Spring Wildflowers, FINALLY!

For a few weeks, I have been enviously reading Virginia Native Plant Society member Phillip Merritt's How It Grows blog, in which he lists some of the plants (native and non-native) that can be seen blooming in his area of Williamsburg. We're a bit behind here in the Charlottesville area. Yeah, the daffodils are blooming, as are the red maples, but I was getting impatient to see the native spring ephemerals up in the mountains. They're like old friends that I only get to see once a year, and I've been missing them! Isn't it time yet?

I took some time over the weekend for a hike at White Oak Canyon in Shenandoah National Park, near the stomping grounds of our Old Rag Master Naturalist chapter. Lo and behold, my old friends are finally back for a visit! I was rewarded with some of my favorites, including:
spring beauty, Dutchman's breetches, cut-leaved toothwort, star chickweed, bloodroot, and round-lobed hepatica. Lots of trout lily leaves were up, too, though no blooms that I saw. Most of these species were just getting started, so the show is just going to get better and better over the next few weeks. Plus, in the mountains, often you can just go up in elevation and catch the second showing.

What beautiful native plants are blooming by you? Get out there to see them, especially the ephemerals that will be gone for another year before you know it.