False Rue Anemone

The False Rue Anemone can be found blooming in early Spring... around March is when I first start seeing them. Although, given that they look like other white wildflowers and given my lack of expertise, I may be misidentifying them!

See also Rue Anemone.

Rue Anemone

I'm not great at this flower ID stuff and there's always a chance I could be mistaken. I think this is a Rue Anemone, which are white or white/lavender or sometimes white/blue wildflowers that blossom in early spring (mid-March to April around here). They have 5-10 petals (sepals, actually, but that's above my pay grade) and are not to be confused with the False Rue Anemone, which is just a tricky little sneak.

Yellow Trout Lily

As I understand it, the Trout Lilies get their name not from the flowers but from the leaves. As you can see, the speckled leaves of the Trout Lily are nearly as beautiful as the leaves. Early spring forests around Indiana and Kentucky (and all over eastern North America) appear to have speckled trout, breaching the woodlands floor. They are called ephemeral plants, so-called because they pop up in early spring (March, around here) and do their blooming all before the trees get their leaves. Once the leaves come out, the Trout Lilies go away until next spring.

See also, White Trout Lily.

White Trout Lily

Also called Dog Tooth Violets, these lovely spring ephemerals are just what you need to see after a long, dreary winter. They are some of the first spring flowers to emerge in this area (shortly after the Cut Leaf Toothworts start showing up). About early to mid-March, you can spot their lovely leaves popping out of the forest floor.  See also the Yellow Trout Lily.

True fact: I've never seen a Trout Lily swim.

Sumac

The sumac tree or shrub (grows from 3' - 32') has brilliant red leaves in the fall and, about September, has clusters of deep red berries or drupes called sumac bobs (and, as an aside, The Sumac Bobs might be a good name for a stringband composed of fellas named Robert...). These berries can be dried and crushed into a powder and used as a fragrant spice. I've read that it adds a tart and lemony taste when used with salads or meats. I intend to try this out, eventually.

I also hear that this powder can be used to make a red dye or that the berries/drupes can be soaked in cool water, rubbed to extract the essence and be made into an "Indian lemonade" or "rhus juice" (also a good band name). Or that a tea can be made with it... all of which contains antioxidants and vitamins.

So many uses! And these sumacs grow in abundance all around the farm.

NOT to be confused with poison sumac, which has white drupes, not red.

Thistle

Thistle and Bug, a photo by paynehollow on Flickr.

Usually classified as a weed - and a noxious one, at that, with its sharp prickly edges all over making it painful to pull - there is no denying the beauty of its purple blooms.

Fortunately, we don't see too many of these at the farm.

Star Chickweed

Star Chickweed, a photo by paynehollow on Flickr.

I will be the gladdest thing
Under the sun!
I will touch a hundred flowers
And not pick one.

~Edna St Vincent Millay

Spring Beauty

Spring Beauty, a photo by paynehollow on Flickr.

What a great name for a beautiful early spring flower. I saw this on a stroll on March 24, but I think the flowers and everything are blooming earlier this year...

Dogwood Flowers

Dogwood Flowers
Originally uploaded by paynehollow

After all, I don't see why I am always asking for private, individual, selfish miracles when every year there are miracles like white dogwood.

~Anne Morrow Lindbergh

To see a hillside white with dogwood bloom is to know a particular ecstasy of beauty, but to walk the gray Winter woods and find the buds which will resurrect that beauty in another May is to partake of continuity.

~ Hal Borland

Mayapple Bloom

Mayapple Bloom
Originally uploaded by paynehollow

Spotted the first of May 2010. Beautiful dewy white flowers were blooming or soon blooming beneath the umbrella of all the Mayapple plants.

Celandine Poppy

Celandine Poppy
Originally uploaded by paynehollow

This is a bright yellow flower that I saw blooming in Kentucky (at the Louisville Nature Center) in Early May. The plant has large green leaves that look a bit like certain Oak leaves and the seed pod (as you can see behind the flower in this photo) is about an inch long and spiky-looking.

Goldenrod

Goldenrod
Originally uploaded by paynehollow

One of the many species of goldenrod. This blooms in late summer - July-September-ish. Although allergies acting up are often blamed on goldenrod, I have it on good authority (wikipedia) that it is not goldenrod pollen causing bad allergies in the late summertime, but more likely Ragweed.

And now you know.

Small White Wood Aster

Small White Wood Aster
Originally uploaded by paynehollow

Or possibly Calico Aster? I'd say definitely in the Aster family. Maybe.

This blooms in the fall and apparently profusely so. What a glorious bouquet!

Sassafras Tree

Sassafras Turning
Originally uploaded by paynehollow

There are plenty of sassafras trees in these woods. The leaves come in about three shapes: There's the mitten-looking leaf shown here, the spear-shaped leaf and then the mitten-looking leaf with a "thumb" on both sides.

The roots of the sassafras can be dug up and boiled into an aromatic and fine-tasting tea. Unfortunately, ingested in too great amounts, the tea can be carcinogenic, according to recent studies.

However, it is my understanding that once or so a year is not enough to warrant concern.

Mistflower

Mistflower
Originally uploaded by paynehollow

The Mist flower is an attractive late season perennial about 3 feet tall with blue flowers. The Mist Flower is also known as Blue Bonnet or Wild Ageratum.

Blooms late summer.

Tall Ironweed

Tall Ironweed
Originally uploaded by paynehollow

From one source, tall ironweed...

May be a noxious weed or invasive
This plant is attractive to bees, butterflies and/or birds
Self-sows freely; deadhead if you do not want volunteer seedlings next season
This plant is resistant to deer

Blooms late summer.

Chicory

Chicory
Originally uploaded by paynehollow

I've not spotted chicory on the farm yet, but it is an everpresent reality in our part of the world, so I shouldn't be surprised were it to be present there somewhere.

Along with Queen Anne's Lace, Chicory is a frequent roadside weed growing everywhere along highways and in empty urban lots. Some use its roots to make a coffee, or so I'm told.

Chicory blooms its brilliant blue flowers from Mid-May through summer.

Queen Anne's Lace

Queen Anne's Lace
Originally uploaded by paynehollow

I have not spotted Queen Anne's Lace at the farm yet, but it is quite plentiful in the region. This plant (also known as Wild Carrot, as its young root is edible - in the carrot family) is often seen on roadsides beginning in late May in our region, along with the ubiquitous Chicory.

While this is an edible wild plant, extreme caution should always be exercised when eating food you're not sure of. And especially in this case, as Queen Anne's Lace looks quite similar to the deadly poisonous Hemlock.

Once the flower is finished blooming, it folds in upon itself, looking very much like a beautiful birds nest, which explains the common British name of the flower - Birds Nest.

Garlic Mustard

Garlic Mustard
Originally uploaded by paynehollow

This is an invasive transplant from Europe. The Garlic Mustard grows throughout the eastern US and blooms in mid-May.

It gets its name from the fact that its crushed leaves smell garlic-y (and, therefore, keeps the bugs away).

Also called Jack-by-the-hedge.

Sweet Yellow Clover

Sweet Yellow Clover
Originally uploaded by paynehollow

I don't believe this has been spotted at the farm, but this photo is from these parts, so it may be found on the farm eventually. A graceful spiky field flower which blooms around May and doesn't look much like its lowly white and red clover cousins.