They appear in mid to late May and are quite small. Tiny new eastern larch flowers ( Larix laricina) are beautiful and always worth looking for. The simplest way to be sure is by counting the seeds in a piece of fruit before picking and eating from the tree. Positive identification between these two is important because chokecherry leaves and seeds contain prussic acid which can convert to cyanide under the right conditions, so it wouldn’t be good to eat too many seeds. Chokecherry flower clusters are usually long and cylindrical like a bottle brush. Chokeberry flower clusters are smaller than chokecherry and kind of flat on top. A berry will have multiple seeds in the case of the chokeberry 5 or fewer. The common name is the giveaway here: A cherry is a stone fruit with one seed, so the chokecherry will have one seed. Though they look alike from a distance, chokeberries and chokecherries are only distantly related in the rose family. Like most of the white spring flowering trees, chokecherries ( Prunus) and chokeberries ( Aronia) grow on the edge of the forest. It might have also been a downy yellow violet (Viola pubescens,) which likes the same conditions. I think it was a round leaved yellow violet ( Viola rotundifolia) which likes to grow in rich woods. This was only the second time I had ever seen one. We also found a yellow violet just opening. This is a pretty little violet but I doubt I’d go through what we went through to see it again. My daughter found this beautiful long spurred violet in bloom ( Viola rostrata) the first example I’ve seen, but it isn’t even mentioned in the list of plants that are supposed to grow here. I did see a hepatica leaf, but that was about it. The terrain was rough, with climbs so steep you had to use ropes tied to trees to pull yourself along, but we made it through and didn’t see a single plant that was supposed to grow there. I call it electric blue and I really can’t think of another blue to compare it to, but it’s beautiful.įor years I’ve heard of a very special place up in the woods of Westmoreland where endangered orchids, squawroot, hepatica, Dutchman’s breeches, maiden hair fern and other plants that love a lot of lime in the soil grow, so over Memorial day my daughter and I decided to pay this special place a visit. It’s been described as porcelain blue but it’s hard to put a name to it. I like seeing both the flowers and the blue berries that follow them. It’s easy to see that blue bead lilies are in the lily family they look just like small Canada lilies.

The two plants like the same conditions and often grow side by side.

Isn’t evolution amazing?Īt a glance the leaves of blue bead lilies ( Clintonia borealis) are often mistaken for those of lady’s slippers, but lady’s slipper leaves are deeply pleated and blue bead lily leaves are not, they’re smooth like those seen here. The flower’s stigma is also located above the exit holes and if the bee carries pollen from another lady’s slipper it will be deposited on the sticky stigma as it escapes the pouch, and fertilization will have been successful. Just above each hole the flower has positioned a pollen packet so once the bee crawls through the hole it is dusted with pollen. There is only one way out for a bee trapped in a lady’s slipper blossom guide hairs inside the flower point the way to the top of the pouch or slipper, and once the bee reaches the top it finds two holes big enough to fit through. Once inside they discover that they’re trapped and can’t get out the way they came in. They enter the flower through the center slit in the pouch, which can be seen here.

Many different insects pollinate orchids but in lady’s slippers bees do the job. They’re one of our most beautiful native orchids and everyone should have a chance to see them.īotanically orchids are considered the most highly evolved of all flowering plants because of their unique reproductive strategy they have both male and female reproductive structures fused into a single structure. If plants are dug up and placed in private gardens they will die if the fungus isn’t present so please, look at them, take a couple of photos, and let them be. The plant interacts with a Rhizoctonia fungus in the soil and this fungus must be present for it to reproduce. I’m so glad that this native orchid is making a comeback after being collected nearly into oblivion by people who didn’t know any better. I thought I’d start this flower post where I left off in the last one and show you pink lady’s slippers ( Cypripedium acaule) in full bloom.

Buttercup weed scientific name