Bill's Botanical Forays

 

It has been a while since I have posted something here. There is no time like the present to resume….

Spring is here. So far this year I have seen 16 species of plants blooming despite the fact it can still get below freezing. Like tonight, the weather folks are predicting lows tonight in the upper 20’s.

 

I estimate that, this year, flowers are blooming about 2 to 3 weeks later than last year despite the warm January.

In January, at least four plants were blooming! See the list below for the annotation.

I am posting pics of a Virginia spring beauty (Claytonia virginica) that I spotted along Duvall Bridge Road and of Whitlow Grass (Draba verna) which was doing well in the wildflower bed in the Wildlife Observation Area.

1. Acer rubrum – Red maple
2. Cardamine hirsuta – Bittercress (blooming in January)
3. Cerastium fontanum – Common mouse-ear chickweed
4. Cerastium glomeratum – Sticky mouse-ear chickweed
5. Claytonia virginica – Virginia spring beauty
6. Corylus americana (American hazelnut)
7. Draba verna – Whitlow grass
8. Forsythia ×intermedia – Showy forsythia
9. Lamium amplexicaule – Henbit deadnettle
10. Poa annua – Annual bluegrass
11. Senecio vulgaris – Common groundsel (blooming in January)
12. Symplocarpus foetidus – Skunk cabbage (blooming in January)
13. Taraxacum officinale – Dandelion (blooming in January)
14. Thlaspi arvense – Field pennycress
15. Ulmus americana – American elm
16. Veronica persica – Birds-eye speedwell