The first tiny wildflowers have begun to appear on the forest floor, brightening my walks with spots of jaunty color singing out from the background of dried leaves. I believe that the yellow flowers are a kind of violet, but I'm not sure. Perhaps our resident naturalist, Susan, will identify the flowers for us.
Update: Susan has come through and identified the top flower as "Spring Beauty", Claytonia Caroliniana, and they're edible. The flower below is a violet as I thought, possibly Viola rotundifolia.
In comments about the ruglet Scarlet Vessel, Susan mentioned that the color of the ruglet was the same as red maple flowers, below. Ah-hah! those were the flowers that I saw strewn over the ground on my walks. It turns out that those are the spent male flowers, while the female flowers remain on the tree, a decorative frothy red, and develop into scarlet winged seeds.
Ah! You've been in the rich woods. Spring Beauties at the top -- that's their common name. Claytonia caroliniana. They are good to eat! And the second is a yellow violet, perhaps Viola rotundifolia? they are hard to i.d. but this looks like it, Round-leaved yellow violet. That's a good find. I have other spp. around here.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the identifications, Susan. I went through my wildflower book and had an inkling that the top flower was a claytonia, but I didn't feel confident about it; it's hard to i.d. a flower from a simple line drawing.
ReplyDeleteYes. Do you have Newcomb's?
ReplyDeleteI have the Peterson.
ReplyDeleteAh, spring beauty, I remember them from my childhood yard in Ohio. Always glad for the edible flower....excels the salad! Could either of you speak to the leaf shoot on my posting of 4/16.....Thanks
ReplyDelete