April 30th. I started to walk again at Fort Yargo State Park
in Winder, Georgia. One of my favorite walks is from the Group Shelter A to the Old Fort and back.This is a rewarding walk for viewing wildflowers and I’ve
been trying to walk it weekly and document the wildflowers I see.
It was another sunny day that was very welcome after the many gray days we'd endured.
My first stop was at the Strawberry Bush (Euonymus
americanus) at the water’s edge, just before the second bench on the trail.
Some of the flowers, in the background, that I saw blooming the previous week
had finished. Other buds had opened and still more buds were waiting.
Each week I’d been checking an area at the edge of the woods
along an open area where the trail meets the disc golf course. I’d seen two
plants the previous week but there was no sign of flower heads. This week was different.
Both plants had…
small flower heads starting to develop. These are the
Redring Milkweed (Asclepias variagata) which has one of the most understated,
but exquisite, milkweed flowers. It’s relatively rare in part, I believe,
because it’s difficult for insects to fertilize the flowers. Seed pods are rare
so perpetuation of the plants tends to depend on individual plants surviving
from year to year, which can be a risky proposition.
Scuppernong (Vitis rotundifolia) vines have climbed trees at
the edge of the woods and are covered with flower buds.
The first bridge. The sun has moved sufficiently far north
to shine on the bridge which would have been shaded at this same time a couple
of weeks previously.
There was no sign of the flowers of the Fringe Tree
(Chionanthus virginicus) that I had seen the previous week. In fact, it was
hard to spot the tree itself.
flower stalks. I did find
a couple of flower stalks that had started to swell,
indicating that they may have been fertilized and were developing seeds. So now
I’d be hunting for these.
The Rattlesnakeweed (Hieracium venosum) plants on the trail
approaching the cliff were in full bloom now.
I hadn’t been paying much attention to the wild ginger
(Little Brown Jug; Hexastylis arifolia) plants since the height of the blooming
season but …
this plant with its fresh, lime-green leaves caught my eye.
The flowers are still there; they look like dark, olive-green marbles just
below the new leaves.
It was with some anticipation that I approached the witch
hazel (presumed to be American Witch Hazel; Hamamelis virginiana). [Thanks to
Ellen Honeycutt at ‘Using Georgia Native Plants’ for confirming my suspicions
as to the identity of this plant]. The shrub was…
leafing out nicely, and…
the flower stalks still looked healthy. There was no overt
signs of seed capsule development, although there is some ‘bulging’ in the
flower stalk at the right of the photo that might indicate a developing seed capsule. Time will tell. This is obviously a waiting game and
patience is the name of the game.
The Mountain Azalea (Rhododendron canescens) plants have
long since finished blooming and there are no swelling to indicate that flowers were
fertilized.
From the cliff, on through the woods towards the Fishing
Area.
Looks like this will be the last week for the Pink Lady’s
Slipper (Cypripedium acuale) flowers at this spot. The first flower had dried up and the sepals and petals have
turned yellow on this flowers, and will soon dry up.
The Pipsissewa (Chimaphila maculata) still has flower buds. It may
be a good year for flowers. I've seen a lot of plants with flower buds this year.
A dogwood at the edge of the water – I think it may be a
Silky Dogwood (Cornus amomum) - was developing flower buds.
I’ve been watching the clumps of Green Arrow Arum (Peltandra
virginica) for flowers. It looks like…
they are developing in the shadow of the leaves.
And then off into the Rock Garden…
(To be continued…)
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