5-31
Common Wild Roses are flowering in moist thickets and meadows.
Highbush Cranberry favors cool woods and rocky slopes.
And Carpenter's Square, AKA Maryland Figwort, crops up in weed patches and thickets.
John
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| Common Wild Rose |
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| Highbush Cranberry |
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| Carpenter's Square |
5-30
Harebell, AKA Bluebell, is a flower of rocky banks, shores and meadows. I find it on ledges.
And parasitic Oak Drops, looking somewhat like pine cones, take their nourishment from tree roots, especially those of oaks.
John
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| Harebell |
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| Oak Drops |
5-29
Maple-leaved Viburnum is in flower. Look for it in thickets and along roadsides.
And Alsike Clover is up in fields and weedy areas.
John
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| Maple-leaved Viburnum |
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| Alsike Clover |
5-28
Common Speedwell is starting to flower.
Canadian Frostweeds are opening their showy yellow flowers. Smaller, petal-less, self-pollinating flowers will follow, ensuring that seed will be produced.
And the dark green leaves of Mt. Laurel, each of which persist for two seasons, are soon to be overtopped by mounds of white, pink or deep rose flowers.
John
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| Common Speedwell |
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| Canadian Frostweed |
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| Mt. Laurel |
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| Maiden Pink |
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| Pink variety of White Campion |
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| Black Locust |
5-26
The shooting-star shaped flowers of Bittersweet Nightshade grace damp thickets.
The large pink pea-like flowers of Bristly Locust trees hang on twigs covered with bristly hairs,
And Lesser Stitchwort drapes weakly over grasses and weeds in fields and along roadsides.
John
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| Bittersweet Nightshade |
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| Bristly Locust |
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| Lesser Stitchwort |
5-25
White Campion is flowering in fields and waste places.
Multiflora Rose is just starting its flowering season.
The showy flowers of Yellow Goatsbeard will eventually produce even showier seed heads.
And one of the many , many similar Hawthorns is flowering prettily.
John
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| White Campion |
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| Multiflora Rose |
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| Yellow Goatsbeard |
5-24
Black Swallowwort - an alien milkweed relative - is in flower. Monarch Butterflies will lay eggs on this species but caterpillars that hatch from those eggs won't survive.
Small Sundrops are a variety of Evening Primrose.
And Common Flax, once grown commercially, shows up in areas seeded with conservation mix.
John
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| Black Swallowwort |
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| Small Sundrops |
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| Common Flax |
5-23
The tiny flowers of Blue Toadflax can be seen along gravelly edges and in other waste places.
Round-leaved Ragwort lends a sunny touch to dry ditches and meadows.
And Dwarf Dandelions are up in similar dry sandy places.
John
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| Blue Toadflax |
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| Dwarf Dandelion |
5-22
Oxeye Daisies are becoming increasingly rare as old fields revert to forest.
And Birdsfoot Trefoil, a bright yellow, alien member of the pea family, is coloring roadsides.
John
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Oxeye Daisy
|
5-21
Red Clover, Pink Moccasin Flower and Early Azalea are among the day's flowerings.
John
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| Red Clover |
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| Pink Moccasin Flower |
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| Early Azalea |
5-20
Pineapple Weed is an alien species. It grows and barnyards, along roadsides, in fields and even in hard packed gravel parking lots.
One-flowered Cancerroot is a parasitic native plant of woods and thickets.
John
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| Pineapple Weed |
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| One-flowered Cancerroot |
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| One-flowered Cancerroot |
5-19
Bladdernut is in flower. The fruits of this shrub are papery capsules up to 2" long.
Red Osier Dogwood is also starting to open a few flowers.
And Red Baneberry's flowers can be seen in thickets and along road edges.
John
5-18
Common Barberry has opened racemes of bright yellow flowers.
English Plantain is flowering in lawns and waste places.
And a Wood Turtle, newly emerged from hibernation, basked on a log, displaying its diagnostic red legs.
John
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| Common Barberry |
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| English Plantain |
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| Wood Turtle |
5-17
Low Running Blackberry, Dame's Rocket and Virginia Waterleaf are among the day's flowerings.
John
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| Low running Blackberry |
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| Dame's Rocket |
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| Virginia Waterleaf |
5-16
Blunt-leaved Sandwort, AKA Grove Sandwort, is said to favor open woods and gravelly shores. I find it along roads and trails.
Canadian Mayflower, AKA Wild Lily-of-the-Valley, is an extremely common woodland plant.
John
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| Grove Sandwort |
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| Canadian Mayflower |
5-15
Flowering Dogwood, which was once fairly common, is now known from just 2 sites in Vermont.
And Common Blue-eyed grass, a diminutive relative if Irises, is flowering in old fields.
John
5-14
Herb Robert is opening a few flowers.
Wild Madder is frosting fields and thickets.
And the bronze leaves of Carpet Bugle are almost as distinctive as its flowers.
John
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| Herb Robert |
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| Wild Madder |
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| Carpet Bugle |
