Thursday, March 29, 2007

Hepatica and Tootwort are Blooming

Hepatica is blooming in southern Virginia. This is actually one of the last ones to bloom this year. I found this beautiful plant yesterday (March 28). It was sitting beside a rock in the shade, and made a picture-perfect image. I have already printed a copy for my wall.
This is a closeup of Toothwort. Like any obedient member of the mustard family, Tootwort flowers have FOUR petals. I found this yesterday before I found the Hepatica (above). This is one of those wider shots intended mostly to show the context in which I found the above plant. If you look at the plant on the right side, the taller one, you might recognize the same plant that appears in the closeup above. Closeups are my favorite, but sometimes a wider perspective can help a person get a better sense of what the wildflower looks like in the woods. Note the leaves on this "Cut-Leaf" Toothwort. The Broad-Leaf Toothwort has wider lobes in its pointy, jagged leaves.

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Lovely photos! Your observations of how spring arrives are really worth reading. Have you thought of registering your observations more systematically with some organisation for phenology and nature observation?

(If you haven't heard of phenology we've written about it on the woodlands.co.uk blog here:
http://www.woodlands.co.uk/blog/plants-flowers/phenology/ )

6:46 PM  
Blogger Carol said...

Hallvord,
Yes, I am familiar with Phenology from back in the days when I studied spring beauty for my graduate work at Univ of Iowa. I am working on a book, but have not botherd to formally put information on a website. Maybe someday.
Carol

11:47 AM  

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