Sunday, April 27, 2008

Wild About Wildflowers


The woods here are bursting forth with flowery goodness and it's during this time that I love to just walk through and get up close and personal with the tiny treasures there. We're fortunate to have woods nearby so we can easily take a short walk to them.

Right now, you can find blooms on:

Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis)

Bloodroot is aptly named, because when you cut the root, it actually looks like it's bleeding. Besides being showy and beautiful, it's an interesting plant. It is the only species in its genus, Sanguineria. Also, its sap has been used to treat many things, one of which is Plantar's Wart. I've had one going on five years now and we've tried everything short of surgery, which no doctor that I've seen recommends. Maybe I should try this?


Dutchman's Breeches (Dicentra cucullaria)


Marsh Marigold (Caltha palustris) - This one actually
shows up each spring in our garden.


Spring Cress (Cardamine bulbosa)


Spring Beauty (Claytonia virginica) - these are everywhere.


Trout Lily (Erythronium albidum) - These are everywhere, too, but just a fraction of them in each colony will bloom. Young plants only have one leaf and are flowerless. It takes seven years for a seedling to grow a second leaf and bloom.


Sessile Trillium or Toadshade (Trillium sessile)
While they're common here, I've yet to see the
Giant White Trillium (Trillium grandiflorum) in real life.


Virginia Bluebells (Mertensia virginica)


Vinca or Periwinkle (Vinca minor) - Visit just about any
old cemetery in this part of Ohio and you'll find enough of
this growing to supply all the area nurseries with it.
It's a great groundcover, and while it can be invasive,
it's not that hard to remove the vines.


While I love my garden hybrids and many of the new hybrids, there's something charming and satisfying about strolling through the woods and witnessing nature's awakening in the spring with the blooming of the native wildflowers.


11 comments:

Connie said...

Kylee, What beautiful wildflowers!
I love Dutchman's Breeches....they grow here near a local creek in the springtime. When my daughter was young, we made pressed flower bookmarks and the D. Breeches turned upside down made perfect butterflies.

Lisa at Greenbow said...

Aaahhhhh simply beautiful.

beckie said...

Kylee, you are so right about the wild flowers being beautiful. And I am going to write down all of the names. I only knew what a couple were called. Thanks!

Mr. McGregor's Daughter said...

I love the Spring ephemerals too! I can't get my Trillium sessile to bloom, but for the 1st time my T. grandiflorum are blooming.

Anonymous said...

oh my, what a treat. I hardly ever see wildflowers and you have quite a selection pictured. What a wonderful post.

Rose said...

Beautiful photos, Kylee. I know very little about wildflowers, so I appreciate your sharing this with us. I am learning so much!

Ki said...

Wonderful, wonderful photos Kylee. I love photos of wildflowers especially of bloodroot, dutchman's britches (breeches) and the trout lily. In fact I was so taken by the Dicentra cucullaria in your earlier post?, I tried to order some from the Wayside Gardens collectors catalog but they were all sold out. I did find some from American Meadows but now I'm on the hunt for some 'Squirrel Corn' Dicentra canadensis.

kate smudges said...

The Claytonia and Cardamine are such pretty blooms. I love the trout lilies and the Bloodroot...

Your photographs are lovely.

Yolanda Elizabet Heuzen said...

Wonderful Kylee, you know how much I like wild flowers so this was a lovely treat! I am particularly smitten with the Virginia Bluebells and the cute Spring Beauty.

Entangled said...

Those are beautiful spring woodland wildflowers. I've been searching our lot in central Virginia for spring ephemerals for two years now, and just last week I finally found 2 spring beauty plants.

I was looking at some range maps for native azaleas from this site, but it looks as though they never made it as far west as Ohio. They do grow north of here, so it seems like they should be hardy enough?

Unknown said...

Now, here you're at least two-three weeks ahead of me--my trilliums are up, but they won't be flowering for a while yet, and many of the others aren't doing anything yet--not even up, though I have only consulted my gardens, not the woods. Exquisite photos, Kylee, all of them.

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