(Wild) Flower Day

Just off the Ohio River, up a creek that flows into the Ohio's backwater is a place where winter conceals buried treasure. Warm rains and the longer days of spring coax this treasure into the light.

Virginia bluebells (Martensia virginica)

It is a place where people reside in a remarkable landscape.  Undisturbed by grazing cattle,  and passing only one hay field, the creek meanders through a narrow pass, up a hollow where wildflowers burst forth in some of natures finest dressing. Virginia bluebells continue the whole length of the stream in patches running from dense patch to single plants.  While it is better to leave your car, it is not necessary.  Roadside banks display plants such as Squirrel corn (Dicentra canadensis) and Dutchman's Britches (Dicentra cucullaria) co-mingling like the close cousins they are.

Dutchman's britches, like pantaloons hanging upside down, ballooning in a gentle breeze are pointed on the top . . . 

Dutchman's britches (Dicentra cucullaria)

. . .while the very similar Squirrel corn appears more as an elongated heart.

Squirrel corn (Dicentra canadensis)

 These Spring ephemerals are easily confused - even their leaves look alike.  Ephemerals are the plants that bloom in early spring before the overhead tree canopy develops.  Their leaves develop, the flower does a quick bloom, seeds form and drop then just as quickly as they bloom they disappear ready to store their energy for next spring. 

Like many ephemerals, Squirrel corn and Dutchman's britches are spread by Myrmecochory which pretty much means "ant farming." Their white blossoms attract early pollinators while there is little competition from other bloomers. For a description of how this is done with a photo of the bee's bore hole, see HERE.  

Tomorrow, We'll travel further up the stream and see more wonders.

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Pussytoes and Cat's Feet

Pussytoes

No fog this morning

as we stand at the at the edge of the curve 

like a harbor, protecting a crescent of

abundant blossoms

sitting in the morning silence 

like little cat's feet 

(by Nellie Howard with apologies to Carl Sandburg)

A morning like this is made for poetry.  Flowers flow out of our earth like syllables flow from my tongue when inspiration is right.

Once we have identified the pussytoes, we move on to find more.

Our beloved native trillium, Trillium grandiflorum, blooms next to despised mustard garlic, Alliaria petiolata, an invasive species native to Europe.  While teams of evironmentalists work diligently to destroy this invader, I, in my ignorance, take delight in its petite flower atop a slender stalk, riged, unbending among the natives. The simplistic large blooms of the giant white trillium share the hillside with the complicated blossom of squirrel corn, a wild member of the bleeding heart family.

In this area, squirrel corn grows side-by-side with dutchmen's britches, both spring ephemerals pollinated either by bumblebees who pry open their petals or by honeybees who drill a hole straight into the blossom to retrieve hidden nectar. Neither plant will make the effort to support leaves through the summer, choosing, instead, to put all their energy into an early bloom which will disappear with its leaves by the time these fiddleheads fulfill their promise of full-fronded ferns. (If "fronded" is not a word then it should be.)