Here are just a few of the wildflowers I’ve seen recently.
I try hard to not misidentify the plants that appear here and all of the little yellow, 5 petaled flowers growing in lawns increase the chances of that happening, so I usually leave them alone. This bulbous buttercup (Ranunculus bulbosus) was relatively easy to identify though, so here it is. This plant gets its common name from its bulbous root, which is a corm.
Most of the red trillium (Trillium erectum) blossoms have faded or have been eaten, but I still see them here and there. They lighten from deep red to a pale purple color before finally turning brown. The fading of red trilliums means it’s time to start looking for pink lady’s slippers (Cypripedium acaule) and painted trilliums (Trillium undulatum.)
I love the plum colored anthers on these hawthorn (Crataegus) blossoms. They are very beautiful, in my opinion.
I’ve decided that mayapples (Podophyllum peltatum ) are hard to photograph, and that’s because I’ve never been happy with a single one that I’ve taken. The flowers are very close to the ground but even if I lie out flat they never seem to be fully in focus.
Our native sessile leaved bellworts (Uvularia sessilifolia) have put on a good show this year. I’ve seen more than I ever have. Botanically speaking the word sessile means sitting, as in the leaves are sitting on the main stem, which means that the leaves themselves don’t have a stem (petiole.)
Red baneberry (Actaea rubra) is blooming early this year-probably because of the early warmth we had. Soon each tiny blossom will become a poisonous red berry. Native Americans dipped their arrowheads in concentrated baneberry juice to use as a poison.
Dwarf ginseng (Panax trifolius) will set a cluster of yellowish fruit if the tiny white flowers are pollinated. If it doesn’t set berries this plant often disappears without a trace shortly after flowering. The trifolius part of the scientific name refers to the three compound leaves that always appear in a whorl around the stem. Each leave has three to five leaflets that are nearly sessile on the stem.
I wasn’t sure if I’d see a Jack in the pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum) this year. I visited all of their growing places that I know of and found only two plants. That could be because last year was a banner year and I saw them everywhere. Many plants-even oak trees-“rest” after a bountiful year. This plant is in the arum family, along with skunk cabbage and many others.
I always pop the hood on jack in the pulpits to see what ‘Jack” is up to. I also like to see the purple stripes on the inside of the spathe, which is the hood that overhangs Jack. Jack is a club shaped spadix which in this photo appears black, but is actually purple. At the bottom of the cup shaped spathe male or female flowers will form at the base of this spadix. The spadix smells like mushrooms and if its female flowers are pollinated by tiny fungus flies, they will become bright red berries that deer love to eat.
I found quite a large patch of blue bead lilies (Clintonia borealis) recently. If you gave this plant a quick, passing glance you might mistake its leaves for those of pink lady’s slipper, but blue bead lily leaves don’t have deep pleats like lady’s slipper leaves do.
Blue bead lily is in the lily (Liliaceae) family and it’s not hard to see why when you take a good look at one of the small flowers-they look just like a Canada lily. If pollinated each flower will become a single berry that will turn from green to white and finally to an almost fluorescent, bright blue. I had a hard time finding any berries last year so I’m hoping there will be many to see this year.
Bluets (Houstonia caerulea) are still blooming in great drifts across mowed places. This plant is considered an ephemeral, but given enough moisture it will bloom well into summer. Their range of color goes from almost white to dark blue and I always try to find those with the darkest color. These ones looked fairly dark.
Cypress Spurge ( Euphorbia cyparissias) is also called cemetery weed because it’s often found there.This plant was introduced from Europe in the mid-1800s as an ornamental. Of course, it immediately escaped the gardens of the day and is now seen in just about any vacant lot or other area with poor, dry soil. This plant forms explosive seed pods that can fling its seeds several feet.
One of my very favorite woodland flowers is fringed polygala (Polygala paucifolia,) also called gaywings. This plant is a low growing creeper which at a glance is easily mistaken for a violet. I know that from experience because last year was the first time I ever really paid any attention to it. I think that I have passed it off as just another violet for most of my life, which is too bad. The flowers are made up of five sepals and two petals. Two of the petals form a tube and two of the sepals form the “wings.” The little fringe like structure at the end of the tube is part of the third petal which is mostly hidden. When an insect lands on the fringed part, the third petal drops down to create an opening so the insect can enter the tube. There are 3 or 4 flowers in this photo, and they all seem to be growing on top of each other.
To be overcome by the fragrance of flowers is a delectable form of defeat. ~ Beverley Nichols
Thanks for stopping in.
New Hampshire Garden Solutions 
A beautiful collection! I have always loved bluets. 🙂
Thanks! I like bluets too-they always shout spring is here.
Wonderful post Allen! Spring is such a beautiful time on year and you captured it perfectly! I have laid on the ground for many, many shots trying to get it just so. I often wonder what people think as they pass me by.
Thanks Laura. I’ve heard other bloggers say that they’ve had police stop to see what was going on because someone reprted a person lying on the side of the road! I think of that every time I do it, and wonder if the police will show up.
I’ve had people stop to see if I was ok. Most of them just walk away shaking their heads, lol
Some beautiful flowers, Allen and many of them look quite exotic – by which I mean tropical. We used to grow houstonia at the alpine nursery – I’d quite forgotten about it but it is a pretty, dainty thing. Dave
We do have some beauties Dave. None are really tropical but I know what you mean about the look. Anything in the arum family looks kind of tropical to me. That’s interesting that you grew bluets (houstonia) in a nursery. They grow everywhere here and can be invasive, but I like them. They are devilish in lawns, especially.
