Stoneseed or Hoary Puccoon Lithospermum canescens If it were not for the unusually vibrant, orange to yellow color of these flowers, you would probably miss this little plant completely while walking in the great outdoors. The first time I discovered it, I found it in bloom in April of 2012, near Shawsville, VA. The plants were growing on a…
Showy Orchis
Galearis spectabilis is the Showy Orchis! This orchid miraculously appears on the forest floor in April and May in Virginia. It likes limey soils like we have here in Montgomery County, and it is often found on the edges of swampy terrain. This week it is coming up on the hillside at my house and near the…
Shooting Stars
Dodecatheon meadia Shooting Stars! What a great name! This spring-blooming, perennial plant has a basal rosette of oblong leaves, each about 6 inches long and 2 inches wide. In late April and early May, a stalk (or inflorescence) comes up from the center of the rosette and unfurls into a half-dozen or more white or…
Goldenseal
Hydrastis canadensis or Orange-root Goldenseal is also known as orange-root because of its thick, yellow rhizome (or underground root). This inconspicuous wildflower is in danger of being over-harvested because the plant has numerous medicinal uses. It is purported to have anti-microbial, anti-inflammatory, and laxative effects, among others. Extracts of farm-raised goldenseal are sold in salves…
Solomon’s Seal
Polygonatum biflorum This handsome woodland plant grows upright as an unbranched stalk of alternating, oval leaves. The leaf edges are smooth. The plant has a look-alike, false solomon’s seal, but the two are easy to tell apart if the plants are in bloom. The flowers of solomon’s seal are born underneath the leaves, as seen in…
Trailing Arbutus
Epigaea repens Trailing arbutus is a native, evergreen, creeping plant that grows in mixed forests. It is easy to overlook this plant because of its low stature, but I frequently see it growing on the eroded banks of roads and trails as I am out walking in the forest. I think it is more noticable…
Indian Paintbrush
Castilleja coccinea or Indian Scarlet Paintbrush The color of this flower makes it a showstopper, and as you can imagine, hummingbirds love it. According to the “Easy Wildflowers” website, “The inconspicuous flowers bloom within a dense cluster of beautiful leafy bracts that are brilliant shades of orange, red, or sometimes yellow. Wild Indian Paintbrush flowers…
Gaywings
Fringed Polygala or Gaywings Polygala paucifolia At first glance, the color and texture of this flower call to mind an orchid. The complicated structure, complete with wing-like sepals, resembles a flying bird or airplane. Two petals are joined together to make a tube; a third, lower petal is fringed. The rosy pink or purple flowers…
Squawroot
Cancer-root, Squawroot, or Bear corn Conopholis americana Squawroot is a spring flowering plant, but it is non-photosynthetic. Instead, it is parasitic on the roots of trees, usually oaks and beeches. The above-ground part of the plant is the flowering structure, and it looks like a pine cone, or even a corn cob (Bear corn), rising…
Wild Oats or Sessile Bellwort
Uvularia sessilifolia Just one more nodding, bell-shaped flower for you, in pale yellow. This one goes by many names, including wild oats, cornflower, or sessile bellwort. If you look at the photos carefully, you will see that this supple plant is popping up on the forest floor in early spring, in close company with other…
Heartleaf Foamflower
Tiarella cordifolia I have this plant growing in my garden as a woodland ground cover, and right now, in late April, it is beautiful! Although you can find foamflower for sale in many nurseries, this is indeed a native perennial plant. The photos here were taken in the forest near White Rocks campground in Giles County….
