So Look Forward to Ephemerals!

 

Waterman Prairie - Pasque Flowers (Pulsatilla vulgaris)  

(photograph - © Bruce A. Morrison)

Those wildflowers of Spring - who doesn't look forward to seeing these little beauties?  I fondly think of them as "ephemeral"...they last such a short time as a whole.  But getting to see the first of the Spring is real tonic.

Waterman Prairie - Pasque Flowers (Pulsatilla vulgaris) 

(photographs - © Bruce A. Morrison)

 

 I don't usually think of Pasque Flowers (themselves) as ephemerals, although they don't last nearly long enough.  No, when I think "fleeting", I'm more inclined towards those woodland flowers that are virtually missed if I don't get to the timber often.

Spring Beauty (Claytonia virginica) 

(photographs - © Bruce A. Morrison)

Spring Beauty is one flower that many people miss because it is so diminutive...the plant itself rarely taller than 6 inches, and as small as just 3 inches.  Each blossom barely larger than a third of an inch across.  I was at a childhood park along the Des Moines River in Ft Dodge (IA) visiting my wife's mother when I took a break and went down to the river timber below her place; that maybe I might catch them.  I was lucky - the ground was peppered with them.

 

Dutchman's Breeches (Dicentra cucullaria)

(photograph - © Bruce A. Morrison)

 

While photographing the abundant Spring Beauty, I noticed carpets of other plants but almost none had bloomed yet.  I did manage to find a spring woodland flower that also grows on our own acreage - a Dutchman's Breeches.  Now these mature fairly quickly and I'm often caught late even with those growing 30 feet from my own house!  But I got lucky here 😊

 

I wandered around the yard and grove this morning, but only see some future signs of ephemerals here and there...it was a very harsh and dry summer and fall on the property last year so I don't know what if or any affect it will have on our pasture or the grove.  Time will tell.  In the meantime I'm looking forward to more of those spring ephemerals...so happy Spring is here; wishing you a good one too!

 

Hope to see you on the Tallgrass!