Spring Wildflowers

On a recent early morning walk in the Skunknett Conservation Area in Osterville we found these lovely spring wildflowers. Lady’s Slippers are fairly abundant here but these are some of the early bloomers. Most were still in bud.Most of the Canada mayflower has gone by but these fuzzy blossoms were still pretty fresh looking.
Star flowers are everywhere….
These are hard to see but area woodlands are full of blooming sarsparilla plants. Can you see the puffy little ball shaped blossoms hiding under the leaves?
Fern flowers are different….and I’m not sure they technically count as flowers but here are their spokes anyway….
And here is Jack and his friends all hanging out in their pulpits….another wildflower that is hard to see and find unless you know where to look….hint….check out damp and soggy areas and look for a triplicate of large green leaves that are NOT poison ivy!

Looking for Stars in the Woods

A lovely walk at Pilgrim Heights in Truro the other day revealed all sorts of spring flower activity. All these Canada mayflowers (also known as false lily of the valley) are getting ready to bloom.If you enlarge this photo you will see hundreds of little plants with a rosette pattern to the leaves which means only one thing….
Soon all the star flowers will be in bloom!
Here is one little early bird. Most weren’t even in bud yet. These little woodland flowers bloom before the canopy leafs in and this year it is a bit of a race. If you’re out this week look for both the Canada mayflower and the star flowers. Many other woodland plants are also in bloom and we’ll look at some of them later in the week.