Long-Spurred Violet

I only have time for a quick post, so I’ll list what I found…

• Trailing Trillium are really blooming, with many “open” and several “fully open.” 
• Virginia Bluebell are prevalent, most clusters have more open blossoms than not.
• Good show of Wood Poppy, but more to come.
• Trout Lily are widely blooming.
• Spring Beauty everywhere you look.
• Blue Cohosh (new ID for me) starting to bloom.
• Chickweed are widespread.
• Cindy spotted the start of a Jack in the Pulpit – the three leaf formation about 3-4″ high.
• Only found a single Bloodroot remaining in bloom.   I spotted a nearby leaf that seemed more like twinleaf than bloodroot, but the bloom was with what was clearly a bloodroot leaf.
• Widespread Dutchman’s Breeches blossoms with some near the front 0f the boardwalk, but a very large number of blossoming plants at the back.
• Still only the two Bellwort plants blooming so far that I saw.
• Hepatica are clearly declining in bloom, with their new green leaves now being the predominant hepatica display.
• Toothwort still numerous, but more and more plants are showing their seed pods developing rather than blooms.
• White trilliums (T. simile; T. flexipes) have their buds developing prominently, but none near opening as far as I could tell. 
• Toadshade are showing tall, but no open blooms yet.
• Violets are coming on strong:
  • Canada violet starting, but not a lot
  • Many yellow (downy?) violets
  • Common blue violets are… common
  • Long-spurred violets are everywhere once you head up the side trail from the falls to the horse path.
• Quite a few Purple phacelia are blooming, but only one or two blossoms per plant, with, of course, many plants with no open blossoms yet.
• One unidentified yellow aster (not sure, it’s easy to call a wildflower an aster and have a high probability of being correct.)
• One fleabane plant blooming.
• Many blue phlox blooming along the horse trail.
• Several wild geranium plants blossoming along the horse trail.
• A squawroot pushing up through the leaves along the horse trail.
• The redbuds along the driveway are well-blooming now, but not as well developed as the redbuds at most other locations in the region.

Just a note – I should have been walking the horse trail each trip over the past couple of weeks, because it gets more sunshine than down along the creek.  Some of those flowers might have been there earlier.  The long-spurred violets and phlox seemed to be particularly more developed up along the trail (several days, at least.)