When we arrived in the parking lot, Tom had some bad news for us. Rain was on the way. He opted to stay in the van because he didn't want to risk getting the van door and power chair electronics wet.
Pat and I decided to take a walk to the first bench which is probably a hundred yards into the sanctuary. We didn't walk far enough to find the Dutchmen's Breeches but we saw a lot of flowers anyway. Every five minutes I checked my cell phone weather app. One of those times it was handy to have the phone.
Spring beauties were sprinkled everywhere.
The Cutleaf toothwort has grown tall, at least tall for a spring ephemeral.
And then we saw the yellow of the Trout lilies (also known as Adder's tongue or Dogtooth violets.) Tom and I were here last week and we saw the leaves and the stems emerging but no buds.
And then, I found a Rue Anemone. I didn't even see the leaves of Rue Anemone last week.
Also, first time blooms for me to see this week were those of the Sessile Trillium. Last week the buds were swelling.
We looked hard and found a few Purple Cress.
First Pat, and then I started seeing Bloodroot. She said she has been looking for them in other woods but hadn't found any. Some plants were blooming. Others were past blooming and had dropped their petals.
Throughout the woods, leaves were opening on the Ohio Buckeye saplings and trees.
We were both surprised to see Large-flowered Trillium with white showing at the tips of their buds. Usually, they bloom a little later than the earliest ephemerals. The blooming patterns are a little different this year. We had cold spells later then usual this year and all the flowers are coming in quick succession.
Mayapples were in various stages of emerging.
By then we had reached the first bench. The Radar on the Weather App looked ominous. We could feel rain in the air. We decided we had pushed our luck far enough.
We started back, at first walking a little faster but then we had to stop. Pat said, "What is that yellow out there?"
Aha!.. The Bellworts have begun blooming.
And then she found something else interesting. I like to walk with Pat. She has eyes that see quicker than mine do. I doubt that I would have seen these Blue Cohosh blooms if she had not been with me.
I did find the next flower. A bright Blue phlox is a lot easier to see than the Blue Cohosh. Also we had been watching for a bloom because we were seeing lots of Blue Phlox plants with buds still closed.
The wind was stronger as we emerged from the woods.
As we walked back toward the van, we saw a plant and neither of us knew what it was.
I labeled it as What Is It. (I have discovered our software doesn't accept a question mark as part of a photo label.) Anyway, I posted it on Ohio Wildflowers and asked if someone could help with the ID. There were other members who didn't know what it was either but there were some who did know. Its common name is Hairy Bittercress. (Cardamine hirsuta). It can be an invasive species in lawns because its ripe pods shoot out the seeds which means it spreads easily. Since it seems to like sunny areas the woods should be safe .
We walked about forty minutes which turned out to be a good thing. Tom had driven only a few miles toward home when rain began to fall.
