped by the second leaf.  Its job is to protect the bud as it is pushed thru several inches of soil and the web that is typical of the forest floor.  How such a delicate flower can open unmarked after such a journey remains a source of wonder.

This bud is almost ready to push free of the leaf.  Following years of preparation, this beautiful flower will last for only a short time.  It will be replaced by a seed capsule containing the beginnings of another generation of plants few of which will ever flower.