Spring-Summer 2008
Prose
Poetry
Artwork
Photograph of bluebells by LeAnn Spencer
Walk Among Wildflowers
When we the last time you went for a walk in the woods in a carpet of spring wildflowers? Probably not recently, unless you’ve been in a woodland that has been cleared of buckthorn, honeysuckle and other pushy invasives. When those undesirables are kept at bay, a spring woodland is beautiful, flush with carpets of wildflowers, tiny blossoms that beckon a visitor to bend low and take a closer look.
Click on photos for enlargements.
Wildflower carpet
Spring beauties, cutleaf toothwort, and the beginnings of spring trout lilies speckle winter’s detritus of leaf litter with white and green.
Bloodroot
The vivid blossom and full leaves of bloodroot, Sanguinaria candensis, are hard to miss.
Spring beauty
The delicate flowers of spring beauties, Claytonia virginica, are easily identified by the pink stripes striations on the white petals that guide incoming insects to the pollen center.
Marsh marigold
Golden petals and glossy leaves of spring’s marsh marigolds, Caltha palustris, brighten shady, damp areas.
Dutchmen's breeches
A clutch of the white waving pantaloons of Dutchmen’s breeches, Dicentra cucularia, brighten a corner of a rotting log.
Photos copyright © 2008 by Mary Ramsden. All rights reserved.