Even though it is just barely above freezing this morning, the precipitation falling right now is snow so the white seen on the ground maybe snow or the little Wood Anemones. The plant tends to grow in thick mats, spreading via rhizomes and a single plant can take five years or longer to bloom. When the sun is out, the blossoms will open up wide like a rounded pointed star, but with the lack of sun, they close up tight.
Other White Besides Snow
A walk in the woods might reveal more than just wildflowers, including some alien looking things. Some fern fronds have emerged but haven’t unfurled yet so they have a creepy look yet.
Aliens in the Woods
The sun doesn’t look as bright yellow this morning as this flower does. The Yellow Trout Lily emerges from the two basal leaves, which from seed to blooming takes 4-7 years. Until the corm reaches flowering size, it produces only a single, ground-level leaf per season. Most of the leaves in colonies I have in the woods are single leaves so it is nice to see a flower blossom.
The common name of trout lily is in reference to the mottled leaves and the appearance of the flowers during trout fishing season. It is also called Adder’s Tongue, due to the tongue-like shape of the flowering shoot and supposedly resembles an open mouth of a snake.
Yellow Trout Lily
The warm weather has disappeared, but a number of the wildflowers opened the last few days. And the ground has patches of white, although not from snow, but from wildflowers like wood anemones and bloodroots. The strong wind has been rather hard on the blossoms as petals have fallen even though the flowers just opened.
Ground White from Bloodroots
It appears spring is officially here at last as the dandelions have made their appearance! But I can’t pick the pretty yellow flowers for my mom since the butterflies are landing on them for the nectar as there isn’t much else for food sources for the bees and butterflies at the moment until other flowers open up.
Sign of Spring
The weather has been rather fickle this morning as one moment it is dark, then the sun pops out, and the next minute it is snowing. While I didn’t spot any ducks in this pond when I drove by earlier in the week, my pond has been revolving door for ducks with mallards, hooded merganser and wood ducks. This morning the pair of mallards was sharing the pond with two pairs of wood ducks. On the edge of the pond, robins and blackbird were bopping on the grass. But that wasn’t all on the edge of the pond, as a stray black cat was eyeing up a roasted duck dinner, although he gave up after a while since the ducks were teasing him by swimming around pond staying out of reach.
Springtime Pond
The first wildflower in my woods finally opened yesterday but its head was bent over like it had the weight of the world on its shoulder which was probably just the weight of snow from the prior days. The poor flower has a break today before more snow can make it bend over again.
First Hepatica of Spring
Yesterday I heard the first frogs of spring, but they are not the deep sounding bull frogs or other larger species. Instead they are tiny little frogs, although they produce a loud noise, they are often less than an one inch long so they are very hard to find unless you see the water ripping as they make their music. On a warm night, the chorus of Spring Peeper carries on the air, as they emerge to feed and sing. They are among the first frogs in the regions to call in the spring and as their name suggests, their high-pitched call similar to that of a young chicken.
Spotting the Spring Peeper
Although I haven’t seen any flowers open in my yard yet, some hardy flowers have sprung up and they had another taste of snow overnight.
Crocuses Braving the Weather
The first spring wildflower has emerged, although I had to travel two hours south to see it. In wetland areas, the skunk cabbage flower buds can warm up to 70 degrees, which thaws the ground and melts the snow to allow them to be one of the first wildflowers to bloom in early spring.
The flowers of the skunk cabbage appear before the leaves and the maroon hood is the spathe and the many petal-less flowers form the spiky spadix. The spathe opens more when the flower matures to allow more pollinators access. Its name comes from its unpleasant odor it emits to attract pollinators that are attracted to rotting meat. The scent is especially noticeable when the plant is bruised.
The Smelly Skunk Cabbage
