Bill's Botanical Forays

 

Today, I looked around the refuge for plants that might be blooming and found only four species! Last year at this time, at least 20 species of plants were blooming. This indeed has been a long cold winter. And… the weather man is predicting 3 to 8 inches of snow tomorrow!  When will spring come?

 

 

The four species of plants that I saw blooming were:

Whitlow Grass – Draba verna

Persian Speedwell – Veronica persica

American Hazelnut – Corylus americana

and

Hairy Bittercress – Cardamine hirsuta

I am quite sure that the Eastern Skunk Cabbage – Symplocarpus foetidus – was probably also blooming, but I did not look for it.

Skunk cabbage flowers inside of the spathe (the structure that covers the flowers).