Spring Beauty at Last!

I've tried for years to add the lovely little native flower Spring Beauty to the native "meadow" I've been developing in my urban backyard.  I had no luck with seeds.  My local native nursery, Bluestem Natives, couldn't get them to germinate last year either, citing too-warm a winter.  I finally managed to order bare root plants from Prairie Moon Nursery last summer, and planted them when they arrived in fall.  

When April arrived I gradually became discouraged as the beginning of their flowering season passed: perhaps I should have watered my roots in our VERY dry fall??

Today not only were a few tiny, sprawling plants visible -- they had a few flowers!  

About half my plants not yet heard from, but -- Immense relief! 

Spring beauty (Claytonia virginica) is a low perennial with lance-shaped, opposite leaves.  

It emerges and flowers early, taking advantage of sunlight available before other plants have leafed out.

)

Spring 4b

I spent a lot of time in Warwick, RI during my father's last illness, and would go walking with my camera to stretch my legs.  Warwick--unlike land-locked Brockton--is coastal, and my parents live on a peninsula that extends a mile into Narragansett Bay.  All but the first five photos were shot there.  None are plants I follow closely.

Cinquefoil (Potentilla), bayberry (Myrica pennsylvanica), 

and oriental bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus) in flower on May30th.

 Silverberry finishing blooming and fruits forming on May 30th.

Elm shedding fruit on June 5th.  I knew to look up when I saw

the half-inch seeds like fried eggs on the pavement.

 

Sycamore maple (Acer psudoplatanus) near my parents house in RI was a discovery.  I am now watching more maples (red, silver, Norway, ash-leaved and sycamore) than any other genus.

The leaves are shaped and proportioned like Norway maple,

but are stouter, more strongly-veined, and toothed.

Alone among the maples I know, sycamore maple often produces samaras

in threes, instead of the more common twos.

Mulberry (Morus) with maturing fruits on June 5th.  Poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans), black locust (Robinia psuedoacacia), oriental bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus), great rhododendron (Rhododendron maximum), blackberry (Rubus allegheniensis), and beach rose (Rosa rugosa) blooming on June 5th. 

Morus (maybe alba?)

The small white flowers will be followed by white berries popular with birds. But don't forget

that all parts of the plant have the oil urushiol that most people are strongly allergic to!

 

Black locust is a good news/bad news tree: in the bean family, it harbors bacteria that enrich 

the soil with nitrogen; but it also drops thorny branches that can be (literally) a pain to clean up.

These tiny white flowers will give way to yellow fruit that split in fall to reveal

bright orange seeds.  Too bad bittersweet is such a vicious alien invasive!

Great rhododendron is both a native, and a popular cultivated shrub.

  If you find blackberry-like fruit on a thorny shrub

with 3-part leaves in June, they're yours to eat!

This is the rose you find in thickets above the high beach.

Their appearance and fragrance whisper of summer beach season.

Mountain laurel, in the same family (heath family) as rhododendron,

also shares its character as a native that is popular in cultivation. 

It is preparing to bloom on June 5th, blooming on the 9th.

The shrub Arrowwood (Viburnum recognatum) 

was reputed valuable in making arrow shafts. June 10th.

 

Berries of elderberry (Sambucus canadensis) are supposed to make a nice wine. 6/19

 Yarrow or milfoil (Achillea millifolium) is a common alien roadside wildflower.  6/19

Since it is now the end of June and high summer, this will be the last of my "Spring" posts.