Finally wonderful, Pt 2

Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis). The bloodroots are almost two weeks late this year, due to cold weather.



I haven't tackled moss identification yet. This is a common one here.



Cutleaf Toothwort (Cardamine concatenata). Most of them are still not open yet.



First damselfly of the season. They are frustratingly difficult to identify.



Hepatica (Hepatica nobilis). You know it's a late spring, when the hepatica aren't open til after mid-March. I've found them blooming in January and February, most years.



The beavers are out in force and at it again.

Yesterday was decidedly not wonderful (got colder, rained all day). And snow flurries this morning! I think the wonderful is due to return tomorrow, though.

Finally wonderful

The meteorologist was right Friday morning, when she described the coming weather: finally wonderful!

Wildflowers are popping up everywhere. I've been out with the camera, and will post some pictures soon. (It's raining this morning, or I'd be out trying to find more.)

I should know by now to take the camera everywhere, though, since I ended up really wishing I'd had it yesterday in Birmingham. You just never know when you're going to be surprised by bagpipers.

Evidence

Pileated woodpeckers wuz here... Dryocopus pileatus calling card.

This fallen log is along the path that I've been taking to scout wildflowers. They bloom first on the higher elevations, and I've made the trek two or three times in the past week, with no luck. Nothing blooming yet. It's been an unusually cold winter, followed by an annoyingly tardy spring.

Since it's been raining in near-biblical proportions, I get to tromp through plenty of mud and standing water to reach the higher elevations. A good test for my new rain boots, I guess, but now I feel slightly guilty at how abused they look, so soon out of the box.

Plants are starting to emerge, at least. It won't be much longer.

Via my superior weather radar-sleuthing skills, I suspected that it would rain again before we got back. I was right. Next time, we're taking two umbrellas... I keep forgetting that somebody is a lot taller than me, for umbrella purposes.

Spring Break

It was warm! It was dry! Very unusual for our winter this year. I was afraid we'd missed the bluebells coming up, since last year by this time they'd been budding for at least a week.

There was no sign of bluebells at all, though; not a single leaf was sprouting. It's been cold. Unceasingly, mind-numbingly, give-no-quarter cold.



We did find a few little decumbent trilliums poking up (Trillium decumbens).



There were very few of them. These individuals were on one of the warmer, sunnier slopes. I thought I heard one of them sqeak, "First!"



A single budding Toothwort was nearby.



I was sure we'd find a few Hepatica blooming, but we had to be satisfied with their lovely leaves.



We grilled some salmon, took a nap, went on this little hike, then lounged in the sun. It was nearly 70°F (21°C). It's been so cold and wet and dreary lately. It was wonderful to have a break from all that, even if it was just for one weekend.

We cleaned up in the garden a little, pulling dry vines off their supports. This had been maddening, gloppy work when they were wet. We didn't even care that we were probably popping off dozens of morning glory seeds straight into the garden soil. There are hundreds of them there already. No, probably more like thousands. They were in this dirt when it was brought in. Every spring, we pluck the sprouts with zeal, but by summer's end the morning glories have always won the battle. But on a weekend like this, we just didn't care.

Prickly pear

I was surprised the first time I saw cactus growing in the wild here in the southeast. Outside of cactus gardens, it's not the kind of plant you tend to find in the suburbs. But it's a native in most eastern states.



This is Opuntia humifusa. The upright tall version is Opuntia stricta. There are three other prickly pears in Alabama: Opuntia austrina, Opuntia pusilla, and Opuntia monacantha. But only humifusa is in Blount county, and it's the only member of the cactus family that's native here.

My book says it grows in sandstone outcrops, limestone glades, and open, thin-soiled woods.

Annie's

The Blount county bloggers met at Annie's over the weekend! Her job may be a pain, but it has made Annie Linda-Hamilton-buff.

I'm so jealous. I'd do anything to look like Annie. (Except eat well and get a lot of exercise.) If I'm found dead next week, it'll be due to Annie killing me for showing this. But the light was so nice, I couldn't resist.

Also present were CPP and TCE. We should have taken a pic of all our feet together or something, but of course I had that idea on the way home. Maybe next time, when I hope that MM can join us too.

These photos were all taken on our "weed walk" at Annie's place.



Pink phlox. I can't provide scientific names for most plants blooming after April, since they all seem to have 50 look-alikes that vary only in the slightest details.



Great Spangled Fritillary (Speyeria cybele) on Blanket Flower.



Whorled loosestrife (Lysimachia quadrifolia).



Collection of colored glass from Arkansas.



Sensitive fern (Onoclea sensibilis).



Mexican Hat. This and the Blanket flower aren't natives here, but are good plants for butterflies and quail. Update: I think I was wrong about them not being natives.



One of the skullcaps, possibly Hairy skullcap (Scutellaria elliptica).



A daylily I can't remember the name of.



