Buttercup Family?

Black Cohosh (Actaea racemosa) is getting ready for bloom time, up here in the woods. It will be a while yet though, until it happens. The ones I’m seeing are 6 to 8 inches up. They reach 4 feet tall as they bloom.

I was surprised just now, as I was looking through information on Black Cohosh, to learn that it is in the Buttercup (Ranunculaceae) family. I sure would not have guessed that.

I’m looking forward to those blooms. Those white stalks of flowers reaching tall into the forest that make me think of ghosts of people who that lived up here in the mountains long long ago. Ghosts that come out to enjoy the emerald green woods of summer.

________________________________

If you would like to receive my daily blog posts by email, sign up here!

Published by

Brenda Clements Jones

Brenda is a certified Virginia Master Naturalist, a Habitat Defender for Shenandoah National Park, and a devoted fan of Mother Nature. She lives in a cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains near Shenandoah National Park, and hikes up to the higher elevations of her mountain often to see what nature is up to. Her constant hiking companion is a camera that captures nature as it unfolds through the seasons. It’s her goal to share the natural world around her through her photographs.