Spring Beauty

Six days since I had been up to The Pocket.   The rain broke during church, so after the church lunch I headed down to check out the wildflowers.  The Spring Beauty is currently the dominant flower in terms of number in bloom; they are everywhere.

The Hepatica have lost their dominance of past weeks, and if you spot a white flower, it’s now just as likely to be Rue Anemone as it is to be Hepatica.   The first of the Rue Anemone was spotted by Cindy on 03/09.  There is a photo of that blossom in the post for that date.

Cindy reported five days ago that several Wood Poppies were blooming, and today the Wood Poppies and Virginia Bluebells continue to increase, but certainly are not at their peak yet.  There were a few Trailing Trillium “open,” with one or two at their full-bloom stage.   None of the white trillium are out yet.  Trout Lilies are about peaking, I think.

Dutchman's Breeches

A second Dutchman’s Breeches plant is blooming today, and I spotted my first-of-season wild geranium blossom – only one – and my first-of-season purple phacelia – only one.   There are also a number of yellow violets blooming now, perhaps Downies.  I also spotted two perfoliate bellworts in bloom; only one had been blooming six days ago.   The redbud trees lining the road down to the Shirley Miller trail are starting to look real nice, although not to peak yet.  The flower buds are not yet opening. 

The toothworts continue to be in abundance, although more and more of them are now losing their blossoms and forming their seeds.  The bloodroots are almost gone; I only spotted a half-dozen or so on this trip.  The bloodroot seed pods are forming nicely. 

First Purple Phacelia of the Season

The purple phacelia blossom I spotted was a nice find.  I had taken the trail up to the falls to check on the phacelia, since there is a nice colony growing on a large rock just below the falls.  There was some color in the buds – just  a few days away from blooming, I think.  Since there was a lot of water in the creek due to the recent rains, I wanted to get a photo of the falls, and it looked like the best angle to get the upper and lower cascades would be from across the creek.  I went back downstream along the trail, located a place where I could rock-hop without getting the water over the top of my boots, and headed across the creek.  There was a large rock on the other side which was positioned where I wanted to photograph the falls, and much to my surprise, there was an open phacelia blossom on one of the several phacelia plants growing on the moss-covered rock.

Here’s a picture of the falls, with the Purple Phacelia near the bottom of the photo.

Pocket Creek Falls