Wild about wildflowers

A couple of weeks ago, we had a garlic mustard eradication party that our neighbor organized. While out and about trying to save our corner of the valley from that nasty invasive (it’s pretty futile unless more people participate), I got to take photo of a few more spring ephemerals as a follow up to the Spring Beauties post.

These funky cuties are Dutchman’s Breeches (Dicentra cucullaria). You can just picture the wee faeries pulling on these “pants.”

More wild blue phlox (Phlox divaricata). I shared some in the last post but while looking at these, the volunteer (a retired botanist) who was teaching us garlic mustard eradication methods mentioned that our valley is the only place she knows off in our county where there are cleft phloxes (Phlox bifida). I feel pretty special! 😉

Star chickweed (Stellaria pubera) are adorable and tasty.

If golden ragwort (Packera aurea) doesn’t bring a smile to your face, you have a heart of stone.

The volunteer guide said that wild geranium (Geranium maculatum) was her favorite because no where else has she seen a purple of that particular hue.

Remember how I mentioned how we get a range of wild violet colors? Well, here’s one of the white ones…a cream violet (Viola striata). Sorry for the slightly blurry photo.

There are so many more wildflowers out there! I’m grateful to have both my iPhone and iNaturalist help me ID them. But we also have a whole bunch of book guides, from Audubon to Newcomb’s. What do you use?

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