Ditch Diving

On Sunday we went for a drive again, down south of here, turning off the main road to take a few sideroads through the swamps.  I'm calling it ditch diving, driving along swampy sideroads to see what spring flowers we can see in the ditches.  Mrs. F.G. has become quite fascinated with those swampy sideroads. 

Our first stop was at a spot we knew to see the Skunk Cabbage growing.  We're a little late this year, so we were mainly seeing their bright green leaves rather than the deep purple of the 'spathe', the first part of the plant above ground in the spring.  You can see remnants of the spathes of these two plants in the photos.

As it grows the bright leaves dominate, forming small fields of green, somewhat odiferous plants with very large leaves.

Last Sunday some plants were well developed, while some were little more than the purple spathes poking above water.

On we went and in front of a drier patch of upland forest we quickly found some Dogtooth Violets or Trout Lily.  The second photo here is drastically cropped, leaving it a little unclear.

Even the woods themselves were showing a sheen of green as the leaves started opening.  Did you notice the line of beehives?

We passed a small stream that used to mark one of my hideouts.  There's a beaver dam holding back a large wetland just a short distance upstream.  This is the headwaters of the remarkable Wodehouse Creek which I've written about before..

As we carried on the other bright spring flower we soon found was the Marsh Marigold.  It's remarkable to see these growing right out of the water.  Thus ended our ditch diving, a short but fascinating ride.