Some of these wildflower photos appear in other PhotoStories
Depending on the weather, spring wildflowers start appearing in late April. The following collection of flowers were photographed at several locations in and around Ottawa including Lanark Highlands, McCarthy Woods, Mer Bleue Boardwalk, Fletcher Garden, Petrie island and Mud Lake.
This collection is in loose chronological order.
The usual first wildflower to appear is the coltsfoot. It resembles a naked dandelion and often mistaken for such.
While perhaps not a true wildflower, but one that has become very invasive and often found in the woods is scilla.
Hepatica comes up through last year's leaves, producing blossoms that range from white to a deep mauve.
Spring beauty appears quickly after.
Trout lilies, a.k.a. dog-toothed violets, go through several stages in their blooming life
A weird looking wildflower is the blue cohosh. It starts with purple colour gnarled stems, produces small yellow flowers. As it grows quickly it turns green and reaches a height of 12-15" with blue berries in the fall.
Leatherwood is a shrub in the woods that produces small drooping yellow flowers
There are several varieties of trilliums in the Ottawa area. The red trillium is the first up and blooming
White trilliums follow 7-10 days later and bloom profusely, They die off after going through a mauve/purple phase
Sedge grass produces yellow flowers that go to seed over a period of a few weeks
Dutchman's britches (shown here) and squirrel corn have foliage that looks the same. The blooms look the similar, except that one grows upside down compared to the other.
Bloodroot, named after the colour of the juice in its stem, grows in sunny patches
Trees produce flowers as well. Maple tree and boxelder
Elderberry bushes produce many flowering bunches that lead to a large crop of small berries
Bellwort plants can be easily missed with their yellow flowers drooping
Garlic mustard is an invasive specie
Ground ivy and wild strawberry cover the ground in many places
Cherry blossoms cover the 6-8 foot bushes. (I am not sure what variety of cherry they are)
Serviceberry shrubs/bushes are common
False solomon's seal plants with their large long leaves lean out with their flowers on the tip.
Star flowers are not rare, but found only in some areas
Marsh marigolds are a common plant found near water
Common penny-cress (white) and wintercress (yellow) grow in open areas
Baneberry and wild sarsaparilla both have round flower clusters
Violets come in three colours: blue, yellow and white
Broadleaf toothwort is a very common low growing plant
Foam flowers are quite common, bishop's caps are often harder to find.
Blueberries seem to love bogs
As do bog rosemary
Lily-of-the-valley is a late May bloomer (Perhaps it too is not really a wildflower)
These are chokecherry buds/blossoms
Dogwood/bunchberry is a very low, single blossom plant that produces numerous red berries
Peace lilies seem to love to grow in water
Honeysuckle that comes with white, yellow and pinkish blossoms is perhaps not a wildflower either, but it certainly is found in many wild areas.
White and mauve dame's rockets were blooming at Petrie Island
