Dutchman’s Breeches – Native Plant of the Day 02/12/2024
Photo from March 21, 2009. Location: The Pocket, Walker County, GA.
More photos / info at the Dicentra cucullaria detail page.
Dutchman’s Breeches – Dicentra cucullaria
We weren’t planning on going to The Pocket today. It was beautiful, and I’d heard some rumors that piqued an interest in another site – didn’t pan out, but on our way home we passed within a couple of miles of The Pocket, so at the last minute we decided to check it out. We’d seen on Facebook that Dutchmen’s Breeches were blooming in the Smokies, so I wanted to check to see if they were blooming at the pocket – see below; they were!
Dutchman’s Breeches – Dicentra cucullaria
Today was much cooler than it has been – more normal temps for early March – and last night temps dipped below freezing in parts of the region. Even so, I was expecting more than on 2/21, and certainly got it. 21 species blooming (although in some cases very early in their bloom season.) The big surprise: Dutchman’s Breeches, just starting to bloom (we saw three plants with flowers or developing blossoms.) This is, I believe, the earliest I’ve seen this plant bloom at The Pocket.
Dutchman’s Breeches – Dicentra cucullaria
It’s been nearly 2 weeks since I made it down to The Pocket – my apologies for the paucity of status updates this year. Even more species (38) are blooming now than two weeks ago (28), even though we’ve lost, or nearly lost, a few. I only saw a single Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) bloom, Harbinger-of-Spring is gone, Spicebush (Lindera benzoin) has completed its bloom, there are only a few Trout Lily (Erythronium americanum) still blooming, Dutchman’s Breeches (Dicentra cucullaria) are essentially gone, and I couldn’t find the single Pennywort (Obolaria virginica) I saw two weeks ago.
The only remaining Dutchman’s Breeches flowers I could find.
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…
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…
Last week we reported that the Dutchman’s Breeches were very close to blooming. My wife and I didn’t want to miss that relatively brief bloom period, so we headed back down there today to check on them. I’ll let the picture below tell the story.
Dutchman’s Breeches – Dicentra cucullaria – about 10 plants are blooming.
Read on for the rest of the list, and a few more photos. Click on the photos for larger images, and then “back” to return to this page.
The wildflowers at The Pocket are very similar to last time – check out the update from 2/24. However, there were a few additions, including Trout Lily, which is just beginning to bloom.
Trout Lily – Erythronium americanum
Read on for the rest of the list, and a few more photos. Click on the photos for larger images, and then “back” to return to this page.
Purple Phacelia, Fernleaf Phacelia – Phacelia bipinnatifida
I wasn’t planning on going down to The Pocket this weekend, but my wife had other plans for Sunday, so she suggested that I do something to take advantage of the beautiful day, so I headed down there shortly after getting home from church. In addition to walking the boardwalk and the trail up to the falls, I did a little back country walking above the bluff north of the horse trail. Wildflowers are abundant; here is my report, and a couple of photos taken off the beaten path in The Pocket at Pigeon Mountain.
The Phacelia are blooming. There is a Phacelia in the field to the right as you walk down to the boardwalk; they are blooming along the boardwalk and all the way up to the falls. The photo above was taken up on the top of the north bluff.
In summary: This will be a good weekend at The Pocket at Pigeon Mountain, especially since tomorrow is forecast to be sunny and warm, as was today.
Aquilegia canadensis - Columbine from 04/01/2010