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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Early spring wildflower parade, and the silliness of social media

 A few weeks ago, someone posted a photograph of a beautiful Tulip-tree flower in excellent bloom. The leaves were fully developed and the flower looked quite attractive. Here is a photo of what it would look like in peak flowering.

The person who posted it got it from a friend, who was adamant that because of the warmer than usual winter southern Ontario had experienced, the Tulip-tree flowers at Rondeau Provincial Park were in full bloom even in late March! Even though it was pointed out that this was highly unlikely, the person who posted it stuck to the narrative, and at least a few others who saw the post bought into it.

Totally ridiculous!!!

Here is what the Rondeau forest looked like on April 14. 

There are lots of Spicebush coming into flower, as detected by the yellowish cast of the lower woody plants, but of course they flower before the leaves develop. There are Tulip Trees in this photo, but the leaves are undeveloped and there certainly are no flowers. The normal flowering date for this species is at least late May, depending on the year, but more often in early June.

Conclusion: it just goes to show how mis-leading, even somewhat useless, social media can be. I am sure that most readers of Nature Nuggets would not have fallen for such a silly post.

On to the real world.

With the sunnier, warmer days that have sometimes occurred in recent weeks, some of the early spring wildflowers are a bit ahead of themselves, at least by a few days. I have been out exploring some inland woodlots, such as Clear Creek Forest Prov Park, as well as the McKerrall Forest and Sinclair's Bush, all of which are a bit warmer than Rondeau which is very much affected by the surrounding cool waters of Lake Erie. While the trees are not yet in leaf, the spring wildflowers take advantage of all of the sunlight reaching the forest floor, as shown in this next photo of Clear Creek Forest.There is a hint of greenery, from the smaller spring wildflowers, shown here.

Here are some of the ones I was able to photograph at various places.

Bloodroot is normally one of the earliest, and they are still in flower.

As the forest photo of Rondeau shows above, the abundance of Spicebush is obvious, in part due to the decline of mature beech and ash trees which has allowed a lot more sunlight to get to the forest floor. This results in a huge profusion of Spicebush.

Virginia Spring Beauty

Dutchman's Breeches

Early Blue Cohosh

Cut-leaved Toothwort

Purple Cress

Red Trillium typically opens in flower slightly earlier than their white counterpart, and sure enough I saw more Reds in flower than Whites.

Most of the White Trilliums were open enough to see which species it was, as shown next....

...and I did see the occasional one completely open, especially if it was on a south facing slope which made it slightly warmer.

Yellow Trout Lily has lots and lots of the typical leaves visible scattered across the forest floor. A fair number of the plants may be in full flower if it is a sunny day.

Skunk Cabbage typically flowers before showing the leaves. A previous post showed the flowers, with virtually no leaf parts showing. Now, the opposite is the case, as the large green leaves are well developed and the purplish/yellow flower at the base is much harder to see.

Virginia Bluebells are a rather rare spring wildflower, and normally does not open up much until at least the end of the first week in May. I have a small clump in my yard, and this has been open for a few days. This photo was taken today, April 23.

The sandy soils of open places at Rondeau have many of the Early Butttercup in good flower.

When on the prowl looking for wildflowers, there are other things within view which I try and photograph. Butterflies are fairly plentiful due to the influx of Red Admiral and American Painted Lady.

Red Admiral

American Painted Lady

There are others as well, such as Eastern Comma and Spring Azure, although some butterfly persona would just call the latter species an Azure of the Celastrina complex.

Just for a bit more diversity, here are some turtles that are enjoying the sunnier days. Midland Painted Turtles, shown first, are quite abundant....

...whereas the Northern Map Turtle, next, is considerably less common.

Birds are showing up in greater numbers and diversity. I expect the next post to feature primarily birds.

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