The magnolias have been beautiful this year. Some, like the one pictured, are already dropping their petals, while others are just opening their buds.
Shadbush (Amelanchier canadensis) gets its name from the shad fish. Shad live in the ocean but, much like salmon, return to freshwater rivers to spawn. Shad was a very important food source for Native Americans and for centuries they knew that the shad were running when the shadbush bloomed. In June they harvested the very nutritious shad fruit, which looks much like a small apple. It was a favorite ingredient in pemmican, which was a mixture of dried meat, dried fruit, and animal fat. This is our earliest native white flowered tall shrub, coming into bloom just before the cherries.
This cherry isn’t a native but I thought it was beautiful enough to have its picture taken.
I found wild field pansies (Viola arvensis) growing in a local park. This tiny flower, no bigger than a pencil eraser, is a challenge to photograph. This plant is from Europe and, since it was used medicinally there, probably came to this country with the earliest settlers.
Native Canada violets (Viola canadensis) aren’t anywhere near as common as blue violets, but I find them at the edges of woods occasionally. The U.S.D.A. lists them as threatened in Connecticut, endangered in Illinois, Maine, and New Jersey, and “historical” in Rhode Island, which means they are only a memory. There are several look alikes, so this plant can be a real challenge to identify.
This bleeding heart (Lamprocapnos spectabilis) grows in a local park. It’s a beautiful thing.
There is a lot going on in a ground ivy blossom (Glechoma hederacea). Its five petals are fused together to form a tube. The lowest and largest petal, which is actually two petals fused together, serves as a landing area for insects, complete with tiny hairs for them to hang onto. The pistil’s forked style can be seen poking out at the top under one of the three separate petals. Two long and two short stamens mean this flower is both male and female and so is perfect, or hermaphroditic.
The darker spots on a ground ivy blossom are nectar guides for insects to follow into the tube. These flowers really go all the way to insure pollination. Ground ivy is another plant that was brought by European settlers because of its medicinal qualities.
In botanical terms the word sessile describes how one part of a plant joins another. In sessile leaved bellwort (Uvularia sessilifolia) the leaves are sessile against the stem, meaning they lie flat against the stem with no stalk. These leaves are also elliptic, which means they are wider in the middle and taper at each end. New plants, before the flowers appear, can resemble Solomon’s seal at a glance. The plants I find always have just a single nodding, bell shaped, pale yellow flower but they can sometimes have two. Sessile leaved bellwort is in the lily of the valley family and is also called wild oats.
False rue anemone (Enemion biternatum) can be a hard flower to get a photo of because they seem to be closed more than they’re open. The flowers have no nectar and produce only pollen, but they are still visited by a large number of bees and flies. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a false rue anemone growing alone. They always grow in large colonies here and can be quite a sight when hundreds of them are in bloom.
NOTE: Josh from the Josh’s Journal blog has pointed out that this plant is most likely Anemone quinquefolia or wood anemone, which is very similar to false rue anemone. Rue anemone (Thalictrum thalictroides), which is also similar, also grows in New Hampshire, which complicates things even further. While false rue anemone is native to the eastern U.S., the USDA and other sources say that it doesn’t grow in New England. The petal count alone should have alerted me because false rue anemone always has 5 white sepals, while wood anemone and true rue anemone can have more. Thanks to Josh for a lesson in how easy it is to misidentify a plant, and why we need to look very closely at the plants we are trying to identify.
Dwarf ginseng (Panax trifolius) flowers are so small that even a cluster of them is hardly bigger than a nickel. One interesting thing about this little plant is how some plants have only male flowers while others have perfect flowers with both male and female parts. Each plant can also change its gender from year to year. This photo also shows where the trifolius part of the scientific name comes from. Three leaflets each make up the whorl of three compound leaves. Dwarf ginseng doesn’t like disturbed ground and is usually found in old, untouched hardwood forests. It is on the rare side here and I only know of two places to find it. This is not the ginseng used in herbal medicine.
Goldthread (Coptis groenlandicum)gets its common name from its thread like, bright yellow roots. This is another plant that usually grows in undisturbed soil that is on the moist side. Native Americans used this plant medicinally and told the early settlers of its value in treating canker sores, which led to its being nearly collected into oblivion. At one time more goldthread was sold in Boston than any other native plant. Luckily it has made a good comeback but another plant called goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis) suffered a similar fate and I’ve never seen it, even though I’ve been walking in these woods for half a century.
Native ginger (Asarum canadense) has finally unfurled its downy leaves and is now flowering. Its brownish maroon flowers are often found right on the ground and are hard to see. For years this plant was thought to be pollinated by flies or fungus gnats but several studies have shown that they are self-pollinated. Native Americans used this plant for food and medicine but, even though its aromatic roots are similar to culinary ginger, scientists say that they contain toxins and should not be used as food.
A close up of a wild ginger flower. This flower has no petals. It is made up of 3 triangular shaped calyx lobes that curl backwards. You might think, because of its meat-like color, that flies would happily visit this flower and they do occasionally, but they have little to nothing to do with the plant’s pollination. It is thought they crawl into the flower simply to get warm.
This is the time-just before the grass gets high enough to mow-that bluets (Houstonia caerulea) form large enough colonies to look like patches of snow in the grass. These were the darkest blue in a colony of many thousands of plants.
Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads. ~Henry David Thoreau
Thanks for stopping in.