Eastern Red Columbine
or Wild Columbine Aquilegia canadensis This beautiful red and yellow flower grows in thin soil on rock ledges and along rocky slopes in woods, ravines and bluffs. The dainty flowers dangle from delicate stems, rocking constantly in the breeze. You can find columbine growing from April to July in Virginia. The elaborate flowers are only…
Bishop’s Cap
Miterwort or Bishop’s Cap Mitella diphylla Bishop’s cap is a delicate, white wildflower that prefers moist, rich woodlands. It is content on limestone or sandstone-based soils. I’ve found it growing abundantly at Falls Ridge Preserve in Montgomery County in mid- to late spring, and also along the Blue Ridge Parkway. The name of the flower…
Mountain Bellwort
Uvularia puberula If you look at the photo above, at first glance, the plant looks a bit like Solomon’s Seal, but it is glossier and the leaflets are more rounded. The stem is different too: it zigzags back and forth at every leaflet, and each stem is branched into two distinct parts. For two years now, I’ve…
Largeflower Bellwort and Perfoliate Bellwort
Largeflower Bellwort (Uvularia grandiflora) and Perfoliate Bellwort( Uvularia perfoliata) Here are two bellworts with “perfoliate” leaves but a few subtle differences. Large-flowered bellwort is a tall, nodding plant in springtime with large, dark yellow flowers that are sometimes hard to see because they can be hidden in leaves. The yellow “petals” hang in a disorderly, twisted fashion and the petals are…
Heartleaf
Hexastylis sp. Here is a kind of ginger that is evergreen. That means you can find it in winter woods when there is otherwise very little green to be found. The waxy green, heart-shaped leaves of Heartleaf are often mottled with white (variegated); the leaf margins are smooth (or entire). The leaves and rhizomes are…
Marsh Marigold
Caltha palustrus Giant buttercups! That’s what these bright spring flowers look like at first glance! They are indeed members of the buttercup family, Ranunculaceae, but they are much larger than buttercups, and a lot showier. These marsh marigolds were growing in a wetland area on my neighbor’s property in Blacksburg. Nearby, skunk cabbage and golden ragwort…
Squirrel Corn
Dicentra canadensis Note the finely dissected leaves of this early spring ephemeral–so pretty, dainty, and fern-like! The leaves actually look very similar to Dutchman’s Breeches! But this is Squirrel Corn, so named because the bulbs of the plants look like little corn kernels. (See the illustration in the gallery below.) Like Dutchman’s Breeches, Squirrel Corn has small white flowers…
Mountain Lettuce
Saxifraga micranthidifolia or Micranthes micranthidifolia Last weekend, on Easter Sunday, we stopped in for a walk at Rock Castle Gorge near the Blue Ridge Parkway. Loads of wildflowers were in bloom, but I did find a new one (new for me at least) that caught my eye as we ascended the gorge trail. I knew it…
Wild Ginger
Wild Ginger (Asarum canadense) You will find wild ginger, or Canadian ginger, growing in deciduous forests throughout the east coast, including Appalachia, but don’t bother looking for it in winter. This ginger is a deciduous, herbaceous plant (leaves disappear in fall). Ginger colonies form in the springtime from branching rhizomes that form just below the…
Honesty
Money Plant or Honesty Lunaria annua A native of Europe, this biennial has spread across much of the United States because it seeds so easily. In it’s first year it is a small plant, but in the second year it grows to 3 feet in height before it flowers and goes to seed. Well established now…
Dames Rocket
Hesperis matronalis Dames rocket looks (and acts!) a lot like honesty: a tall, introduced, spring-blooming plant with four-petaled flowers in pinkish purple or white. However, the leaves of damesrocket are elongated and lance-shaped,with a slightly toothed edge. The seedpod is also very long and thin, not round like money plant. It blooms in mid-May, while…
Fairybells or Yellow Mandarin
Fairybells or Yellow Mandarin Disporum lanuginosum Here’s a new species for me: Fairybells! The nodding, yellowish-green flowers of this woodland understory plant are easy to miss, and perhaps that’s why I’ve never noticed it before. The plant itself looks a bit like false solomon’s seal, except that the stem is branched. The stems are pubescent (see photos) and purplish;…
Blue Cohosh
Caulophyllum thalictroides Coming up now in rich hardwood coves is a historically important medicinal plant called blue cohosh. The flowers of this herb are small and inconspicuous, but the profusion of delicate blue-green leaves (for which the plant is named) make up for the lack of showy flowers. Blue cohosh is a tall perennial—growing 2 to 3…
RAMPS!
Allium tricoccum “Ramps” are wild onions (sometimes called “wild leeks”) that grow in the forests of the Appalachian Mountains. They don’t look like the traditional onions that you would grow in the garden. Ramps look more like “Lily of the Valley”– the leaves are elliptical– broad in the middle and narrow at the ends. The lower…
Virginia Pennywort
Obolaria virginica We were out hunting for morels when we came across this somewhat obscure spring ephemeral, Virginia Pennywort. These plants were growing along the edge of the forest on the Blue Ridge Parkway near Floyd, Virginia. Pennywort is difficult to spot in the springtime forest because it is very short and non-descript. It only reaches…
Spring is here again
It was a deliciously early spring here in southwest Virginia. At my house, where I have a small woodland surrounding my home, I had Hepatica and Bloodroot flowers blooming on March 17th! That’s early! Trout Lilies were open in all their yellow splendor by March 20th! Not far behind were the pink flowers of Allegheny Spurge –a gorgeous…
Golden Ragwort
Senecio aureus or Packera aurea Blooming now, April through May, is Senecio aureus, or Golden Ragwort! The flower stalks of this spring wildflower can grow 12 to 30 inches in height, towering over a low, spreading groundcover of heart-shaped leaves. Each of the basal leaves is bluntly toothed and has a long stem, or petiole. The underside…
Hooray Spring 2024!
