Petals – Tendrils

Common Blue-eyed Grass

A clump of grass in early spring becomes green streaks, highlighted with six pointed dots of cheery blue. Common Blue-eyed Grass (Sisyrinchium angustifolium) is native to the eastern two thirds of the United States and Canada.

Though “grass” is in the common name, it is not a grass at all but is in the iris family of plants. This Blue-eyed Grass is an herbaceous perennial that is a spot of joy in spring. And quite an amazing thing if you’re watching the development of what seems to be that clump of grass wondering what it is.

If you look at those blades with knowing eyes, you can see the look of iris stems containing buds.

It is surprising for me to learn that the each flower actually consists of only three petals along with three nearly twin sepals, creating the look of six petals. The flowers are doll house sized, about one half inch across with each petal or sepal having a pointed tip and a slight indentation on either side of the tip.

The seed capsule, seen just below a flower in the above image, will split into three sections at maturity. The small black seeds to be a carried just a short distance with the wind.

As I was collecting these photographs, I took a trip to Florida and came upon a different species of Blue-eyed Grass. White Blue-Eyed Grass (Sisyrinchium albidum). Delighted to make this find.

Back in Virginia I’m enjoying my natives that bring me such pleasure.

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Yellow Trillium

Not quite native to Virginia though I’m quite pleased to have these flowers blooming in my gardens. Yellow Trillium (Trillium luteum) is native to Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia, and Kentucky. Some speak of a lemony scent. It must be mighty subtle. I don’t detect it.

The plants emerge from underground rhizomes which will spread slowly if left undisturbed. I’m leaving them undisturbed but they really are slow to spread. But they do seem to be quite happy! The flower consists of three tall slightly twisted lemon yellow petals and three slim green sepals sitting in the middle of a circle of three leaves. That’s really 3-ness!

Black Cohosh

A wonderful sight in late June early July. Blooms of Black Cohosh (Cimicifuga racemosa) when there are few other flowers blooming in the woods.

Black Cohosh is a herbaceous perennial native to eastern North America. Quite plentiful here in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Rising above their leaves on tall stems to six or eight feet. Those clusters of flowers on their tall stems make me think of spirits of long ago residents of these mountains. Spirits from the past, back again to look over their land, their roots. Watching to see that we care for their mountains with love and wisdom.

Right now, in late April, leaves of Black Cohosh have reached up from their underground rhizomes. Extending to a height of two or two and a half feet. Leaves waiting. Waiting for tall stems to form.

Tall stems that in turn form racemes. (A raceme is a flower cluster with the separate flowers attached by short equal stalks at equal distances along a central stem.) The stems can grow to be six or seven feet tall, and the portion of it that is the raceme, can be about twenty inches.

Flowers without petals, without sepals. Many long stamens surrounding a stigma, all snow white. The flowers have a unique unpleasant aroma that attracts flies, gnats, beetles, bees and some butterflies. Both the Spring Azure Butterfly and the Appalachian Azure Butterfly rely on Black Cohosh as its larval host.

I’m looking forward summer and greeting these visions of the past.

Apple Blossoms

Apple blossoms. What a fragrant delight. And they bring in a host of visitors that provide great entertainment just to sit and watch. It’s been really breezy today. Petals have been flying like snow. Apple blossom season won’t last much longer.

Tiger Swallowtails (Papilio glaucus) are one of the many species of butterflies that make the apple tree seem alive with action. Both nectar and pollen lure the insects in.

Another of the insects that answer the apple blossoms call are moths. This one, a Nessus Sphinx Moth (Amphion floridensis).

Birds get the call too. This is a female or juvenile Ruby-throated Hummingbird (Archilochus colubris) that uses the branches of the apple tree as a resting spot. In this image it’s sitting on a grapevine with the apple blossoms in the background. I’m wondering, if I’ll find a hummingbird nest in the apple tree if I search carefully.

This a Cedar Waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum). What a surprise I had to see these birds eating the blossom petals. Amazing to find that they enjoy eating the petals.

A Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus varius) is making sap wells in the apple tree’s bark. This enables them to consume both the sap that collects and insects that are also attracted. The sap wells are the very small round holes in the bark. If you look closely you can see claw marks from bears climbing the tree.

After the blooms come the apples and the bears. I guess this critter thinks that the apples are his to be taken. This is a yearly tradition. I sure appreciate the bear coming by for a photo op.