What a collection! I just love the red trillium! What a gorgeous flower! The bellwort also really appeals to me. And the gaywings! I have never seen most of these in person.
Thanks Montucky. We do have some beautiful flowers here if you know where to look. The trillium in that photo was on it’s way out and had just begun changing color from deep red to the purple you see in the photo. Some call them purple trillium but they are really red. I think you might have a western version of the bellwort but I’ve never seen the gaywings on another blog from any other part of the country. They’re really unusual and beautiful.
So many plants we don’t have here and so interesting to see the differences. We do ha e Hawthorn but not with red anthers, euphorbia and of course buttercups, although I have t seen any ye this year. Must keep my eyes peeled because there are so many little yellow flowers on the roadsides and waste ground right now I may well be missing them 🙂
Those little yellow flowers can make you crazy if you let them. Or at least, identifying them can!
Sometimes I wonder why I bother. All those hours spent trawling through Google wheni could just as easily write, little yellow flower, how pretty. The most annoying times are when I know what it’s called but the old grey cells are on strike (probably because of advancing years) and I can’t for the life of me remember it, those are usually the hardest to find too!
Yes, I’d have to agree with all of that. I spend huge amounts of time trying to identify plants, but the purpose of this blog is to get people interested in nature so it’s something that I feel is important. I’d love to be able to say “just go out and look at all the pretty yellow flowers,” but nobody would learn much from that. I think it’s worth it-I’ve even discovered that I have been incorrectly identofying a plant or two for years, so we all learn something.
I like your eastern bellwort. Not just the leaves but also the flowers look subtly different – more of a cream color and more tubular shape.
I’ve seen pictures of other bellworts but sometimes it’s hard to see subtle differences in a photo. Thanks for the information!
Your photos were superb, but they were eclipsed by the background information that was even better. I am going to come back to this post several times before letting it go so I can absorb all of the information…great job, you really set a high bar.
Thank you Charlie. Sometimes I wonder if I don’t put too much information in these posts. I like people to understand what it is they’re seeing though, so I’m not sure how I could do it differently. I know that I like it when people identify the flowers that I’m reading about, so I try to do the same.
It was nice to see some of my blooming friends and so many that we don’t have around here.
It’s fascinating to read other blogs to discover what is growing where.
The hawthorn gets my vote. I must look at our local ones more closely.
Hawthorns are tricky because there are so many different ones and they don’t all have plum colored anthers. In fact, my tree book doesn’t say anything about a hawthorn with plum colored anthers, even though those in the photo are definitely hawthorn blossoms.
It is still hard to believe it is mid May, your red trillium photo is gorgeous. You reminded me of all the flowers to see this time of year. I enjoyed this post very much.
🙂
Thanks Chris. It is really hard sometimes to remember that it’s only mid-May. It seems like it should be July but we still have daffodils and forsythia blooming here. Pink lady’s slippers have just started as well.
Very nice images, Allen…so nice to see the variety of flowers again. I haven’t seen many wildflowers yet, but the mountains are still waking from their slumber, so it shouldn’t be too long. I have found some myrtle spurge out here though, giant swaths of it. After identifying it, I read that it has become something of a nuisance out here, so much so that the County has banned it from being planted in many areas. I’ll be posting some images of it soon…I thought it was actually kind of pretty.
I enjoyed the post…and the quote….
Thanks Scott. That’s the thing about invasive plants-most of them are beautiful so we leave them alone until we realize it’s too late to do anything about controlling them. They’re kind of sneaky that way.
I’m looking forward to seeing your spurge and all the other wildflowers you have there. They were beautiful last year.
All your photos are good the red trillium is awesome! The bluets here only lasted a day or two for some reason, I missed them.
There are some species of plants and animals that always look out of focus for some reason, I haven’t figured that out yet. My old fishing buddy’s brother always looked out of focus as well. It was a running joke in his family, no one had ever gotten a good photo of him.
Thanks! That’s funny-I’ve never known an out of focus person. At least, not when they were on film. I’ve known a few who were otherwise.
I was overcome by the bounty and beauty of this post. Your flowers are sensational. It is difficult to imagine them pushing through so quickly after the cold. Your quotes are beautiful too, I loved this one as the perfume of flowers and plants is as overcoming as their visual impact.
Thank you. Yes, our spring flowers happen very fast-and you have to move equally fast if you want to get a picture of each one! Soon though, summer will be upon us and things will slow down a bit.
Wow. Nice “haul.” I can hardly believe how big that bellwort is! Beautiful!
We have an abundance of wildflower varieties here but few orchids, unfortunately.The bellworts did well this year and that one was big, but not as big as the large flowered bellwort that I’m still hoping to see someday.
Reading this post was like going to a UNH Master Gardener refresher course. It was wonderful. Thank you.
Thank you Judy. I’ve never taken that course, but I’ve heard that it’s a good one.
It looks like your world had really become alive with new growth, a whole variety of shapes and colors (and apparently smells,though it is a bit difficult to convey that accurately in words and photos). My eyes were really drawn to the shape of the bellworts.
Actually Mike, I realized after I chose it that the quote by Beverly Nichols doesn’t really apply because most of these flowers are not fragrant. The red trillium is, but it’s a real stinker. I like the bellworts too.