In the northeastern states, you can often spot bluish purple color along wetlands, ditches or marshy areas when the native iris called Blue Flag is blooming. Iris veriscolor, commonly called Northern Blue Flag, Larger Blue Flag, Harlequin Blueflag, and Wild Iris. The name flag is from the middle English word “flagge,” meaning rush or reed. Iris flowers are said to symbolize power, with the three parts representing wisdom, faith and courage.
Northern Blue Flag
A few patches of orange red flowers in the road ditch caught my eye the other day, especially since I don’t have them growing near my home, and so I had to stop and get a photo of them. But the showy, eye catching color isn’t from the true greenish-yellow “flower” or corolla but from the scarlet colored specialized leaf bracts instead which attract hummingbirds who are the main pollinators of the Indian Paintbrush.
With over 200 species of Indian Paintbrush, the Castilleja coccinea, commonly known as Scarlet Indian paintbrush or Scarlet painted-cup, are found in my area. The species name coccinea means scarlet although sometimes the bracts are yellow and look like their ends have been dipped in paint, hence the common name paintbrush.
They are a hemiparasitic plant in which their roots grow until they touch the roots of other plants, frequently grasses, then penetrate the roots of these host plants, obtaining a portion of their nutrients.
Scarlet Indian Paintbrush
While the sounds and sights of the waterfalls in Amnicon Falls State Park draws most attention from visitors, other nature’s beauty can be found in the park like the Canada Mayflower growing along the path to Snake Pit Falls.
Canada Mayflower
Today is Trinity Sunday in the Western Christian liturgical calendar which celebrates the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, the three Persons of God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In various books, including the American Gardening published in 1896, the trillium is often mentioned in connection with Trinity Sunday and the wildflower is also called trinity flower. Nearly all parts of the plant comes in threes. It has 3 broad leaves on each stalk, 3 small green sepals and 3 large white sepals surrounding a group of yellow stamens plus it also has three-sectioned seedpods.
But this year my great white trillium blossoms has already turned pink or dropped their flower petals so only the nodding trilliums were displaying their white flowers yet.
Great White Trillium or Trinity Flower
In short distance, even sometimes just a few feet, the type of wildflowers can change greatly. Just a few miles from my home, a limestone cliff can be found a rural road and at the base of the cliff, a splash of blue caught my eye. Spreading Jacob’s Ladder, a native wildflower of moist shady woodlands, with blue to purple flowers, is also sometimes called Stairway to Heaven, which is fitting since I found it at the base of a cliff and the flower need a lot of stairs or a ladder to get to the top.
Spreading Jacob’s Ladder
The name Marsh Marigold gives a clue where you might find this wildflower since they are often found in marshy areas and in wet ditches nestled within the cattails, but they are not related to marigolds of the Aster family but are instead part of the buttercup family. In the UK, Caltha palustris is also known as kingcup, mayflower, May blobs, mollyblobs, pollyblobs, horse blob, water blobs, water bubbles, and gollins. I’m not sure if any of those names are any more fitting since a blob doesn’t sound so pretty and at least the name of marigold refers back to medieval churches as a tribute to the Virgin Mary, as in Mary gold. And they look more golden to me in the ditches and marshes than a horse blob!
Marsh Marigolds in the Ditch
The solitary flower of a Nodding Trillium hangs underneath the leaves so it isn’t spotted very easily (and maybe why the deer don’t eat as many of these trilliums as the other type) but it also makes it difficult to take a picture of them as the camera has to be on the ground shooting upward. With the probably frost tonight, the Nodding Trillium probably will want to keep its head covered under the leaves.
Finding the Nodding Trillium
As I was finishing mowing when the sun was setting, the pink blossoms of the Wild Geranium in the ditch were catching the last rays of the sun before it slipped away for the night.
Catching the Last Rays
With the mention of snowflakes in the air, other wildflowers besides the Jack-in-the-pulpit might want a hood to keep the snow off their heads. The name comes from the fascinating structure of its flower resembling a old-fashioned raised pulpit with a like a tiny man inside.
Jack Hiding Inside
The giving of May baskets on May Day has disappeared from most of the country in this age of electronics. But the White Trout Lily probably would not have found its way into a May basket for my mom since it can take seven years for a Trout Lily to produce a flower, if the corm ever grows large enough. In the colony of flowers, among the leaves only roughly one percent produce a flower until the corm grows large enough to sprouts two leaves instead of one and blossoms. So I guess my mom gets some dandelions in her May basket instead.
White Trout Lily on May Day
