Spring is making an Appearance

With all the snow and low temperatures the Winter of 2013-14 seemed like it would never end.  But looking back at photos from this time last year, native plant growth is only a week or so behind 2013.  I almost did not venture out into the woods for an informal survey, but I'm glad I did.  While only a few native species were in bloom, many have broken ground and are forming flower buds.  Here are some photos of the highlights.

When walking through the woods, it pays to look up once in a while.

Many of the native spring wild flowers most active while the tree canopy is open.  Now they have have enough light to photosynthesize and store up energy.  Once the trees leaf out there is not enough light for these plants to continue to grow so many of them shut down for the summer.  These plants are known as the spring ephemerals.  

The first plants I noticed were the Virginia Bluebells, Mertensia virginica.  These first appear as purplish-gray buds through the leaf litter.  If last year is a guide they should be blooming in about 2 weeks.

As the leaves of these Virginia Bluebells mature they lose the purplish blush.

I was surprised to see the Spring Beauties in bloom.  There are only a few of them now.  Their number should continue to increase into May.  These grow from corms, so technically they are native bulbs.  If I happen to dig up any later this spring I will move them up into the bulb gardens closer to the house.  

These blooms are mostly white, pinkish ones appear later in the season.

The finely divided foliage of Dutchman's Breeches, Dicentra cucullaria, is also making an appearance.  I don't know if this species can be distinguished from Squirrel Corn, D. canadensis, just by the foliage.  I am making the assignment based on only seeing the former species last year.

The new foliage of all 3 eastern Dicentra species is very similar.
Off to the right are some leaves from Spring Beauties.

White Avens, Geum canadense, will bloom until later in the summer, but it is producing fresh foliage now.  It is recognizable by its deeply divided gray-green foliage.

One of the large basal leaves of White Avens  is at the lower right in the photo above.  

I saw a lot of leaves of Toothwort, Cardamine diphylla, and a few with flower buds. I also saw some leaves of cut-leaved Toothwort, C. laciniata.  These have similar coloration, but the leaves are deeply cut into five or more fingers.  These species were formally classified in the genus Dentaria.

You can see a mauve-colored flower stalk just left of center, above.

I purchased a couple of Golden Ragwort, Packera aurea, at a native plant sale last fall.  You can see that they over wintered well and it looks like they have already begun to spread.

Golden Ragwort should produce yellow daisy-like flowers on
long stems through spring and summer.

It's amazing that these little flowers will go on
to produce a couple of hazelnuts

The new growth was not limited to the perennials.  The shrubs are also beginning to bloom.  I got this American Hazelnut, Corylus americana, last fall.  It was bearing several nut clusters which grew to maturity last season.  This spring I only noticed the small red female flowers.  There were no male catkins on the shrub.  I don't know if their absence is due to the cold, or the deer.

I would have missed seeing the buds forming on this Yellowroot, Xanthorhiza simplicissima, if I had not remembered where it was planted.  The tops of the plant had been 'cut' back a bit.  Again, I don't know if this was from frost damage or deer browse.  

The flower buds of Spicebush, Lindera benzoin, are about to burst.  The flowering time of Spicebush is similar to Forsythia, but the color of the Spicebush is much more delicate.  In a week or so this area will be in a yellow haze of Spicebush flowers.  

Close examination of a Spicebush branch shows that the flower buds occur in pairs.
This helps with plant ID.

 All the new activity in the woods was not limited to the plants.  A small red speck racing along a a branch caught my attention.  It measured about 1/4 inch long and is 8 legged, like a spider.  Comparing images on a Google search for 'little red spider' led me to tentatively identify this as a Velvet Mite.  This is a predatory species feeding primarily on Arthropods.

This looks like it could be a Red Velvet Mite.  It moved very quickly for an insect so small.

Native Bulbs

Scilla growing under a Sargent Crabapple
at Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, MA.

Spring is ushered in by a plethora of flowering bulbs. Despite my inclination toward natives I still plant all kinds of exotic bulbs. I especially like seeing the blue carpets of Scilla under trees and Crocus sprouting randomly in a lawn. So last fall, this got me thinking, what about native bulbs?

Crocus tommasiniansus between Prairie Dropseed mounds.

Some native bulbs that I knew of were Trout Lily (Erythronium americanum), Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) and Camas (Camassia sp.). To check for more ideas I did a search of the USDA Plants Database looking for North American natives that are propagated from bulbs gave a list of 30 plants, including Alliums, Camassia, Iris and Sisyrinchium angustifolium (Blue-eyed grass). For corms, 17 Species were listed including Dicentra, Hypoxis (Yellow Star grass) and Liatris. (Note that all of the data for every single plant in this database is not fully stocked, so there are gaps, but it is still a useful tool, especially at the Genus-level.)

I decided to focus on the first three. Finding a source for these plants was not trivial, but after many hours on the internet I found a nursery in West Virginia that propagated their own natives: Sunshine Farm and Gardens.  Also, they had all of the species I was after – one stop shopping!

No bloom on this one.

My best result, so far, has been with the Trout Lily, aka Dogtooth Violet, which began sprouting up in early April. At first it blended in with the early tulip foliage, but they distinguished themselves by the mottled coloration on the topside of the leaf. This coloration can be likened to that of a trout. (The backside of this leaf was a flat green, just like the tulip foliage.) A second plant, this one with a bloom, was initially more elusive, but certainly worth finding. Once opened, this small flower was hard to miss. this bloom lasted 7-10 days.  As these were rather small bulbs when I put them in, I may have lost them amongst the Tulips in the leafy mulch that I used.  These plants will spread by stolons, so if they are happy, I will eventually have a good sized patch.



In bud...



...two days later.


 



This brings up a very important point. It is a very good idea to sketch out a map or plan of where you put in your bulbs, because no matter how significant or important they seem at planting time in the fall, the memory fades by springtime. This is my current situation at home (however, not a mistake I make when working for clients).

So far I have not located the Bloodroot that I put in. Its deeply lobed foliage may allow it to blend in with many of the other spring plants that are active right now, like the Columbine, Coral Bells and Geraniums. And, if it’s not blooming, this may be a lost cause. Again, if I had only mapped out where these were put in I would know where to focus my search.

Most of the Camassia that are easily available are cultivars of species native to the Western US, like the Small Camas, Camassia quamash. The only species of Camassia native to the Eastern US is the Atlantic Camas, Camassia scilloides, with a native range from Georgia to Pennsylvania and west to Texas. Since Camas prefers moister areas, I did not save any for myself, but I did put some in for clients with more appropriate conditions (also where I did do a map). So I will be paying them a visit soon to see how they are doing. The Atlantic Camas has a preference for limestone-rich soils, so it may be a good choice in a residential setting for planting near a foundation.