This is a great time for a visit to The Pocket; I hadn’t been able to get down there in nearly 3 weeks (apologies to those that were looking for a status report last week) and so many species are blooming now! Bluebells, Wood Poppies (Celandine), Purple Phacelia, and all three Trillium species are at peak, along with a couple of others that aren’t considered “signature species” for The Pocket.

For the full story…

• • • Hepatica (Hepatica nobilis) – Just a few blooms hanging in there.
    • Cutleaf Toothwort (Cardamine concatenata) – Found one or two still blooming.
    • Carolina Spring Beauty (Claytonia caroliniana) – Continue to be plentiful, but definitely fewer than before.
    • Dutchman’s Breeches (Dicentra cucullaria) – Found one small cluster of plants with some blooms still there.
    • Virginia Bluebell (Mertensia virginica) – Peak.
    • Wood Poppy (Stylophorum diphyllum) – Peak.
    • Rue Anemone (Thalictrum thalictroides) – Quite a few still around.
    • Long-spurred Violet (Viola rostrata) – Still abundant.
    • Yellow Violet (Viola pensylvanica, I think) – Many along the boardwalk.
    • Common Blue Violet (Viola sororia) – Quite plentiful.
    • Canada Violet (Viola canadensis) – Abundant.
    • Purple Phacelia (Phacelia bipinnatifida) – These are probably at peak.

• • • Yellow Mandarin – (Disporum lanuginosum) – Peak; look for them around the bend toward the end of the boardwalk.
    • Star Chickweed (Stellaria pubera) – Still quite a few to be found.
    • Blue Cohosh (Caulophyllum thalictroides) – Peak. I really like this plant that many folks seem to just ho-hum their way by.  Make sure you take a really close look at the individual flowers.
    • Plantainleaf Pussytoes (Antennaria plantaginifolia)
    • Trillium flexipes, T. cuneatum and Trillium decumbens – Abundant, probably peak.
    • Columbine (Aquilegia canadensis) – Several blooming on the bluff along the Pocket Loop Trail; photo above.  Buds forming elsewhere.
    • Redbud (Cercis canadensis) – I’m going to call this “peak.”
    • Serviceberry (Amelanchier species, probably A. laevis) – Blooming along the access road.
    • Wild Blue Phox (Phlox divaricata) – Near peak.
    • Robin’s Plantain (Erigeron pulchellus) – Quite a number of the most beautiful of the local Fleabanes are blooming now.

• • • Woodland Stonecrop (Sedum ternatum) – I found one blossom fully open, but these are getting close to being in full bloom – the wait for these to open seems interminable
    • Bishop’s Cap (Mitella diphylla) – Quite a number blooming along the extension trail to the falls.
    • Heartleaf Foamflower (Tiarella cordifolia) – These are at peak or nearly so.
    • Geranium (Geranium maculatum) – Quite a few, but I don’t think they’re quite at peak yet.
    • Jack-in-the-Pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum) – Found a single one blooming along boardwalk.
    • White Baneberry (Actaea pachypoda) – A few plants blooming along the boardwalk.
    • Ragwort, Roundleaf (Packera obovata) – Several blooming along the Pocket Loop
    • Wood Vetch (Vicia caroliniana) – I had never seen this blooming at The Pocket before, but there was a plant in bloom at the bottom of the Pocket Loop Trail near the gate.

Forming buds:

• Wild Blue Hyacinth (Camassia scilloides) – Flower buds forming.