Fourteen adults and one fledgling came out on Tuesday for our annual wildflower walk through the Nan Weston Nature Preserve.

Group & fledgling (Brenda Wineman)

The spring ephemerals tour was led by Joann Ballbach.  She kicked it off with Spring Beauties, a delightful little flower that is very well named.

We crossed the recently cleared powerline right of way.  The area was significantly disturbed due to line upgrades but a few patches of Mayapple were holding strong in the clearing. We continued with Yellow, then later White and, yes Violet Violets.  Once in the wetter area of the walk Skunk Cabbage and Marsh Marigold were prolific.

Our list of plants included Wild Strawberries, Dwarf Ginseng, Miterwort, White Trillium, Rue Anemone, Cutleaf Toothwort, Bellwort, Bloodroot, Dutchman’s Briefs, Squirrel Corn, Phlox, Hepatica, and Golden Ragwort.

Throughout our walk, Joann shared Greek (not Roman) mythological and American folklore stories and uses for the plants we saw.

Unfortunately, about 0.1 mile from the river, I had to call the tour off due to high winds. 

(Steve Jerant)

In addition to the plants, our bird list tallied 19 species, which is pretty good considering we were ‘heads down' as it were, looking for the first blooms of spring.

eBird Checklist:  https://ebird.org/checklist/S230858994