Spring Has Sprung...It Happened between April 4 and April 11, 2015 at Charleston Falls

Photo by Jeanne Oates Estridge...Purple Cress (Cardamine pratensis)

This is it, the first ephemeral that Jeanne and I saw this spring.  I was amazed.  We were looking for the White Trout Lilies (also called Adder's Tongue and Dogtooth Violet).

When we found the Purple Cress, I said, "Let's backtrack and go down through the ravine.  The flowers bloom there first."

Jeanne agreed.

It was a worthwhile change of plans.

We found Bloodroot blooming.

The Dutchmen's Breeches were showing buds but were not blooming.

We were both delighted that spring had arrived and knew we would find more the following Saturday.

And we did.

There was more water pouring over the falls, too.

The flowers...

Virginia Bluebells

(Mertensia virginica)

Dutchmen's Breeches

(Dicentra cucullaria)

Photo by Jeanne Oates Estridge

Hepatica

(Ranunculaceae Hepatica)

Bloodroot

(Sanguinaria canadensis)

The flowers were closed because the day had just turned from cloudy to sunny.  They would be in full open bloom in a half hour.

This is why we don't always hike the ravine trail.  It is rugged for this part of Ohio.  Abby is an old dog.  The trail is tough on her.  Of, course, it is not tough on us!

After walking the trail down into the ravine and back up, we headed down Redbud Trail.  That is a steep downward trail.  The walk was worth it.  Here is what we found at the bottom.

                      

At first, all we saw were the leaves but we kept searching. And then we found what we were looking for last Saturday...White Trout Lilies (Erythronium albidum).  It is also called Dogtooth Violet or Adder's Tongue.

Here is another cluster we found a bit later down the trail.