Late April / Early May Flowers
May 6, 2020 by New Hampshire Garden Solutions
After a warmer weekend many plants are responding and more flower buds are opening. At a glance you might mistake leatherleaf (Chamaedaphne calyculata) for a blueberry but this plant will grow in standing water and blooms earlier. The plant gets its common name from its tough, leathery leaves, which are lighter and scaly on their undersides. Florists use sprays of leatherleaf leaves as filler in bouquets. The flower type must be very successful because it is used by many other plants, from blueberries to heather. Native Americans used the plant medicinally to reduce inflammation and to treat fevers, headaches and sprains.
I put a single leatherleaf blossom on a penny so you could get an idea of their size. A penny is about 3/4 of an inch in diameter and a leatherleaf blossom is about half the size of a blueberry blossom.
Trout lilies (Erythronium americanum) have finally bloomed, about a week later than average but it seems longer. Each trout lily plant grows from a single bulb and can take from 7-10 years to produce flowers from seeds, so if you see a large colony of blooming trout lilies you know it has been there for a while. This colony has tens of thousands of plants in it and I’ve read that colonies of that size can be as much as 300 years old. To think that the first settlers of Keene could have very well admired these same plants, just as I do today.
These blossoms hadn’t been open long and you can tell that by the yellow male stamens in the center. As the blossoms age the 6 stamens quickly turn red and then brown and start shedding pollen. Three erect female stigma will catch any pollen an insect brings by. Nectar is produced at the base of the petals and sepals (tepals) as it is in all members of the lily family, and it attracts several kinds of bees. If pollination is successful a 3 part seed capsule will appear. The seeds are dispersed by ants, which eat the rich, fatty seed coat and leave the seeds behind to grow into bulbs.
I think my favorite part of a trout lily blossom is the back of the petals, which are tinted with maroon. They’re very pretty flowers no matter how you see them.
Spring beauties (Claytonia carolinana) must like the cool damp weather because most plants still have buds, even though they’ve been blooming for about a month. This photo shows the variations in color. There are plants that can take me out of myself and cause a shift in my perception of time so that I often have no idea how long I’ve been kneeling before them, and spring beauty is one of them. How could you not lose yourself in something so beautiful?
I’ve never seen trailing arbutus (Epigaea repens) bloom like it is this year and as I visited this colony I wished my grandmother could have seen it. She called them Mayflowers and she always wanted to show them to me, but we could never find them. She loved their scent and so did Native Americans, who though this plant had divine origins.
Each trailing arbutus flower has a tiny yellow star in its center.
Wild ginger (Asarum canadense) is a plant you have to watch closely if you want to see its flowers, because it can produce leaves and flowers in just days. Two days before these photos were taken these plants had no leaves opened.
You can see how wild ginger’s unusual brownish flower rests on the ground in this photo. This makes them difficult to get a good shot of. For this one I turned on my camera’s onboard LED light. Because they grow so close to the ground and bloom so early scientists thought that wild ginger flowers must be pollinated by flies or fungus gnats, but we now know that they self-pollinate. The flowers have no petals; they are made up of 3 triangular calyx lobes that are fused into a cup and curl backwards. Though flies do visit the flowers it is thought that they do so simply to get warm. The long rhizomes of wild ginger were used by Native Americans as a seasoning. It has similar aromatic properties as true ginger but the plant has been found to contain aristolochic acid, which is a carcinogenic compound that can cause kidney damage. Native Americans also used the plant medicinally for a large variety of ailments.
Wild strawberries (Fragaria virginiana) have just started blooming and if the pollinators do their job each flower will become a small but delicious strawberry. My kids used to love them, and they’d eat them by the handful. The full moon in the month of June was known to many Native American tribes as the “Strawberry Moon” because that was when most strawberries began to ripen. The berries were picked, dried and stored for winter use, or added to pemmican, soups, and breads. In the garden strawberries easily reproduce vegetatively by runners (stolons,) but the fruit was so plentiful in the wild that colonials in North America didn’t bother cultivating them until the early 1800s. The first documented botanical illustration of a strawberry plant appeared in 1454, so they’ve been with us a long time.
