Posted by wilde on April 29th, 2007 — Posted in Vegetable
Two days ago the first violet was seen opening its purple blossoms. Between the rain and the wind that come along with the Spring rains, it’s been hard to get decent photos of them.
The Northern Downy Violet, Viola fimbriatula (V. sagittata var. ovata) is characterized by its elongated lance-shaped leaves with short stems. It is always one of the first violets to bloom in south-central PA.
The light violet to purple flowers are only slightly taller than the leaves and sit about 2-3 inches above the ground. The spur is small in this species of viola.
Northern Downy Violet is a small spring-blooming violet.
The two lateral lower petals are bearded with fine hairs. The lower middle petal has lines of deep purple. Stems of both flower and leaf are softly hairy, or downy.
Bearded side petals and lobed leaves characterize the Northern Downy Violet.
Younger individuals of the northern downy violet have smaller oval-shaped leaves without lobes.
Oval-shaped basal leaves are short on these violets growing in gravel.
A similar violet is the arrow-leaved violet, Viola sagittata. Leaves are lance shaped with notches at the base, but the leaves are not downy. Flowers are about 4-5 inches off the ground.
Arrow-leaved violet has hairless, lance-shaped leaves.
A great resource for aiding indentification of New England violets is the Connecticut Botanical Society, where you can browse wildflowers by color, look up ferns and rare plants, and learn about gardening with native plants.
Fresh tulip blossom.
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Posted by wilde on April 23rd, 2007 — Posted in Vegetable
Thanks to the very warm weather we are experiencing, there’s more activity in the way of what’s blooming this week! Quite a swing to be 15-20 degrees warmer than usual after the very late snows we had in central Pennsylvania and upstate New York.
The spiderwort leaves are at least 6 inches out of the ground now. The wild ginger leaves are just out of the surface and rising up from their shallow-rooted rhizomes.
Sassafras trees are enlarging their bright yellow-green buds. The buds in sunny areas are starting to open.
Cherry trees are blooming now in earnest. As you drive along the country roads no other trees are showing green leaves, except for the evergreens of course. The view is mostly gray and brown but here and there you see the white, dotted outline of Prunus trees in bloom. With the exceptionally warm weather the cherry blooms will not last long.
Winter buds open to reveal a set of green leaves and four or five white cherry blossoms.
Five crinkly leaves for each cherry flower.
Cherry blossoms in different stages of blooming with the lower ones opened first.
Pin cherry, Prunus pensylvanica, grows at the edge of the woods or in disturbed or opened areas of the forest. Blossoms overhead are in clusters of four or five.
In the foreground a pin cherry tree shows the individual blossom clusters while the blooming tree in the background is outlined in white flower clusters.
Also this week I was surprised by the grape hyacinth that had doubled in size from last year. I had forgotten about it until I saw the deep purple blooms. What a terrific scent, too! Crocuses are history for 2007, and the star magnolia will be too very soon. Greenery of the lily-of-the-valley is coming up and there are others to look forward to…so stay tuned!
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