The Forest is aBlooming

I'm pretty sure this is round-lobed hepatica. I found this plant last night as I was wandering in the woods. I say I'm pretty sure because hepatica are pretty variable--white to pink to deep purple. Also, the leaves, which really help to identify a flower, don't appear until after the flowers bloom. Hepatica are a flower of dry, rocky woods, and that really suits my forest right now. Well, the rocky part is true all the time. But right now the forest is exceptionally dry, even more so when I consider that it is after all spring and is therefore supposed to be wet and rainy. My wandering in the forest was more of a crunch, crunch, crunch.

I hadn't realized just how dry it was until I crunched my way through the leaves and undergrowth, photographing various flowers and may apples and studying leaves just poking up through the dry leaves. The leaves sounded the way that delicate crunchy paper does when you crumple it.

Jennifer of A Passion for Nature has pointed out that the flower I called a spring beauty two days ago is likely a rue anemone instead. I think she is likely right. I also have wood anemone, which has not bloomed yet. In this area wood anemone is usually just called anemone, and I was sure the bloom I had was not that. Also, my flower is slightly pinkish, though that doesn't show up well in my photo, and I thought that was a dealbreaker in the identification.

I also want to bring to your attention that the new issue of I and the Bird (#73) is up. This month's festival is hosted by Snail's Eye View. Snail has as her theme the diary of Samuel Pepys, and it works very well! My post and photo of the yellow-bellied sapsucker is also included.