Gray Dogwood

Just like the Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida) that we see most often, Gray Dogwood (Cornus racemosa) has opposite leaves and those leaves look quite similar to Flowering Dogwood.

The flowers of Gray Dogwood arrive on dome shaped panicles, or branched clusters, in late May and June here in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.

The individual flowers in the panicles are one quarter inch across. Those flowers contain a short calyx with four small teeth, four creamy white petals, four stamens with soft yellow anthers, and a central pistil.

The branches of each panicle are creamy white like the petals, when the flowers are produced. In a short time they become bright red as the drupes, or fruit, matures. Anyone else see these as little teeny trees?

Nearly one hundred species of birds are attracted to these drupes from late summer into early autumn.

And as autumn descends upon these small trees the leaves turn a soft yellow with highlights of purply-red.

My favorite part of the year as Gray Dogwoods go through each of the seasons is of course, winter. Those teeny trees, which are actually the panicles that were in turn, for flowers and then, for drupes become the perfect receptacles for ice and iced spider webs as well.

Bloodroot

It’s hard for me to believe since I’ve still got snow on the ground, but spring is nearly here. At least meteorological spring. It arrives on March 1. The weather here is assuredly unpredictable. We’ll see what the month of March brings forth. Spring or more winter? But plants will be sprouting no matter. One of the plants I expect will greet me later in March is Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis). A plant that’s native to eastern North America.

Take care when you’re out hiking, particularly when you aren’t on a well established trail. These little first sprouts of spring are not necessarily obvious.

Bloodroot emerges from the soil, stem carefully wrapped in a deeply veined dark purply leaf.

As the bud grows the leaf unfurls and turns to a rich green with a silvery-green ventral side. With each flower there is a single deeply lobed basal leaf. A leaf with five to seven lobes that grows to be three to five inches across.

The flower is a burst of eight to sixteen snow white petals centered with an oval yellow-green pistil which is topped by a pale yellow stigma. The pistil is surrounded by bunches of stamens with glowing yellow anthers. The blooms don’t provide any nectar but the pollen on the anthers brings bees, flies and beetles that pollinate the flowers.

And that pollination allows the seed pod to expand. Filling with seeds that have appendages called elaiosomes. Ants bring those seeds to their larvae. The larvae is fed the elaiosomes and the still intact seeds are discarded to the nest’s “trash room” which is the perfect place to start these seeds growing. This process which happens in many cases throughout the plant world is called myrmecochory. A weird/fun word which has become one of my favorites.

Jeffersonia or Twinleaf

Jeffersonia (Jeffersonia diphylla). In 1792 the botanist Benjamin Smith Barton named this plant after Thomas Jefferson. In 1807 Jefferson had Jeffersonia growing in one of the oval flower beds of Monticello. I’m proud to have something in common with my neighbor Thomas.

Within a matter of four weeks I’ll be searching for these little signs of life. Hints of spring sprouting up from the garden’s soil.

It took missing the arrival of Jeffersonia for a few springs before I etched into my memory to be on the alert. They arrive when there is still snow around. In my gardens generally mid to late March.

Jeffersonia is native to eastern North America but is listed as a threatened or endangered plant in Georgia, Iowa, New York, and New Jersey because of habitat destruction and invasive species.

The flower of Jeffersonia is atop a bare stalk. It’s composed of eight white petals which as a bud were protected by four sepals. Two of those fading sepals can be seen here drooping below the flower, a washed out pale purple with a slight hint of green.

The petals surround yellowish stamens and in the center a green ovary. Quite the fleeting bloom, the petals fall after just a couple days.

A common name for Jeffersonia, Twinleaf, comes from the shape of the leaf. Open butterfly wings. Each pair, one leaf nearly split in two.

The flowers as they decline produce a fruit. A fruit that brings a smile to my heart. Is it a fruit or actually a smiley outer space alien?

The seeds inside this capsule each have an appendage called an elaiosome which attract ants with its lipids and proteins. The ants carry the seeds to their underground nest where the elaisomes are fed to their larvae. After the feeding, the seeds are discarded in the ant’s nest to their “trash room.” The perfect place for seeds to grow. ANT FARMERS! If you would like to add a fancy word to your vocabulary, this whole process of “ant farming” is called myrmecochory.