Woodland Wildflowers

It seems with every passing day comes the realization that this winter is truly the winter that never was here in the central plains.  As I look out my window the redbuds are in full bloom as are the bradford pears and several trees are starting to leaf out.  Planted Magnolia’s are already past prime.  With several weeks of above average temperatures I have been watching several local woodland sites for spring wildflowers.  I thought there might even be a chance that the earliest plants might flower in February.  While False Rue-anemone was up in late February I didn’t actually find any flowering until March 12th after a rainy Sunday.

Yesterday, along with my wife, daughter and granddaughter I got a chance to check out the status of the spring bloom at the Overland Park Arboretum.  Wow,  things have really advanced over the week of high 70’s and low 80’s.  We soon found “carpets” of spring beauty’s and false rue-anemone’s.

Spring Beauty

False Rue-Anemone

Naturally, Cady and her mom decided to capture the ephemerals in photos.

Cady struck out on her own.

I like her style:

The blood roots were just getting started but won’t last long.

Blood Root

The Dutchman Breeches were almost to peak as were the Toothwort’s.

Dutchman's Breeches

Toothwort

Like the Bloodwort’s the Erythroniums were just getting started but they won’t last long.

Erythronium

Last year I shared a post about spring wildflowers with most of these same flowers but the date was April 7th.  This year the flowers are much earlier.  In fact most will be past their prime by April 1.  If checking out woodland spring wildflowers is one of the signs of spring that you monitor each year, you’d best be getting out there.

BW