“On the Ninth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me Nine Ladies Dancing.” I am too much of a country kid to appreciate the culture of ballet ladies dancing in leotards with pink ballet slippers. I much rather see pink lady’s slippers in a different form, one that you would see in the woods in the spring (whenever the snow melts again). A member of the orchid genus, Cypripedium acaule, is commonly called Pink Lady’s Slipper.
Nine Ladies Slippers
Normally when the snow disappears, I would be out looking for the early wildflowers, but since it is just a fluke in the weather pattern which caused the winter snow to melt temporarily, there won’t be a chance to spot a blooming flower, not for several months yet. You might get lucky to find some foliage still somewhat green or a dry bull thistle head (which a kitten found and was proudly carrying in its mouth).
Still Have to Wait
I love the spring wildflowers, even if I prefer more colorful wildflowers than a Bloodroot, but even now the early white flower would be a welcome surprise rather than seeing just white snow on the ground.
Waiting for the Bloodroot
It is not fun to be out in a misty, foggy day but it does provide some different captures of flowers as long as I can keep my camera dry.
Misty Aster
The sun might be shining this morning but it is a bit nippy out with it below freezing and the frost covering the ground. And since we had snow Friday night, I think these sawtooth sunflowers are coming to the end of their bright smiles as soon they will wither and turn brown.
Coming to the End
The sun is finally finally out today and shining on the Sawtooth Sunflower wildflowers displaying their smiling, yellow color in the road ditches.
Sunshine in the Ditches
The road ditches have spotted patches of reddish orange color as the native lilies are blooming. Although growing up, I thought they were Turk’s Cap Lily but Turk’s Caps are not native to Wisconsin and they are actually native Michigan Lily instead (but I think they should have been called Wisconsin Lily instead as Wisconsin has more counties with them in than Michigan does). But whatever the name, they are pretty in the road ditches and fields.
Michigan Lily
When the Black-eyed Susans open up, you know summer is officially here and the very hot day confirms summer has arrived. The wildflowers might not wither and wilt in the heat like I do but I won’t be hiking out to the field in the hot afternoon to confirm that theory.
Daisies and Black-eyed Susans
Seeing a wet, shaggy looking flower in the ditch reminded me of my hairdo in the morning. Wild bergamot, is a wildflower in the mint family and is widespread as a native plant in much of North America, and you often see butterflies, moths, and hummingbirds visiting the flowers for nectar. But I didn’t see any insects feeding when it was raining and I was taking the picture, so I guess the butterflies had more sense to stay out of the rain than I did.
Wild Bergamot
The wind was blowing yesterday, although the mosquitoes were still getting me but I think there are just so many of them, the wind just blows them right into me. The blowing wind does make it difficult to a picture of a small flower though.
Along the railroad tracks, these waving blue flowers caught my eye. About 70 species of Spiderworts exist in the Western Hemisphere, and I think this one might be the Ohio Spiderwort, but then I am just usually taking pictures blossoms and not all the plant parts to identify them.
The name Spiderwort may have come from the resemblance to spider silk when the sap is stretched between the fingers or that the plant looked like a crouching spider. The word “wort” often applies to plants with medicinal purpose and the Cherokee used it for insect bites (or spider bite).
One of the other common for the Tradescantia genus, doesn’t have a nice sounding name as it is also called Cow Slobber. It got that name from the plant’s sap as when you break the flower stalk, the sap forms stringy filaments that look like slobber and cows do ‘slobber’ at times (especially if you are nearby for them to wipe the slobber on your shirt).
Too Pretty to be Slobber
