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Golden Ragwort
Such great fortune to have Mother Nature as my landscape architect up here in the mountains. She provides me with such wondrous plants to enjoy. Like native Golden Ragwort (Packera aurea). I just have to help her out with things such as the removal of exotic species invasives. Which I have to admit is not…
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Tomorrow is SPRING!
Many of you know that I love winter, my totally, over the top, favorite season. But I also delight in the seasons changing. If the seasons stayed the same, day after day after day after day I wouldn’t be content. I think the world of CHANGE. Sometimes even Mother Nature just doesn’t want to let…
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Cutleaf Toothwort
A spring ephemeral, a perennial native to eastern North America. Cutleaf Toothwort (Cardamine concatenata). The “toothwort” of its name is thanks to the appearance of its rhizome. The Cutleaf Toothwort likes woods with mesic soils covered with lots of leaf litter. This certainly must be the description of the woods where I live. Many of…
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Bear Corn
There are so many awesome treasures to be found in the woods. One of those treasures that is right up there near the top of my list is Bear Corn (Conopholis americana). It’s a native to eastern North America. This is a plant that doesn’t have a speck of the color green because Bear Corn…
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Wood Betony
This native perennial is found in southeastern Canada, eastern North America (as well as New Mexico and Colorado) and eastern Mexico. Wood Betony (Pedicularis canadensis). The first time I ever saw this plant was along a trail here in the Blue Ridge. As is often the case, I took a picture of the flower, went…
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Virginia Bluebells
An ephemeral spring plant native to eastern North America. Virginia Bluebell (Mertensia virginica). I’m watching. I’m waiting. I just checked. No sign of them yet. BUT very soon. Surely in less than two weeks I’ll be seeing leaves of purply-green emerging from the soil. Reaching for the sun. These plants enjoy being in a shady…
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Winter Aconite
The same day that I first heard the raucous clacking of wood frogs coming from the pond, my Winter Aconites (Eranthis hyemalis) were beginning to bloom. Just hours before meteorological spring was about to begin. These small screaming yellow beauties were a gift from a dear friend years ago. Since then they have won my…
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Hoarfrost
The cold temperatures of winter can create such works of wonder. Often so delicate they can’t be touched for fear of destruction. Occasionally the beauty makes me forget that what I am looking at, such as these rose hips of Multiflora Rose (Rosa multiflora), is something that I work diligently to rid my woods of.…
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Which Chickadee?
In North America there are seven native species of chickadee. Two of those species are the Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus) which are found from New England to the West Coast along the northern tier of the United States and southern Canada, and the Carolina Chickadee (Poecile carolinensis) which resides in southeastern U.S. The two species…
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Putty Root Orchid
An orchid that is native to eastern and central U.S., and Canada. Putty Root (Aplectrum hyemale). The world of Mother Nature is always filled with surprises. This plant provides one of those surprises. Its growth timing seems backward. In autumn the plant sends up ONE basal leaf to collect dappled sunlight during the fall, winter…