After wondering when spring would ever stop retreating again to sub-freezing temps, well, this week it returned with a bang: my thermometer reads 80 degrees on this Sunday afternoon! And it was warm enough all last week to inspire almost all of our spring ephemeral wildflowers to burst into bloom, so quickly I could hardly keep up with them, dashing from woodland to woodland to document their progress. So I've been way too busy to sit down and do what it takes to post a blog. But now I am scheduled to lead a wildflower walk in the Skidmore Woods in just a few days, and I want to tempt participation by showing my friends what awaits them in this beautiful limestone-underlaid woodland. So here's just a list, in alphabetical order, of much of what was happening in a Saratoga Springs woods just yesterday.
Bellwort, Large-flowered (Uvularia grandiflora)
An aptly named flower, the largest of our three local species of bellworts, distinguished by its inrolled perfoliate leaves and the slight twist of its long bright-yellow petals. Abundant in this limestone-underlaid woods.
I sure hope a few Bloodroot flowers remain by the end of the week, since many are already dropping their snowy-white petals and producing jade-green oval seedpods, which are really attractive in their own way. And not just attractive to us! The pods are packed full of seeds that possess a flap of tissue that ants just crave, carrying the seeds off to their underground nests, where the ants devour the fleshy flap and discard the rest of the seeds, all ready to germinate to make new Bloodroot flowers. Thank you, ants!
Blue Cohosh, Early (Caulophyllum giganteum)
We in Saratoga are lucky to have both species of Caulophyllum growing near each other, this purple-flowered one and a later-blooming yellow-flowered one (see next photo). That way we can see how distinctly the species differ. Until the late 20th Century, C. giganteum was not distinguished as a separate species, despite being even more common than the yellow-flowered one. My 1975 edition of Newcomb's Wildflower Guide is remarkably comprehensive, and yet it does not even mention this species. Quite probably, many of the old pre-1980 botanical records should have been labeled giganteum instead of thalictroides.
Blue Cohosh (Caulophyllum thalictroides)
This is the second species of Caulophyllum, which blooms about 10 days later than C. giganteum and with more yellowish flowers. The two species grow within a few yards of each other in this woods, and yet they have not hybridized, as least not during the 30-plus years I've been observing them in the Skidmore woods. When both species mature and produce their bright-blue seeds, they are difficult to distinguish without close examination.
Dutchman's Breeches (Dicentra cucullaria)
I only started seeing Dutchman's Breeches in this woods about 6 years ago, and to date I have found them only in one limited location. Luckily, our wildflower walk's route will take us right to that spot!
Dwarf Ginseng (Panax trifolius)
Early Meadow Rue (Thalictrum dioicum), male flowers
Early Meadow Rue bears male and female sex parts on separate plants, and these staminate flowers bear their pollen on long dangling anthers that shimmy in the slightest breeze, wafting their pollen to neighboring female plants, the flowers of which are much less noticeable, consisting solely of tiny pistils. I could not find any female plants today. But they'll show up when these anthers are ready to waft that pollen.
Elder, Red-berried (Sambucus racemosa)
The flowers of Red-berried Elder are actually the least showy stage of this native shrub, with rather scraggly clusters of off-white florets. When in bud, the large tight clusters of flower buds are shaded a lovely purple, and later, the berries the flowers produce are truly a knock-your-eye-out glossy red.
Fern, Bulblet (Cystopteris bulbifera)
Bulblet Fern loves to grow among limey rocks, in this case sprouting right out of a boulder's cracks. I believe the Cherry-Twizzler-red stalks are distinctive at this juvenile stage, and when mature, the reason for their name will become evident, as small round clonal bulblets form on the underside of the fronds. The fronds also produce spores. They don't take chances when it comes to reproduction!
Christmas Fern is one of the easiest ferns to ID, even if we don't immediately recognize the fuzzy curling fiddleheads that uncoil in the spring. But notice the still-green old fronds that have collapsed at the base of the plant. You can still detect the Christmas-stocking shape of each pinna, a feature that certainly suggested this fern's vernacular name. Plus, this fern's fronds are still green during a northern Christmas.
I'm afraid my photo provides no reference to suggest how tiny these wee little fiddleheads are. But at least they are relatively easy to espy, especially when sunlight sets their translucent red stalks aglow. And a search among the dry leaves revealed many dried-up remnants of this lovely fern's delicate fronds.
Green Violet (Cubelium concolor), new sprouts
Yes, the long-pointed elliptical leaves of this plant don't look like those of most other plants we call violets, and neither do the stubby little lop-sided, greenish-white flowers that will dangle from the leaf axils along the 18-inch-tall stems. But the Green Violet IS in the Violaceae Family, which might be more evident if you could see the three-parted pods that hold small round seeds. This is quite a rare plant in New York, although you would never guess that when thousands stand erect across acres of the Skidmore Woods, which has the kind of calcareous soil this plant desires. It used to go by the name Hybanthus concolor.
