The flowers are starting to bloom

[carole]

I love to see the color begin to reappear in the forest! Yesterday I found this treat.

hepatica

 

[Pat T]

I agree--it's great to start seeing the spring flowers.

I saw some hepatica in the ADKs today and coltsfoot along the road as we were driving in the Green Mtns. near Stratton.

Pat T

 

[Rick]

I saw these flowers (in my avatar) on the AT in the Berkshires over the weekend. No idea what they are but they were in the middle of nowhere and very idyllic. (perhaps some very old homestead site)

 

[forestgnome]

That's a nice picture of a gorgeous flower. I don't remember ever seeing that one. It very fairy-like.

Do you have a recommended book explaining that what, where and when of wildflowers in the White Mountains?

Whoa! I just heard a loon for the first time this year! Yes!!!

 

[darren]

Rick, my guess on your avatar flower is crocus. Here is a picture of some of them that I just shot in my front yard about 10 days ago.

- darren

 

[arghman]

Do you have a recommended book explaining that what, where and when of wildflowers in the White Mountains?

Books published by AMC have been good, but they let them get out of print.

1) "AMC Field Guide to Mountain Flowers of New England", AMC, 1977. Fairly comprehensive in terms of species coverage. Organized by botanical family. Includes illustrations but not for every species and they're not the best illustrations. A few photographs at the end.
2) "Field Guide to the New England Alpine Summits" by Slack and Bell, 1995 (but already out of print!!!!). Write AMC and tell them to reprint this one. Thinner than the above, & leaves out some species, but great pictures & it's organized for quick reference (gives things like bloom times, etc.)
3) "Wildflowers of the White Mountains", Hession and Michaud, 2003. Haven't looked at this one yet, but it's the one currently for sale.

p.s. if anyone is interested in a botanical-oriented hike, PM me -- I have some trips in mind (but not scheduled yet) to various places in the Carter / Mahoosuc range this year & am looking for other hikers to car-spot in order to maximize distance above treeline.

 

[Rick]

Nice Pic Darren!! Yes, it looks like that's what they were. I had ruled out my limited knowledge of a half dozen flowers I knew very quickly!!!

 

[Skyclimber]

The trillium is another beautiful flower in the woods. They should be starting to blossom soon.

 

[mommabear]

Rick, my guess on your avatar flower is crocus. Here is a picture of some of them that I just shot in my front yard about 10 days ago.

Rick,

I thought they were crocuses too. I grow them in my front yard. They're usually the first to bloom in Spring and they're really easy. I wouldn't know why you would see them in the middle of nowhere though because I'm pretty sure they're not native to our area - they're usually attributed to Russia, Turkey, and the general Asia Minor region. I doubt they were planted by settlers too because those look like what we call Giant Crocuses.

Now I'm curious. Do we have any botanists out there?

 

[audrey]

The book I like best for helping to identify wildflowers is Newcomb's Wildflower Guide. It has a key that uses criteria such type of leaf and number of petals to help you pinpoint the genus and species.