We have tiny white violets, like the one you posted, all over our backyard this year. (At least I think they’re the same, here’s a shot of one – https://www.flickr.com/photos/trigony/14139675656/) This is our 3rd year living here, but the first spring we’ve had them – I wonder why the bumper crop? At any rate, between them and the bluets, I’m holding off on mowing my lawn for a bit. 🙂
They do look like Canada violets. Violets seem to be doing great here too but I don’t know why. Maybe they like plenty of snow in winter. They sure had it this winter, whether they liked it or not.
You can always tell the flower lovers by the islands of unmown grass in their lawns!
My woods are blessed with an abundance of dwarf ginseng. Enough so that I felt comfortable collecting some of the tubers a couple of years ago for culinary intent. They were pretty good, even if I only tried a little more than a mouthful (two tubers I think).
I also have a very strong colony of white violets (perhaps V. canadensis) growing in my front yard, and this year they have established themselves in the back too. I do eat their leaves – they are my favorite wild salad plant.
That’s a good sign that your land hasn’t been disturbed for quite a number of years. It’s good to hear of a large colony of dwarf ginseng. What I see are small patches of maybe 10 plants, and I know of only two places where they grow.
I knew you could eat violet flowers but I hadn’t heard about the leaves. I think they sugar coat the flowers somehow.
Beautiful flowers! I appreciate them so much because many I see only in photos and your photos are excellent!
Thanks Montucky. That’s the same way I feel about your flowers and photos.
I see what you mean about the “whiteness” of spring wildflowers. I wonder if they look different in UV light, which insects can see but we cannot.
Actually I hadn’t thought of that but I’d bet that you’re right. It seems to me I read something about that once.
Lovely flowers but I know what you mean about the problems of identification. Sometimes you think you know what you’re looking at to the point where you miss the signs that it’s something entirely different. Little yellow flowers are the worst, closely followed by little white flowers in my opinion.
I agree, little white and yellow flowers can make you crazy. I used to spend hours pouring through books trying to identify them but then I woke up and asked myself why.
I know that I’ll never be as knowledgeable as you are about plants, but I hope to come close to how well you photograph them!
Thanks Jerry. You must be taking a vacation from vacation. I can’t wait to see your photos.
Beautiful blooms! It’s nice to see mother nature showing off 🙂
It sure is. It seems like she’s outdoing herself this year!
I always learn something from your posts! Glad you have Bluets, they’re quite cheerful to see in the spring.
Thanks Rick. Boy, do we have bluets this year! I’ve never seen so many.
I never cease to be amazed at what you find at your feet. I’ll have to take a closer look at the violets and definitely check out what may be popping up on the floor of the woods heading to the swamp.
Thank you Jocelyn. They’re all out there for the finding. Violets are notoriously difficult to identify, but it can be done. To be honest I usually stay away from all but the most common violets because I don’t have the time it takes (sometimes many hours) to identify them. They’re still beautiful to see though and I’m always happy to find them.
The bleeding heart’s unique appearance is beautiful!
They sure are beautiful flowers. It had rained earlier and there was water trapped in the white parts.
It’s nice to visit flowers again that are done blooming here and and to meet ones we don’t have here
Bloom times seem all out of whack this year to me, but maybe I’m just imagining it. I’m glad you liked seeing the flowers.
Lots of lovely blooms. I think violets are wonderful and welcome them into my lawn. Can’t say the same for Glechoma, though it’s pretty up close. The bluets and goldthread are sweet, I don’t see those in this area.
We have wildflowers everywhere you look right now. If you don’t mind violets in your lawn you wouldn’t mind bluets either. Their leaves are so small that you don’t even see them when they aren’t blooming. They’re beautiful now, just before the first mowing. Ground ivy is a whole different story, as you know.
I loved the magnolia pictures best though they were all lovely.
Thank you Susan. That magnolia tree lives in a local park and is absolutely covered with fragrant blossoms each spring.
Beautiful photographs. I can smell the fragrance of Spring and the feel the sniffles of pollen (lol)!
Thank you Mary. I just noticed yesterday that pines and hemlocks are starting to shed pollen, so we’ll be seeing it for a while from now on. I was never allergic to anything until I turned 50, but now it affects me.
Reblogged this on Dawn of Divine Rays.
Thank you Agnes, for another re-blog.
You are very welcome, NHGS. Sending bright Reiki blessings your way. Namaste.
Thank you, and the same to you, and please call me Allen. I should have said that ages ago but I’m not very good with such things.
Thank you, Allen. Namaste.
I found your blog after trying to identify a wild flower on my lawn (turns out it’s a Striped Squill). Your pictures are great. I started a few Old Fashioned Bleeding hearts last fall. Not sure if anything will come from them this year but they’re currently poking out of the ground a bit. I can’t wait for the dropping blossoms… someday 🙂
Thank you Amy. Striped squill is a great flower to find in your lawn. It’s hard to find anyone who sells them. If left alone it should spread, but I think I’d always wonder how it got there in the first place.
If you’re seeing growth on the bleeding hearts they’ll be fine. They’re a great plant but unfortunately they start yellowing off and dying back soon after they flower.
Beautiful shots, Allen, of all of these flowers and plants. I had no idea that wild pansies even existed. The title of your posting reminded me of one of silly jokes of my childhood. (I grew up in Massachusetts, so the story of Plymouth Rock featured prominently in our history lessons.) “If April showers bring May flowers, what do May flowers bring? Pilgrims.”
Thanks Mike. I remember that one!
What a great collection of images and information. I have really been enjoying the early May flowers this year and thanks to your post, now I can identify more of them. Happy Spring!
Thanks Laura. This spring has been strange weather wise but the flowers don’t seem to mind.