Spring Wildflowers

On our wildflower walk the other day in the Brighton Rec Area, which turned into warbler walk, we did actually see wildflowers. It was such a wonderful afternoon, warm and sunny. It has been such a cold spring here that it was a relief to get out and stretch our legs without needing so much as a jacket.

I was happy to see we hadn't missed the trillium blooming. They would normally be about done by this time of the year, but only half of the trillium we saw were open all the way. This one was conversing with a rue anemone.



Jack-in-the-pulpit, always a favorite.



Marsh marigold were profuse any place where there was water.



This plant is not common in these woods. It is in the Cress family, though I am not sure if it's purple or spring cress--or neither!



Miterwort bows its head to the sun.


The maidenhair fern was coiled tightly like a child's fist clutching some small treasure.



Wild oats back lit by the evening sun.



Interrupted fern too was tightly bound but already two feet tall.



Farther along the trail may apples lined the top of a ridge.


The trees are getting in on the action too]. This hickory sapling's leaves had just burst forth.


It seems like everything is exploding at once this year, the forest's flowers delayed by the cold but the trees more or less on time. In a week the woods will be completely transformed, many of the flowers will be gone and the birds will be hard to find in the dense forest canopy. I need to get out again and explore the woods in this all too short time of emergence and renewal.