Yesterday (3/27) was one of the rare days this spring – mostly clear skies and warmer weather – into the 60’s. As a plus a couple of my grandkids wanted to join me, so a great time at The Pocket was guaranteed.  Several of the “signature species” at The Pocket – Virginia Bluebell, Wood (Celandine) Poppy, Dutchman’s Breeches (or, as my grandson called them, “Upside Down Pants from Holland), Trout Lily are blooming right now.  I’m developing a checklist to use so I won’t have to photograph or remember what all is blooming, and of the 51 species on my current version of the checklist, 25 are blooming right now.

Trailing Trillium – Trillium decumbens

For the rest of the story…

First, the list of what is STILL blooming from my report of 3/18 –

• Hepatica (Hepatica nobilis) – Still plentiful, but definitely getting past prime.  What is blooming now is above this year’s leaves rather than last year’s.
• Cutleaf Toothwort (Cardamine concatenata) – Still abundant and beautiful.
• Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) – I only found one blooming.  I’m sure I missed a couple but these are mostly gone…
• Carolina Spring Beauty (Claytonia caroliniana) – Plentiful, beautiful, everywhere.
  

  Carolina Spring Beauty peeking out from behind the leaflets of a Cutleaf Toothwort

• Dutchman’s Breeches (Dicentra cucullaria) – Peak!
• Virginia Bluebell (Mertensia virginica) – Probably at peak.
• Wood Poppy (Stylophorum diphyllum) – Many blooming.
• Trout Lily (Erythronium americanum) – Abundant.  An especially nice, densely populated area is right across the creek above the falls along The Pocket Loop Trail.
• Rue Anemone (Thalictrum thalictroides) – These are supplanting Hepatica as the primary white-blooming flower now.
• Long-spurred Violet (Viola rostrata) – These are abundant now, especially along the Pocket Loop Trail.
• Yellow Violet (Viola pubescens, I think) – Many along the boardwalk.
• Common Blue Violet (Viola sororia) –
• Cumberland Spurge (Euphorbia mercurialina) – Many along the Pocket Loop Trail on the way up to the falls.
• Star Chickweed (Stellaria pubera) – Now more like what I was expecting 10 days ago.

What has started blooming since the report of 3/18/2014:

• Blue Cohosh (Caulophyllum thalictroides) – Not as far along as I expected, but many plants have a few of the tiny green blossoms fully open.
• Plantainleaf Pussytoes (Antennaria plantaginifolia) – Fully open this week.
  

  Plantainleaf Pussytoes (Antennaria plantaginifolia)

• Trailing Trillium (Trillium decumbens) – Just a few are open. This one one the bluffs along the Pocket Loop Trail, shown in the first photo in this article, was about 3 inches across, leaftip to leaftip.
• Purple Phacelia (Phacelia bipinnatifida) – A single blossom on a single plant was open on the Pocket Loop Trail bluff.
• Columbine (Aquilegia canadensis) – A single blossom was fully opened, with several others close, on a couple of plants near the above-mentioned bluffs.
• Canada Violet (Viola canadensis) – Found a single plant blooming along the trail above the falls.
• Sweet White VIolet (Viola blanda) – I noticed one or two of these open.
• Field Pansy (Viola bicolor) – I found a pair in the field above the falls.
• Redbud (Cercis canadensis) – The Pigeon Mountain Redbuds seem to bloom a bit later than those in many areas.  They are starting now.
• Wild Blue Phox (Phlox divaricata) – Along the Pocket Loop Trail on the way up to the falls I found a single blossom open, with quite a number waiting in the wings.
• False Garlic (Nothoscordum bivalve) – These bloom in the field above the falls (as well as in my back yard.)

These are about to bloom – most probably within a week:

• Robin’s Plantain (Erigeron pulchellus) – I thought at least one would be blooming by now, but instead it’s just real close.
  

  Robin’s Plantain (Erigeron pulchellus)

• Woodland Stonecrop (Sedum ternatum) – Another that I thought was close enough to be blooming this week, but, while much closer, I still didn’t find one blooming.
• Trillium flexipes and T. cuneatum both have buds, and we spotted one T. flexipes with white showing, but none that we saw open yet.
• Pennywort (Obolaria virginica) – As I mentioned in the prior report, I saw several plants then.  This trip, however, I only spotted one, and it wasn’t quite open yet.  This one was in a spot where there were two plants previously, one of which was the “close” one; I could only find the single plant this time.
• Mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum) – While I didn’t check the Mayapples that can be found near The Pocket parking area, those on the east side of Pigeon Mountain had well-formed flower buds.
• Bishop’s Cap (Mitella diphylla) – I spotted a couple of plants along the Shirley Miller Trail extension to the falls with flower buds forming.
• Heartleaf Foamflower (Tiarella cordifolia) – There were several plants with their long peduncles holding dense clusters of flower buds.
• Crested Dwarf Iris (Iris cristata) – Probably more than a week away, but the dense patch on the downhill slope a short ways up the Pocket Loop Trail has leaves quite apparent.
• False Solomon’s Seal, Solomon’s Plume (Maianthemum racemosum) – These are probably well more than a week away from blooming, but I wanted to mention them here. I ran into a very nice hiking group from Atlanta along the boardwalk, and had a nice chat with them. I was mis-identifying a sprouting False Solomon’s Seal (or perhaps a Solomon’s Seal) as a Bellwort (Uvularia grandiflora).  The knowledgeable leader of the group pointed out some feature that made it clear that it was not a Bellwort.  Much appreciation. With my memory (remember, my memory “issues” is one of the reasons I started USWildflowers.com) I can’t recall the name of the hiking group (Over the Hill Hikers?) or that of the gentleman who founded the group and help me with that identification.  I’d love a comment with that information!

Update:  Clayton Webster provided me with access to the photographs taken by a member of the Over the Hill Hiking Group, and this group found Bishop’s Cap (Mitella diphylla), Wild Geranium (Geranium maculatum), and Bellwort (Uvularia grandiflora) blooming; I missed these. “It takes a village.” Also based on their slideshow, I learned a new (to me) common name for Hepatica – Liverleaf.

Good news: Blue Hole Road is open.  I can also report that Twinleaf (Jeffersonia diphylla)  is blooming over on the eastern side of the mountain.

Twinleaf (Jeffersonia diphylla)