It's spring wildflower time!

The last few weeks have been increasingly busy, so I am behind in my blog production. 

I know there are at least some who get this blog, who aren't able to get out and enjoy the spring wildflowers like they used to. So I try and do at least one post to feature many of the spring wildflowers. 

This first one is what I thought was suitable considering the cold winter we just came through. It is one I took at Fish Point Prov Nature Reserve a few years ago, but with the verse I came across recently, it just seemed to fit.

The forest floor is covered with Dutchman's Breeches, a close-up of which is shown next.

So many flowers are becoming quite visible, at least for a short time until the canopy of the forest fills out and the forest floor becomes heavily shaded and harder for the wildflowers to peak.

Bloodroot is one of the earlier ones, and it is always a treat to see a profusion of them. 

Flowers are also occurring on trees and shrubs, such as the Choke Cherry, shown next.

Common Blue Violet

Cut-leaved Toothwort

If you look high enough, you may see flowers of a type on trees. This first one features the female catkins of an Eastern Cottonwood....

....and these are the male catkins of the same species.

Round-lobed Hepatica

Jack-in-the-pulpit

Large-flowered Bellwort

Long-spurred Violet

There is a nice woodlot not far from where I grew up and I have always been fascinated with the extensive array of Marsh Marigolds that are very abundant in the wetter sections.

Prairie Buttercup

Next is one that always attracts attention. It is Red Columbine. On rare occasion, one may even find a white version of this!

Red Trillium

Smooth Yellow Violet

Another shrub in flower right now is Spicebush, very abundant at Rondeau.

Spring Beauty

Some of the White Trilliums are still in the tight bud condition....

...but there is an increasing abundance of them in their fullness.

Yellow Trout Lily is always attractive....

...especially when they are fully open on a bright sunny day and you get a closer look.

The deer exclosures at Rondeau are always a treat to visit. Inside, the greenery is abundant, as they have not been browsed by deer at all since 1978 when they were constructed. However the flora inside is still recovering from decades of heavy browsing. This next particular photo actually does not show the abundance of Bloodroot, which was past its best when I took this. But the Large-flowered Bellwort is the current dominant.

I turned around 180 degrees and got this photo immediately adjacent to the exclosure. The wildflowers are there, but really small and scattered by comparison, as they are still being browsed by enough deer in spite of the annual deer culls over the last few years. So without regular control of the deer, the spring wildflower display just won't be what it should/could be. The fairly extensive greenery at the back is actually Japanese Barberry, a very aggressive non-native species.

However in some parts of the park, Mayapple is growing well and becoming its usual fairly dominant self.

 Here are a few other wildflowers, some native. One that is not all that common across the woodland landscape is Virginia Bluebells. I have seen it in several places, but it doesn't occur in Chatham-Kent. However in visiting a woodland where it is quite abundant, the landowner gave me several plants, which I planted in our partially forested yard, and I enjoy watching them flourish.

Another native species, but does not occur in C-K but in some sandy woodland conditions farther east is this next one: Moss Phlox. It is a very low growing plant, only a few centimetres tall.

I will finish this post with a favourite spring flower that occurs in prairie, but not in Ontario, at least not naturally. It is in the prairie patch in my yard, and is always a highlight to see! There is a pink variety as well.

Eastern Shooting-star

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An early orchid and other plants

 With the abnormally advanced spring, many wildflowers are ahead of their normal blooming time. A prime example is this Showy Orchid. Usually it would not be in flower until about the end of the third week in May, but here it is in prime condition about two weeks earlier.

Lots of things have been steadily appearing, although with the very warm weather similar to mid-July temperatures, many species do not last long. What follows is an array of things that have caught my eye and camera. 

Violets can sometimes be quite dominant on the forest floor, such as this Eastern Canada Violet.

The flowers are mostly white....

...with the back of the petals showing a purplish tinge.

Common Blue Violet

Long-spurred Violet

Mayapple

This next one is rather rare, and restricted to southwestern Ontario. It is Pawpaw, a small tree, and the flowers are often open before or just as the leaves are unfurling.

Blue Phlox

Shagbark Hickory is not common, but widely scattered. Its bark is distinctive...

...and as the leaves first emerge, they almost look like flowers.

White Baneberry

Red Columbine

Wood Anemone

Many of the sloughs of Rondeau are full of yellow flowers. Leaves are not all that visible, as they are at or under the water surface. It is the Yellow Water Crowfoot.

When one is wandering the trails looking for flowers, other things pop into view. This first one is also a plant, a fungus known as Dryad's Saddle

There have been lots of Eastern Tiger Swallowtails flitting about!

This Northern Brown Snake was right on the path, and seemed reluctant to move off, as it was enjoying the sun.

These Six-spotted Tiger Beetles had other things on their mind!

There are always a multitude of things to see and enjoy in the natural world!

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