Spring, like fall, starts on the forest floor with the spring ephemeral flowers and then it moves to the understory before finally reaching the treetops. Now is the time for the understory trees and shrubs to start blooming and one of the earliest is the shadbush (Amelanchier canadensis.)
Naturalists and botanists have been arguing for years over the many native shadbush species and hybrids. The 5 white flower petals can appear quite different in each, but none of the several variations that I’ve seen have had blossoms bigger than a nickel. All of them seem to have multiple large stamens. Shadbushes bloom earlier than the other shrubs and trees but are often still in bloom when the others bloom. The flowers appear before the leaves, unlike apples and some native cherries. Small, reddish purple to purple, apple shaped fruits follow in June. The fruit is a berry similar in size to a blueberry and has from 5-10 seeds. They taste best when they are more purple than red. Shadbush flowers are pretty but their fragrance isn’t very appealing.
This is what the flower buds of a shadbush look like. After shadbushes come the cherries, closely followed by the crab apples and apples, and then the peaches and plums.
I’m finally seeing blue / purple violets, about two weeks after I saw the first white one.
The deep purple lines on violet petals guide insects into the flower’s throat while brushy bits above dust its back with pollen. Native Americans had many uses for violets. They made blue dye from them to dye their arrows with and also soaked corn seed in an infusion made from the roots before it was planted to keep insect pests from eating the seeds. The Inuktitut Eskimo people placed stems and flowers among their clothes to give them a sweet fragrance, and almost all tribes ate the leaves and flowers.
Lots of sedges are still blooming. The flowers stalks (culms) of plantain leaved sedge (Carex plantaginea) are about 4 inches tall and have wispy, white female (pistillate) flowers below the butter yellow, terminal male (staminate) flowers.
I can’t think of anything much more delicate than female sedge flowers. They are living threads.
When you see these little black spearpoints sticking up out of what looks like grass you’ve found a sedge. Come back in a day or two and you’ll see flowers much like those in the previous two photos.
Bleeding hearts (Dicentra spectabilis) grow naturally in forests so they are plants that like cool, shady locations. They’ll go dormant quickly when it gets hot and they can leave a hole in the garden but that trait is easily forgiven. It’s one of the oldest perennials in cultivation and it is called old fashioned bleeding heart. I’ve always liked them and they were one of the first flowers I chose for my own garden.
I believe this cultivated purple dead nettle (Lamium maculatum) is called “Purple Dragon.” Whatever its name it is a beautiful little plant that makes a great choice for shady areas. It is also an excellent source of pollen for bees. Dead nettles are native to Europe and Asia, but though they do spread some they don’t seem to be invasive here. The name dead nettle comes from their not being able sting like a true nettle, which they aren’t related to. I’m guessing the “nettle” part of the name refers to the leaves, which would look a bit like nettle leaves if it weren’t for their variegation, which consists of a cream colored stripe down the center of each leaf.
Dead nettle flowers always look like they have a chicken popping up out of them to me. They sort of resemble snapdragons but are in the mint family.
Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them. ~Marcus Aurelius
Thanks for stopping in. I hope everyone is staying safe and able to spend time outside.
Posted in Nature, Wildflowers | Tagged Bleeding Heart, Canon SX40 HS, Keene, Leatherleaf, Native Plants, Native Wild Ginger, Nature, New Hampshire, NH, Olympus Stylus TG-870, Purple Dead Nettle, Sedge Flowers, Shadbush, Spring, Spring Beauties, Spring Flowers, Swanzey New Hampshire, Trailing Arbutus, Trout Lilies, Violets, Wild Strawberry | 28 Comments
The trout lilies are exquisite! They won’t grow here as the soil is not right for them. I might see if I can grow a few in a pot one day. I admire the way you manage to get such detail in your photographs – the sedge flowers, for example. Most people ignore grasses, reeds and sedges but they are so lovely, I think.
