Spring Ephemerals

It is the season for wandering the woods and wild places, watching not only birds, but botany. The 'spring ephemerals' are coming into bloom, those plants that flower and leaf out quickly, and then dry up and disappear by the heat of summer. On a couple of hikes in Cumberland County lately I found some of these plants. The yellow trout lilies, aka dogtooth violets, above are one example. I also found a bit of Carolina spring-beauty, and a big patch of bloodroot.

Bloodroot was a wonderful find, along a shaded riverbank. I admit, some of these species do keep their leave most of the summer, but the flowers are short lived. Below is Dutchman's breeches, another rarer treasure around here. It completely disappears in the heat of summer. 

I sought out one certain location because I knew blue cohosh had been found there, and where it grows, other nice things do. Indeed. It led me to the bloodroot and other special plants. The cohosh is called 'blue' because of the vibrant berries, and here they are, ones that lasted all winter and were still lying upon the forest floor. The new plants are just unfolding, yet to leaf out and bloom with subtle, green flowers.

 A real surprise to me at one site was wild leek, or 'wide leek,' as it is named on iNaturalist. Not found in many locations in Nova Scotia, here was one large patch by a river, and extending into the woods of big sugar maples. 

This 'onion' - it is an Allium - leafs out now. Later, once the leaves have shriveled and disappeared, the greenish blooms arise, midsummer. 

In other regions, where it is not so rare, it is harvested as food - both the leaves, and the little bulbs. Usually called 'ramps,' each year I usually take one oniony leaf and eat it raw, in the woods. I saw them every year in the Digby County location. 

Not rare, but a definite joy of spring is the familiar mayflower. I found a thick patch of them today in the woods, still in full bloom, in a variety of pinks and whites. 

And my last photo is this prolific white violet I came upon in a wet area. There are quite a few violet species in NS, the blues and the whites always a bit confusing to me. No matter what I name them, they are lovely.