It varies every year with the weather, but late April/early May is when the spring wildflowers start to make their appearance. I spent a morning at my favourite forest an hour west of home and was pleasantly surprised with what was in bloom, or almost.
Hepatica is one of the first to appear
The blooms range from white on through to a mauve colour
Spring Beauty is not far behind
Sedge grass isn't normally thought of as a wildflower, but it does bloom
While I said hepatica is one of the first to bloom, coltsfoot is a very early bloomer depending on its location. I must admit it isn't one of my favourite blossoms, being a close lookalike to a naked dandelion.
An unusual looking plant comes along not far behind the spring beauties. Blue cohosh emerges like a deep purple gnarled hand (I was too late for that). It grows and unfolds quickly, and if you look closely there are tiny yellow flowers. The purple turns green and the yellow flowers will be blue berries in the fall
A few trout lilies had emerged and some were in bloom. The long drooping bud curls back on itself when in full bloom
Two red-necked false blister beetles were making themselves to home on one of the blooms
It was a little early for the trilliums to be flowering, but there were a number of buds of the upright blooming white trilliums as well as drooping red trilliums
I was lucky and spotted one solitary red trillium in flower.
One of the shrubby bushes that blooms at this time of year is the leatherwood. In prior years i had to look very hard to find any, this year they seemed to be all over the place
I wasn't expecting any, but in a few sunlit spots up against large rocks (boulders) I found some dutchman's britches in full bloom, plus a good number of others just starting. I didn't find any squirrel corn though - a similarly leafed plant with slightly different flowers.
Another flower that blooms early is bloodroot (named for the red juice in the stems). I didn't find any in this forest, but the next morning walking at Mud Lake I found a small bunch. I'd not seen them there before.
Back to my favourite forest.....
Not wild, but planted, some daffies, hyacinths and two early delicate tulips were blooming
I am always amazed every spring to see plants coming up through last years leaves that seem strong enough to hold the plant leaves together in a bunch. Left, some leeks, right a trout lily
A few other odds and sods...
A phoebe. They will be making their messy nests soon on window sills etc
A tiny northern spring azure butterfly. Maybe 1/2" or 1.3 cm long
Scarlet cup mushrooms that retained their bright colour all winter under the snow
And last but not least, some work of afraid of heights woodpeckers perhaps😊