Spring is here, finally, and as if someone switched on a lightbulb after a long night’s sleep, the parade of spring ephemerals has quickly begun in our Appalachian woodlands. The first coltsfoot flowers were just peaking out last weekend, and today the bloodroot in my yard has already gone to seed. Run, don’t walk, to your favorite park…
Wild Blue Phlox
Phlox divaricata My wooded yard is full of this tall, lovely wildflower! Although it is called blue phlox, the flowers sometimes appear pink or purple. Look closely and you will see that the outer edge of the flower petal is notched outward. The stem of this plant is hairy and slightly sticky; the leaves at…
Oyster Mushrooms
I’ve read that you can find oyster mushrooms just about any month of the year in the South. I’ve now found them on the same dead tree in my yard in November, July, September, and May. I even found some in early April in another location. So when can you find oyster mushrooms in Virginia?…
Red Trillium
Red Trillium, Red Wakerobin, Southern Red Trillium Trillium erectum Another Virginia native, red trillium is a springtime perennial that can be found in flower from April until June. Luckily for us, the individual scarlet flowers can persist for up to a full month. All the trilliums arise from an underground rhizome and have triangular-shaped leaves…
Yellow Corydalis
Corydalis flavula The neatly dissected, compound leaves of Corydalis will remind you of Dutchman’s Breeches or Bleeding Hearts. That’s because these plants are all in the same family–the fumewort family. The plants in the Corydalis genus have elongated flowers that are held above the leaves. The species pictured here, Corydalis flavula, is a short, wild…
Spring Beauty
Claytonia caroliniana and Claytonia virginica There are two kinds of Spring Beauties in our area. Above is the “wide-leaved” Spring Beauty, or Claytonia caroliniana. The single pair of leaves on this small plant are ovate to lanceolate; the margin is entire. The lovely pink to white flowers are sweetly marked –each of the 5 petals…
Great-spurred Violet
Viola rostrata In general, I think violets are hard to identify with real certainty, but thankfully this one has a few distinctive characteristics, starting with an extremely long “spur” on the back of the flower. There are also “toothed stipules”, or very small serrated leaflets in the space where the leaf meets the stem (see photo at right)….
Morels
Morels Obviously, this is not a wildflower… but morels need to be included among my springtime posts because they are such a favorite. At our house, we wait for morel season with great anticipation! Our most consistent observation has been that we find morels under dead or dying elm trees, and under tulip poplars, ash…
White Trillium
Trillium grandiflorum White Trillium White trillium, or wakerobin, is a showy perennial wildflower that occurs in forested parts of Virginia (and most of the eastern states). The single, three-petaled, white flower is born on a delicate pedicle that arises from a whorl of three broad leaves (technically bracts). Other distinguishing features include three visible sepals…
Virginia Bluebells
Mertensia virginica Virginia bluebells are also called Virginia cowslip, or Roanoke bells. I first spotted them here in Blacksburg in a friend’s yard, but soon learned that this native wildflower grows extensively along the banks of streams and rivers in this part of Virginia, making it a riparian species. Last year I saw them growing…
Star Chickweed
Stellaria pubera It seems like so many of our spring wildflowers are WHITE! Some, like star chickweed, can easily go unnoticed because they are so small. But look closely and you’ll see something here worth admiring: the five tiny white petals of this flower are deeply lobed, such that it looks like there are 10…
Gill-Over-The-Ground vs. Purple Dead Nettle
Glechoma hederacea I’m going to take a break from weeding my garden to recognize two very fast-spreading members of the mint family (Laminaceae). The first one gets the Award for being “Most Insufferable”. Gill-over-the-ground (AKA Ground Ivy or Creeping Charlie) is a low-growing mint with a creeping habit. Like many garden weeds, it tolerates the…
VIRGINIA WILDFLOWERS 