Seed Capsules – Tendrils

Trout Lily

If ever there was the perfect use of the word “diminutive” I think it would be for describing Trout Lily (Erythronium americanum). A lily that grows to be just six inches tall. A bit too big for a doll house but still mighty small for a lily.

It’s flower which dips shyly has no petals but six radiant yellow tepals surrounding six stamens with an ovary in the center with three stimata. Bees are the flower’s pollinators. And contents of the seed capsules will, I’m hoping, increase the population of the Trout Lilies.

Today I’ve come upon emerging Twinleaf (Jeffersonia diphylla), Wood Poppy (Stylophorum diphyllum), Virginia Bluebells (Mertensia virginica) and Mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum) but still no Trout Lily. I’m looking forward to being able to share these plants with you once they are up and gleefully blooming. Stay tuned!

Wild Ginger

Along the trails here in the Blue Ridge, come April there will be green leaves peeking up through the earth.

Take your time as you hike. There’s so much out there to see. Like patches of Wild Ginger (Asarum canadense).

Each plant sends up two heart shaped leaves that split at the soil’s surface. At the axis of those leaves the plant’s single flower appears and reclines on the forest floor. You’ve got to really look for the flower to see it. It’s under the leaves.

These blooms are maroon and the aroma is more like spoiled meat than a blossom ought to be. The pollinators these flowers attract are flies that get the job done.

I’m looking forward to finding these flowers, and after their bloom, finding their seed capsules. My camera needs to capture an image of the seed capsule of a Wild Ginger.

Wood Poppy Revisited

I’ve written about Wood Poppy (Stylophorum diphyllum) before but I enjoy the native flower with its happy yellow so much I’d like to tell you more about it.

The deeply lobed green-blue leaves of Wood Poppy are poking up from the surface of the soil here in the Blue Ridge now, as the month of March approaches its midpoint.

By the beginning of April, I expect I’ll be seeing some woolly buds ready to reveal their four golden petals.

As the flower opens the two pale green sepals that protect the bud soon fall away.

The flowers of Wood Poppy provide pollen but not nectar to their visitors. Those flowers have many stamens that are topped with rich yellow anthers surrounding a pistil, style and stigma.

After insect or self pollination a seed capsule is formed which eventually hangs below the leaves.

Many seeds are released from the capsule. Seeds which are distributed in a process called mymecocory, or in simpler terms, seed dispersal by ants. These seeds have nutrient rich appendages called elaisomes. Ants collect the seeds so that their larvae can be fed the elaisomes and the remains of the seeds are tossed away in the ant colony’s “trash room.”

That trash room in an underground ant colony is the perfect place to start growing seeds. Of course the ants aren’t aware of it, but they are perfect little ant farmers. Starting a new cycle of Wood Poppies.

Wood Betony

This native perennial is found in southeastern Canada, eastern North America (as well as New Mexico and Colorado) and eastern Mexico. Wood Betony (Pedicularis canadensis).

The first time I ever saw this plant was along a trail here in the Blue Ridge. As is often the case, I took a picture of the flower, went home and found out what it was by paging through my wildflower books.

Wood Betony is an interesting plant, aside from looking like a collection of cute little turkey heads, it is a hemiparasite, meaning it is partly dependent upon other plants as a source of water and nutrients. If there are no plants available around it, it will get by using its own resources to obtain water and nutrients. Exactly which plants Wood Betony parasitizes is not known for sure but it is thought to be native trees such as oaks and native grasses.

Bumblebees are a major pollinator of Wood Betony. And after the flowers fade, seed capsules grow in their place. Seed capsules that burst open explosively to scatter the seeds across the nearby landscape.

Since my first sighting of Wood Betony I have found a nursery that propagates its own Wood Betony. And now I’ve added a few plants to my garden. I’m looking forward to seeing them in bloom again come the middle of April.