Hepatica, Sharp-lobed (Hepatica acutiloba)
Because of its rich calcareous soil, the Skidmore woods supports both the Round-lobed and the Sharp-lobed Hepaticas, and it seems that only the Sharp-lobed species is still putting forth a few flowers -- all of them white! This particular clump interested me because in addition to the relatively fresh flowers, many flowers had already faded to produce the rather pretty seed pods, and new leaves had replaced the withering over-wintered former leaves.
The presence of Leatherwood in a forest is usually an indication of lime-rich soil, and there are many of these interesting shrubs at several locations throughout the Skidmore woods. Our earliest woody shrub to bloom, it is already putting out leaves as its small yellow trumpet-shaped blooms are fading. I found this yellow-abdomened wasp lingering among the leaves, and even when I tried to reposition it for a clearer gander, it seemed reluctant to move. Was it just sleepy or was it ailing? I left it alone.
Lots of Mayapples are now pushing up from amid the brown leaves, a few with their wide leafy umbrellas already open wide, and some with new flower buds peeking up between two leaves, like a chick peeking out of the nest. Eventually, the leaves will overtop the bud as it produces first one big white flower and later its yellowish egg-shaped fruit, the only edible part of this otherwise poisonous plant. Poisonous it may be, but scientists have found that the Mayapple is an excellent source of podophyllotoxin, a compound used for making cancer-fighting chemicals.
Mountain Ricegrass (Oryzopsis asperifolia)
For the first time in all my 50-plus years of walking the Skidmore woods, I came upon this grassy plant with the furry worm-shaped little flowers. I had found it before in other woods, where I learned its name, but only now did I inquire on Google whether this plant with "rice" in its name was edible. And there I learned that "the seeds of the plant can be eaten raw, cooked, or ground into a meal. The seeds are large and have a pleasant taste, but can be difficult to harvest because they drop easily from the plant. The seeds can be ground into flour and used to make bread, mush, pones, and dumplings." Since I found only two plants amid an acre of woods, I thought it not worth harvesting. Wrong time of year, too. And not my property.
Sedge in flower (Carex species)
There are many similar grass-like sedges populating the forest floor here, some with wide and some with slender and some with mid-width leaves, but all with fine yellow hair-like staminate flowers in terminal puffs, reminding me of tow-headed babies just getting up from a nap. If the wide leaves are rumpled like seersucker, I might venture it could be the Seersucker Sedge (Carex plantaginea). But if its leaves are a mix of widths (like this one), I haven't a clue. I bet we might have some sedge experts on our walk who could put a name to every one. (That's what I'm hoping.)
Shadblow species (Amelanchier species)
We have a number of different species of Shadblows that grow around here, but all bear flowers that from a distance, appear like a cloud wafting through the bare branches. I did not have my tree guide with me this day, and the forest floor around this tree's base was pretty muddy. So I didn't walk up to it to assess its particulars. I don't need to know the name to know that it's beautiful. I let my camera's zoom bring its image a little closer to me, but not close enough to parse it out as to species.
I find it odd that a trillium with such a floppy flower would have the specific name "erectum." I almost always have to tip this plant backward to get a shot of its deep-red flower. But this one was growing high on a bank, and I could just walk below it and point my camera upward.
Trillium, Red, white petals (Trilliium erectum var. album)
How do I know that this is a Red Trillium with non-red petals and not a White Trillium? Because it has a deep-red ovary, typical of the species T. erectum. And its petals are not the true white of a Large-flowered White Trillium (see next photo), but more of a yellowish hue. A not uncommon variety of the Red Trillium.
Trout Lily (Erythronium americanum)
Lots and lots of Trout Lilies thrive in this woods, but they have been blooming for nearly a week already. I sure hope a few of these lovely lilies will wait to fade until after my friends will have had a chance to admire them.
In an acre of rocky slope I searched and searched for the Canada Violets I was sure grew there. At least I found lots of their leaves to suggest they might be blooming later this week. And then I found this one. Hurray! Isn't she lovely? Such a pure-white face with a bright-yellow center, and the backs of those petals are tinged with purple. They thrive amid chunks of limestone.
Violet, Longspur (Viola rostrata)
The most abundant violet blooming now in this woods is the Long-spurred Violet. I would guess there's no question about how this pretty flower acquired that vernacular name. I saw quite a lot of color variation among the flowers, from a deeper purple to nearly white and also this speckled pattern.
It won't be long before pinky-purple flowers will protrude from these speckled green leaves. This is one of our more generous native wildflowers, as pretty as it's abundant. I hope we see a few flowers by later this week. But even if not, the deeply-cut leaves are really lovely in their own right.
Wood Anemone (Anemone quinquefolia)
When this pretty white wildflower finds a site it likes, it spreads across the forest floor like a firmament of stars. Well, not quite as numerous, but in impressive numbers.
We won't yet see this flower in bloom with its crown of yellow florets, but its crinkly leaves are already much in evidence and with a beauty all their own.
The Skidmore woods, with its calcareous soil, is the only place I can recall seeing this relatively unusual oak. Its shaggy bark does have a yellowish cast, and although we are not likely to find any mature leaves yet, we might search the forest floor to find leaves that display their distinctive tiny "nipples" at the end of each lobe.
