My wife, a grandson, and I took a trip down to Pigeon Mountain to check out an old minesite, but that was just an excuse.  We couldn’t avoid a walk around the boardwalk part of Shirley Miller Wildflower Trail.  Other than the time with my wife and grandson Joseph, who is learning his wildflowers well, the highlight along the boardwalk for me was the beginning of the wild hyacinth bloom.  Photo by Joseph Ibach.

Wild Hyacinth; Atlantic Camas – Camassia scilloides

Here is a list of what I recall blooming today.   They aren’t in any particular order; just as I remembered them.

• Virginia Bluebells – Mertensia virginica – Still blooming but well past their peak.
• Wood Poppies – Stylophorum diphyllum – There were still quite a few blooming.
• Carolina Spring Beauties very few left – Claytonia caroliniana
• Canada Violet – Viola canadensis
• Yellow violet – Viola pennsylvanica
• Field Pansy – Viola tricolor
• Long-spurred violets still blooming – Viola rostrata
• Common Blue Violet – Viola sororia
• Robin’s Plantain – Erigeron pulchellus
• Wood Betony (Lousewort) –  Pedicularis canadensis
• Toadshade Trillium (T. cuneatum)
• While Trillium (T. flexipes) are dominant
• Trailing Trillium – Trillium decumbens
• Blue Cohosh (declining) – Caulophyllum thalictroides
• Wild Geranium – Geranium maculatum
• Purple Phacelia – Phacelia bipinnatifida
• Cutleaf Toothwort – Cardamine concatenata are gone to seed, but the Broadleaf Toothwort (Cardamine diphylla) are rampant.
• Rue Anemone – Just a few are left blooming – Thalictrum thalictoides
• Star Chickweed – Stellaria pubera
• Foamflower are definitely past their peak – Tiarella cordifolia
• Redbud are almost gone – Cercis canadensis
• Large-flowered Bellwort – Uvularia grandiflora
• Yellow Mandarin   – Disporum lanuginosum
• Jack in the Pulpit – Arisaema triphyllum (I also noticed what appeared to be ssp. quinatum unfolding along the boardwalk.)
• White Baneberry – Actaea pachypoda
• Flowering Dogwood – Cornus florida
• Wild Blue Phlox – Phlox divaricata
• Wild Hyacinth – Camassia scilloides
• Stonecrop – Sedum ternatum (We saw these blooming in another area of the Pocket today and assume they are blooming near the falls and along the horse trail.)
• Dwarf Crested Iris – Iris cristata (We saw these blooming in another area of the Pocket today and assume they are blooming along the horse trail.)

I didn’t go past the end of the boardwalk; Bishop’s Cap and Columbine may still be blooming.