Today (3/16) was beautiful – clear skies and about 70 degrees by noon. The weather had been pretty warm for several days, with a lot of rain showers over those several days, so I was hopeful that things would have picked up a bit from my last report on 3/7. And had it! Of the 53 species on my current version of my wildflower checklist for The Pocket, we (my wife, a lovely homeschool group we met up with, and I) found 13 blooming right now.

Bloodroot – Sanguinaria canadensis

For the rest of the story…

First, the list of what is STILL blooming from my report of 3/7 –

• Harbinger of Spring (Erigenia bulbosa) – Still a little bit here and there, but rapidly waning. Who comes in March to see Harbinger of Spring anyway?
• Hepatica (Hepatica nobilis) – Beautiful, at peak. Some plants are starting to show this year’s leaves.
• Cutleaf Toothwort (Cardamine concatenata) – At peak, soon to be past peak.
• Carolina Spring Beauty (Claytonia caroliniana) – The one plant blooming 9 days ago has given way to the masses of them. Plentiful, beautiful, everywhere.

What has started blooming since the report of 3/9/2015:

• Dutchman’s Breeches (Dicentra cucullaria) – Just starting, only a couple blossoms fully developed.
  

  Dutchman’s Breeches – Dicentra cucullaria

• Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) – These beauties appear to be about peak. Plentiful along the boardwalk and trail to the falls; there is a cascade of them falling off the Pocket Loop Trail down the hillside about halfway between the parking area and the top of the falls.
• Rue Anemone (Thalictrum thalictroides) – A few of these are blooming here and there.
• Trout Lily (Erythronium americanum) – A few are blooming near the end of the boardwalk loop, and then several more on the way out to the end of the boardwalk. But they are plentiful as you near the falls along the falls trail.
  

  Trout Lily – Erythronium americanum

• Yellow Violet (Viola pubescens, I think) – Found 1 blooming.
• Canada Violet (Viola canadensis) – Found a single plant blooming along the trail to the falls.
• Long-spurred Violet (Viola rostrata) – These are still not at peak, but quite a few are blooming along the Pocket Loop Trail.
  

  Long-spurred violet – Viola rostrata

• Star Chickweed (Stellaria pubera) – Quite a few blooming this trip; I expected them last time.
• Spicebush (Lindera benzoin) – These small trees are showing their yellow blossoms now. Not quite peak.

Showing buds, so should be blooming soon:

• Blue Cohosh (Caulophyllum thalictroides)
• Trailing Trillium (Trillium decumbens)
• Trillium flexipes and T. cuneatum both have buds
• Purple Phacelia (Phacelia bipinnatifida)
• Robin’s Plantain (Erigeron pulchellus)
• Woodland Stonecrop (Sedum ternatum) – Showing white tips on the buds, but I’ve seen that before weeks before they open…
• Virginia Bluebell (Mertensia virginica)
  

  Virginia Bluebells – Mertensia virginica