For (mostly) wildflower afficionados, unless you like a few butterflies too

 Wildflowers seem to take a back stage to birds for many enthusiasts of the outdoors. I get it. I am sometimes like that myself. Birds are more active, elusive and sing. Wildflowers, on the other hand, are also relatively short-lived at their peak of colour, but they are more predictable in their location. Nonetheless, they are just as important in their own way, as an element of the natural world.

Some types of wildflowers get more attention than others, such as members of the orchid family. I  recently spent a bit more time on the search for them, with varying degrees of success. For example every year or so I typically make a special trip to the Ipperwash Crown Land area in north Lambton County, in late May or early June looking for three species of orchids: Pink Lady's-slipper, Hooker's Orchid and Ram's-head Lady's-slipper. The weather can play a part in exactly when, or even if, they will be in flower, not surprisingly, and this year was certainly an example of that. Even closer to home, the extremely warm period for a couple of weeks, followed by cool and wet weather for an even longer period, caused some species to get off to a good start, but then fail to complete their cycle. The normally very predictable Showy Orchid at Rondeau, where sometimes I see several dozen plants with impressive flower spikes in addition to sets of leaves, had the usual number of leaves, but did not have a single flower spike this year! That is the first time ever, in my many years of checking out this population. And the Puttyroot population at Rondeau, which often  has 50 or more sets of leaves on average, and at least a dozen flowering spikes, had only two flowering spikes.

So when I made the trek to orchid country at Ipperwash, I wasn't sure what to expect. It was so-so. Of the normally seen dozen Pink Lady's-slipper plants in bloom, I saw a single one still hanging on, and 3 others that had finished prematurely, looking quite dried up.

I saw 6 Hooker's Orchids.....

....and none of the Ram's-head Lady's-slipper, by far the rarest of these three.

In the general vicinity of the open dunes and parking lots, were quite a few Dusted Skippers, which were very flighty and territorial. It is considered rare in Ontario and Canada.

A visit to the nearby Karner Blue sanctuary turned up a few Wild Lupine, sometimes known as Sundial Lupine.

Narrow-leaved New Jersey Tea was growing in clumps here and there.

A couple of Juvenal's Duskywings were flitting around...

....as was this Little Wood-satyr.

This moth, a Large Lace-wing Border, was resting on a lily leaf in broad daylight.

Closer to home, in mostly woodland habitat, there continues to be a roll-out of wildflowers, including:

False Solomon's Seal

Blue-eyed Grass

Carrionflower

Canada Violet, mostly white but with the back side of the petals showing a distinctly pink/purple colour.

Canada Mayflower

Gray's Sedge

This next one likes open sandy areas, not woodland.

Hairy Puccoon

Herb-robert, in the next two photos, is dainty and attractive, but not native.

Jack-in-the-pulpit flowers are mostly hidden these days, as the upper leaves may collapse around 'Jack' while the seeds develop.

Wild, or Red, Columbine is mostly finished flowering except in very shaded areas.

Robin's Plantain, a member of the Aster family, likes the edges of sandy woodlands. It looks quite similar to the much more abundant Philadelphia Fleabane, but has more numerous petals and a hairy stem.

White Baneberry will soon be developing its 'Doll's-eyes' fruit.

Wood Betony, in either yellow or reddish purple, is almost finished flowering.

Wild Blue Phlox

There is still a fair bit of Wild Geranium around.

Sanicula sp.

Seneca Snakeroot, next, is found along the open edges of sandy woodland habitat.

Sweet Cicely

Tuliptree flowers are nicely out, although most are fairly high up so they can maximize the sun exposure.

A rather small wildflower, not uncommon in rich woodland is this next one: Running Strawberry Bush. It is anything but 'bush-like', however, merely a few centimetres in height.

In open, wet areas of a woodland, there may be a few of these showing: Yellow Water Crowfoot.

As the season unfolds, there will be more wildflowers to feature, along with birds, butterflies, herps, moths, etc., etc.

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Colourful May Wildflowers

A few weeks ago I posted about April showers bringing April flowers, of which there are many that show up late in that month. However May seems to have the greatest diversity of flowers, especially in woodlands before the trees leaves get too dominant. The profusion is amazing, especially along some trails. In fact I have had birders tell me that when the birding got a bit slow, they thoroughly enjoyed the abundance of wildflowers.

This first one shown started in April, but May is its normal flowering period, and this population did persist flowering well into May.

Goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis)

Forests with developing heavy canopy have the earliest species. Wild Geranium (Geranium maculatum) is abundant.

 Less obvious is the Virginia Waterleaf (Hydrophyllum virginianum)

 White flowers, such as this Sweet Cicely (Osmorhiza claytoni) don't stand out as much as more colourful ones. This is one you need to watch out for, especially if you venture off a trail, since the developed seeds are black and sharp-pointed and will penetrate clothing and prick you.

A similarly looking white flower is White Baneberry (Actea pachypoda), sometimes known as Doll's-eyes since the white berries with black dots were used by pioneers as eye's for home-made dolls.

Wild Blue Phlox (Phlox divaricata), sometimes called the pinwheel flower, is plentiful. It is just as often pinkish-purple or white as it is blue.

Mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum), in peak flower in May, should prossibly be called Juneapple, since the little apple fruit seldom occurs until June. Parts of the plant are poisonous.

On one occasion when I was getting ready to photograph some of the wildflowers, I encountered a species I had never seen in Rondeau before: False or American Gromwell (Lithospermum latifolium). In fact until I came across this small clump, it was considered an historical species for Chatham-Kent, and hadn't been seen in Rondeau since the early 1960s. It is nice to update the historical records.

A fairly rare woodland wildflower blooming in May is Virginia Bluebells (Mertensia virginica). There are historical records for Chatham-Kent, but a fabulous colony of them occurs on a private property along the Thames River in Elgin County.

In more open woods, especially where there are lots of oaks and leaf development is slower, are a slightly different mix of wildflowers. Wild Columbine (Aquilegia canadensis) is widely scattered, and often sought out by hummingbirds which can sometimes be seen hovering beneath the flower with its long bill up into the flower searching for nectar.

 On a very few occasions, you might encounter a pale yellow form of this normally bright orange-red flower.

 Robin's Plantain (Erigeron pulchellus) is quite restricted to sandy/grassy openings of the oak forest.

 False Toadflax (Comandra richardsonii) is another very restricted species, and not nearly as large and colourful as many others.

 Wood Betony (Pedicularis canadensis) on the other hand is usually quite abundant in these oak forest openings. They may be purplish, as shown in the first image, or yellow, as shown in the following one.

 An abundant member of the Lily family, growing in sandy soils along oak forest edges, is this Starry False Solomon's-seal (Maianthemum stellatum).

Just a few of the more obvious and sometimes less obvious, herbaceous wildflowers to be found in May, with some of them persisting into June. Herbaceous plants aren't the only ones with flowers. Woody plants have them too...some are obvious and some are so diminutive they aren't noticeable unless you look really, really hard for them. Some will be featured in a future post.