Possibly a summer bluet? I'm not familiar with this plant and can't find a picture that matches well.



A fern I couldn't identify.



The lovely Lika.



The lovely Grendel.

Thanks for having us over, Annie! It was great to meet you, TCE and CPP!

Conflict of interests

By coincidence, the state meetings of both the Alabama Master Gardeners and the Alabama Wildflower Society were held in Huntsville this past weekend.

I had a conflict of interests!



Actually it wasn't too bad, except for half a day on Saturday, when the AMG was winding down and the AWS was beginning.



We did not get as much time at the Huntsville Botanical Gardens as we would have liked.

This is their 115+ year old dogwood.



A trillium that doesn't know how to count. (It's supposed to have only three petals.)

A quadrillium...?



At a garden we toured, my favorite feature was this granite wall that the owner had built out of free scraps.

I didn't take my "good" camera due to forecasts for lousy weather, and of course ended up wishing I'd had it.




Especially when we hiked the Monte Sano sinks trail. I saw Squawroot for the first time...



...I didn't realize it was so big!



One night the banquet hall was late opening up, so I wandered the neighborhood and photographed enchanted medieval castles. (Or possibly it was just a backlit church with swirling clouds.)

I had a wonderful time, but boy are my feet tired.

Spring, sprung.

It's bloodroot time!

Tempus est Sanguinaria canadensis.

Babelfish doesn't work for ancient languages, so that is possibly not correct latin.

But anyway, bloodroots are up!

Coming attractions

Many have risen...



... but few have budded.

(Virginia Bluebells, Mertensia virginica.)



Shy ones have been spotted, but their lips are sealed.

(Trailing Trillium, Trillium decumbens.)



Mouthy little things, they'll soon be chewing the scenery everywhere you look.

(Toothwort, Cardamine sp.)



Tired of worn winter clothing, some are already sprouting new duds.

(Stoneseed, Lithospermum tuberosa.)



Still sleeping, but last year's faded poster marks the spot of exciting future installments.

(Foamflower, Tiarella cordifolia.)

Winter-greens

Several members of my wildflower group are already itching to get out in the wild. They're dying to dig.

Unless it's a rescue, I'm more of a looker than a digger. My thrill is in the hunt. I do enjoy garden tours, but to me, there's nothing like finding the flowers in their natural environment. (And then leaving them there!)

Anyway, I wouldn't recommend digging in January or February. But this Jacob's Ladder (Polemonium reptans) is one of the plants you can scout early - it's probably easier to spot the green now.

The plant's a lot taller in the spring, but some of the lower leaves stay green throughout the winter here. I'm not sure if that's the case in the north or not - maybe someone will comment and let me know.

There are several different types of Jacob's ladder, in almost every state and several Canadian provinces. But reptans is the only one in the south.

Teakettle frostflower

I've written about Frost Flowers before, but I don't remember ever seeing them this early.

This teakettle was formed from the stem of a White crownbeard flower (Verbesina virginica). Dr James Carter has the definitive page on Frost Flowers. He's also done a lot of fun experiments on extruding ice from pipes (also here).

The forecast was for 23°F last night (-5°C), but here in our glacial little microclimate, it was 13°F (-11°C) when we woke up this morning. Too bad it's not always 10° cooler in the summer too.

BestBug

What strange little insects, that looked like miniature beetles with longish snouts. Turns out, that's more or less the definition of weevils.

These are in the subfamily Baridinae, probably Odontocorynus scutellumalbum. What a mouthful of a name! It may change though, because according to Wiki, "the higher classification of weevils is in a state of flux". I imagine it's an exciting time for entomologists.

Several were feeding on Rudbeckia. Not being familiar with weevils yet, I'd temporarily named the photo files "besbug" as shorthand for black-eyed-susan-bug. It started me thinking, what if people were as interested in insects as in electronics. When showing off your creepy-crawlies, you could tell your friends that you got a really good deal at BestBug.



Anyway, I found another one on a daisy.

I didn't notice until processing the photos back home, that there was something sinister lurking below.



Eek! I think that little weevil is in for a big surprise.

I wish I'd realized the whole picture when I was there. I wonder who came out alive. Who won Best Bug? In hopes of the preservation of local wildflowers, I think I'd have to root for the spider.

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Update:
In case you've got a dark computer screen, let me lighten that last picture up for you.



Eek!

In the woods

Blue-eyed grass, Sisyrinchium sp.


Ragwort (Butterweed), (Packera sp., aka Senecio).


Carolina Larkspur, Delphinium carolinianum.


Coral Honeysuckle, Lonicera sempervirens.


Oxeye Daisy, Leucanthemum vulgare.


Pink Phlox, Phlox carolina.


Cynthia, Krigia biflora.


Fragrant Sumac, Rhus aromatica.


Wild Petunia, Ruellia strepens.

Why does Susan's Coral honeysuckle bloom so much earlier than mine? (By a good two months).