Photo Courtesy: Ginny Neil
“Who’d marvel at a sandcastle, if sandcastles lasted forever?”
—Alistair Reynolds, ’Thousandth Night’
On an early spring walk through just-waking woods, I am eager to find my first hide-and-seek flowers. I’m talking about the delicate beauties that rise up and then disappear before you can say “Jack in the Pulpit.”
Last year, to learn more about these spring ephemerals, I hiked with Virginia Master Naturalist Jan Smith along a trail in the Brushy Hills Preserve in Lexington, Virginia. Before we started, she handed me a detailed list of the species that we might see. It was a soft spring day, the kind that makes you glad that winter is over, and the leaves over our heads were no bigger than squirrel’s ears. All along the faint forest path, eager plants peeked out at us from the duffy carpet.
The trail led us from golden ragwort Packera aurea to spice bush Lindera benzoin with 51 additional pink-flagged plant stops in between. Sometimes the plants were visible, with small bright blooms promising spring, but most of the time they were either just emerging or fading. Others had been nibbled by deer in search of an early spring snack.
Only two plants on the list were non-native to the area and our walk included some small tree seedlings as well as orchids, creepers and vines. There was even a flag marking my least favorite plant: the poison ivy vine Toxicodendron radicans.
This spring, with list in hand, I am walking my own woods. The dogs decide that a walk is just the thing on this bright gold morning, so they snuffle and shuffle along in front of me until Rex picks up the scent of a rabbit. They drop their heads and howl, scrabbling on short legs up the steep slope to my left, until all that’s left behind is a faint baying in the distance.
With the trail to myself, I start searching. I’ve brought along a pocket wildflower guide to ensure correct identification, but if I had cell service I would be using the free app, iNaturalist. Because I want to be able to find these plants again next year, I set my own flags at each location. I hope the squirrels, which seem to take great delight in moving my forest fairy houses around, will leave the flags alone.
My first discovery is a small area of mayapples, Podophyllum peltatum. They don’t have their characteristic nodding white bloom, yet, but their leaves are unmistakable even in their early unfolding. By the end of my walk, I have found 20 species on my list and flagged them for future walks. I am interested in seeing how they change through the seasons. My favorite, a yellow lady’s slipper Cyprepedium parviflorum, has not bloomed, so I will check on it in a week or so.
The dogs return from their chase and we meander home. When I reach my driveway, I look back. A squirrel, waving his tail and chattering madly, is eyeing my flags. I hope it’s congratulating me for my interest and not planning a raid. Only time will tell.
Resources
The iNaturalist app can be found here: https://www.inaturalist.org/
Meanwhile, if you are interested in walking the Brushy Hills Preserve trail this spring and using their plant list you can find it here: https://vnps.org/upperjamesriver/events/brushy-hills-wildflower-walk/
The story above first appeared in our March / April 2022 issue.
