Close to the end of the workday today, Va dropped Beth off at my office. She wanted to load some songs on her iPod, and I have been storing those on my desk computer there. We took care of that, and then set out for the Haggett Farm where we camped last week. You might recall that I decided to leave the tents pitched so they’d have a chance to dry. Well, it was time to check them. I figured if any were dry, I could put them away, and if any were not, I could move them into our kitchen shelter where they would stand a fighting chance (the forecast is for showers every day for the next umpteen days).
Wet tents and a dry one
The results were mixed. The tent in the foreground was dry, but the ones behind it were wet. As it turns out, they were the only wet ones of the lot, and their wetness was confined to the inside. You might be saying, “But I only see one tent in the background!” and I could not blame you for that. It was a big part of the problem (if not the sole cause). The girls who used these tents decided to join them together, which is something they were not designed to do. That prevented the flies from being pulled tight, which is a requirement for keeping the rain out. And since they were improperly pitched, they let the rain in, and that’s where it still was when I got there today.
I unstaked them and poured about a cup of water out of each one. Then I moved them into the kitchen. I’ll try again perhaps on Friday.
When we got home, I took Penny out for a lap around our wood lot. Our neighbor has been doing some work.
Change, it is a comin'
He is getting ready to build a house back here. The one on his lot is sort of a shack, and he is anxious to get into some better digs. His parents will be building a second house back there too. Unfortunately for me, this is going to let a lot of light into my woods and completely change its character. The flora I have along this edge of the property is completely different from the flora along the northern border. Down here, I have dewdrops (Dalibarda pratense), dwarf ginseng (Panax trifolius), goldthread (Coptis trifolia), and a couple of others that I can’t think of right now. This is the only place I know where these plants grow, and I believe them to be shade lovers. With the neighbor’s woods opening up, I will no longer have the shade they need, so I expect I won’t be enjoying them much longer.
The dwarf ginseng was blooming today though.
Dwarf ginseng (Panax trifolius)
I will enjoy it while I can.
Farther up the trail (where the woods are more open), I found a pink lady slipper (Cypripedium acuale) shoot. This should bloom in another two or three weeks.
Pink lady slipper (Cypripedium acaule)
Then I made my way around to the front of the house. Va’s phlox has bloomed.
Phlox
It has not yet reached its full glory, but I expect it will by this weekend.
I also found some white violets.
Violets are white
I do not pretend to know which species this is, but the genus is almost certainly Viola. And the leaves are quite tasty.
At the edge of the yard I have several chokeberry (Aronia melanocarpa) bushes. This is one that I had misidentified initially, but had enough doubt that I sent a photo of it off to Mr Smarty Plants. They came back with A. melanocarpa.
Chokeberry (Aronia melanocarpa)
Samuel Thayer has lots of good things to say about this plant, and he stresses over and over again that it is chokeberry, not chokecherry. My bushes don’t produce enough for me to really get more than a taste of their berries.
As I continued my walk, I noticed a gaywing in bloom.
Gaywings (Polygala paucifolia)
I had seen several unopened blooms in the west woods, and took several shots of them. But hey! this one is open. So I chose to post a photo of it, rather than the others. By this time the light was failing. I put the camera on my little tripod (even though the mount is still stripped – guess I need to get a helicoil), backed the F-stop down to the minimum, and took this shot. It’s a little dark, and I don’t like the depth of field too much, but it’s still not too shabby.
Wild strawberry (Fragaria spp)
As I emerged from my little forest and came out onto the driveway, I saw the strawberries in bloom. I have no idea which species of strawberry this is – probably F. virginiana. It is nearly indistinguishable from dewberries, which are in the same genus as blackberries and raspberries. For a long time I thought the dewberries were strawberries, until I found that they produced blackberry drupes instead of strwaberries. They both grow along the edge of the driveway. Dad taught me to tell them apart – dewberries have thorns (little tiny ones) and strawberries do not.
I headed back to the house and checked out the “turn-around” spot in the driveway. There at the edge of that was another violet.
Violets are also blue
Nice.
Jomegat's Weblog 
April 25, 2012 at 11:10 pm
You sure do have lots of blooms already! Far ahead of where we are, but after a few more warm days we’ll see more. I was especially interested in the Gaywings: that’s a plant I’ve never seen. The Chokeberry, too is something I’ve never seen. It appears to be entirely different from the Chokecherry which we have in abundance here.
April 25, 2012 at 11:23 pm
Blooms seems to synchronize. Seems like last year several would open for the first time on the same day (and that happened a couple of times).
Gaywings are one of my favorites. To me they look like airplanes with wings, fuselage, and propeller.
Chokeberries are quite different from chokecherries. When they open, they will have red stamens which quickly turn to brown and black. It’s hard to catch them at the red stage, but I will sure try.
April 26, 2012 at 1:13 am
Very good post! Sooner or later, the names of those plants is going to sink in and I’ll be able to remember them.
April 26, 2012 at 8:49 am
The way I learned them was by logging them a couple of times per week in a phenology project. Actually, that’s how I learned photography too. On my walks, it was a lot easier to remember which plants were in bloom if I had a photo of them on my camera. Two years and 20,000 photos later, I was a better photographer and knew the names of nearly every flowering plant in my vicinity.
April 26, 2012 at 2:03 pm
You must live in some kind of microclimate or something. I have pink lady’s slippers here that are nowhere near that size yet. Also, in all the years I’ve been stumbling through NH woods I’ve never seen or heard of gaywings. It’s a beautiful flower. It’s hard to tell, but you might want to check those fiddleheads against lady ferns (Athyrium felix-femina.) The black scales make me think they might be them instead of ostrich.
April 26, 2012 at 2:31 pm
My place is covered with gaywings. I got an email from Beth this morning with a photo of one – she wanted an id. Like father, like daughter. 🙂
As for the lady ferns… sigh. I think you’re right. They do have the hallmarks I was looking for though – no wool and a celery-like groove. At least they are edible when cooked (which is what I did before eating them).
I removed that section from this post so that no one follows in my footsteps. I hate it when I misidentify a plant.
April 26, 2012 at 3:13 pm
Actually, if you removed the black scales that is exactly what an ostrich fern fiddlehead would look like. I know how you feel about misidentification-I’ve done it countless times and it always makes me feel terrible. The worst part is, only another plant hunter will really understand.
April 27, 2012 at 3:27 am
Enjoy the shoots or unfurling stage of plants like the Pink Ladies Slipper. I missed the May Apple spikes coming up this year. They have a cool look to them too. Nice captures
April 27, 2012 at 7:29 am
Thanks. I had been watching this spot for about a month, as I’ve had a lady slipper come up here for at least the past three years. Even so, when I did notice the shoot, it was already four inches tall.
April 28, 2012 at 1:13 pm
You are very good at identifying your flora and could you send a little of that rain to me PLEASE!! I always enjoy your posts.. c
April 28, 2012 at 1:47 pm
Had it been under my control, I would have been happy to send last Saturday night’s rain your way. But we’ve had a relatively dry spring here, so maybe that wouldn’t have been a great idea. It’s better to leave those things to the Almighty.