Shooting Stars are a native wildflowers that slightly resembles the fireworks my neighbor was shooting off this evening. There are over a dozen species with colors of purple, pink, rose and white. Seedlings takes three to four years to blossom.
Shooting Stars
The brightly colored orchid like blossom of the Gaywings is a small woodland flower in the Milkwort family. The flowers are about a half inch to an inch wide and the plant only three to six inches tall. It was thought that cow’s milk production would increase by eating this plant.
Pretty Little Gaywings
The Ridges Sanctuary is a 1,600 acre nature preserve and land trust in Baileys Harbor, Wisconsin which also operates an orchid restoration project. There are over twenty five native orchid species there and during a visit there earlier this month, the Ram’s Head Lady’s Slipper was supposed to be blooming. After seeing the Yellow Lady Slippers earlier in the week and with a name with ram head, I was expecting a large blossom. But instead this Wisconsin Threatened plant flower is only a half inch to an inch long so it was very hard to spot in the woods as even the small spider in the photo appeared to longer than the blossom.
Ram’s Head Lady’s Slipper
The bright color bracts which resemble paintbrushes dipped in paint gives this flower its name of Indian Paintbrush. The colorful modified leaves is not the true flower but instead the flower is a smaller yellow green tubular hidden in the tips of the orange brackets. It is also considered to be hemiparasitic as its roots intertwines with other plants for water and nutrients. Bees, butteries and hummingbirds enjoy these flowers.
Indian Paintbrush
This little flower has many names, like Stinking Bob and Kiss-Me-Quick, but is often called Herb Robert. And the Robert part of the name has several theories including to honor Saint Robert of Molesme, an 11th century herbalist and founder of the Cistercian order. In the geranium family, the flower is native in eastern North American but is an invasive species in western North America especially in the Oregon and Washington area. The mature seed capsule can shoot over fifteen feet when something brushes against it.
Herb Robert
With Lake Michigan on one side and the warmer water of Green Bay on the other side of the peninsula of Door County, it was interesting that not only were the wildflowers a month or more behind in blooming compared to my woods, the ten miles or so between the two coasts also had a difference in what flowers were in blossoms.
There were flowers there not present in my area and it was a lovely treat to find patches of Yellow Lady’s Slipper orchids still in full bloom.
Yellow Lady’s Slippers
The Northern Blue Flag likes wet areas and it received an extra coating of water when a brief shower yesterday left some rain drops on the blossom and leaves.
Wet Blue Flag
The nodding trillium has blossoms that hide under the leaves, which may be why my deer don’t see the white to eat them or the leaves have a different taste as the nodding trilliums survive in my woods where the great white trilliums get grazed off.
Nodding Trillium
A cluster of Jack-in-the-pulpits catch some early evening spring sunshine. They are a native wildflower and the actual true flower are tiny dots that line the spadix (the Jack) which are wrapped by the spathe (the pulpit). The smaller plants are generally male and as the plant ages and grows larger, more female flowers are produced.
Some Jacks in Sunshine
There are trilliums blooming in the woods at the farm, but the great white trilliums were beheaded again by the deer along my path to the pond. The trilliums have been eaten too many years in a row so only a few even sprouted but the critters managed to nibble on them leaving stems only.
Missing Great White Trilliums