Thank you Clare. You should talk to Mr. Tootlepedal because he grows a variety that looks much like this one. Sometimes he calls them trout lilies and other times dog toothed violets.
The people who ignore grasses, reeds and sedges are missing out on a beautiful part of nature. That’s what I’m hoping to show them here.
I have tried dog-toothed violets in the soil here but they weren’t happy and soon faded away.
That’s too bad. Maybe they would grow in pots. It would be worth a try!
The spring beauties and trout lilies are so gorgeous.
Yes, especially when there are thousands of them!
Thinking of you.
Thank you Ben. I’m still here, where nothing much ever changes.
Maybe externally, but I’m sure there’s plenty going on in your mind and heart. It comes through in the care with which you compose your regular postings and the thoughtful quotations you manage to find.
I do think a lot, and some might say I think too much, but you have to if you want to do this twice each week.
Choosing the quote is sometimes the hardest part. Many just don’t “fit.”
Again and again I find myself impressed by what you have found.
I stumble on to so many fascinating things out there. I couldn’t show them all if I lived to be a hundred!
I know you will do your best though. ❤️
It looks beautiful there Allen! After the four inches of rain here last week plants have really popped up, even though it has been on the cool side. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks Chris! It’s beautiful everywhere in spring!
We’re supposed to see snow Saturday, so the flowers might be on hold for a bit. I hope we both see some spring warmth before summer!
Thank you for sharing👏
You’re welcome!
Leatherleaf is a new one to me, and I enjoyed meeting this flower on your virtual tour. Shadbush I remember well, although I never ate the fruit.
Thank you Lavinia. It’s always nice to see these flowers again in spring!
Thanks for the great photos of the Trailing Arbutus. It is a plant I am always looking for as my mother always talked so highly of it ( she mentioned it’s lovely scent too). I’ve never seen it, but have not given up. Not sure if my z6 here in southeast Pennsylvania is too warm/fertile/humid? I enjoy visiting Keene and Walpole every summer. This summer I had great plans to visit Portsmouth and their heirloom gardens and houses, but because of the virus I’m not sure that will happen. It will, eventually.
You’re welcome Lisa. According to the USDA trailing arbutus does indeed grow in Pennsylvania. I find it in the woods usually, there beside various trails. It’s very low growing and the foliage forms a mat of tough, leathery evergreen leaves.
I hope you’ll be able to come north this summer!
I liked the tiny stars at the centre of the trailing arbutus and I thought that your final photograph was wonderful
Thank you. They both took several tries to get it right because they’re so small.
Lots of sweet spring ethereals, Allen. The leatherleaf flowers are like lily of the valley blossoms! Little charmers. I have a moccasin flower (cypripedium acaule) in bloom, a little miracle right in my backyard! The long cool spring continues here in Maryland. In fact, we have a forecast of 30° for overnight on Friday, grrrr. That means up at 4a.m. to light 8 votive candles in my 6×6 unheated greenhouse, which will surprisingly keep it above freezing for four hours or so. Ahhh, spring! Gotta love it!
Thank you Ginny, I do love it! We have lots of leatherleaf shrubs here and the flowers do look like lily of the valley.
We won’t see lady’s slippers here until June. I haven’t even seen leaves yet, so you’re far ahead.
It’s supposed to get cold here too but you’re lucky you have a greenhouse, even if you have to heat it. I’ve worked in a lot of them but I never owned one.
Have fun in the garden!
Wow! You seem to be ahead of the coastal area. Our trout lilies are not blooming yet. So far, I have only seen Bellworts and Trilliums in bloom. The Coltsfoot are done and the Solomon Seals are just unfurling their leaves. I did find a few flower buds on the Solomon Seal. Hopefully, everything will burst soon.
Like your grandmother, I loved that trailing arbutus and your photograph of the violet was a real treat to look at.
Thank you Susan. I wish you could have smelled them!