Spring Wildflowers in the Woods

If there's a time of year when I miss being able to get out in the woods, it's the month of May.  This is the month when the 'spring ephemerals' bloom, those beautiful wildflowers that take advantage of about three weeks when it's warm enough for them to grow but the tree leaves aren't out yet.  Lots of light can get to the forest floor and these plants love it!

The forest floor is quite bare when the spring wildflowers first appear, and the canopy is still open, though the tree leaves are starting to unfold giving a green tinge as you look up.  It's a unique short period in the seasons of the year.

The Sharp-lobed Hepatica is usually the first of these woodland flowers to bloom around here.

Spring Beauty blooms shortly thereafter, along with several others.

Dutchman's Breeches is one of these early bloomers, the flower said to look like a Dutchman's breeches hanging on the clothsline.

Squirrel Corn has identical leaves, but quite different flowers.

One of the most unusual, and therefore one of my favourites, is the deep purple Blue Cohosh.  It grows so fast during the first warm days in May, literally 3-4" per day, that you can practically see it grow.  And no, I didn't arrange these in front of the boulder, they just grew that way!

And finally the widespread Trout Lily or Dogtooth Violet adds a splash of yellow with its flowers.

I point these out now because if you want to get out in the woods and see them, you need to go now.  By the time the Trillium are out in about two weeks, the first of these will have faded away.  They are 'ephemeral' indeed!  I'll follow up with a second post in a day or two.