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On Earth Day: Flowers of Naked Woods

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On Earth Day: Flowers of Naked Woods

Early spring wildflowers are getting it on before the leaves emerge in northern forests.

Bryan Pfeiffer
Apr 22, 2023
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On Earth Day: Flowers of Naked Woods

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Carolina Spring Beauty, Sharp-lobed Hepatica and Bloodroot / © Bryan Pfeiffer

FOR A MONTH I followed the spring northward from Florida to Vermont, walking trails among woodland wildflowers and contemplating notions of beauty.

Along the way, I filled pages of my field notebook with ideas about the evolution of beauty and our aesthetic in nature. Give me a week or two (or a lifetime) and I might have an essay for you about all this.

Until then, on Earth Day 2023, here are a few of those wildflowers, many of which I photographed yesterday (21 April) in calcium-rich woods beside Lake Champlain here in my home state of Vermont.

Basically, these plants complete the business of reproduction before the tree canopy leafs-out. So they are bursts of color, form and function in naked woods. You’ll get a sense of that scale in a few of the images below. Onward.

Red Trillium (Trillium erectum) in Vermont
Early Meadow-Rue (Thalictrum dioecium): male flowers (like chandeliers) and female flowers in Vermont
White Trillium (Trillium grandiflorum) in Vermont
Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) in Vermont
Round-lobed Hepatica (Hepatica americana) in Vermont and Trillium luteum/cuneatum in Tennessee
Trout Lily (Erythronium americanum) in Vermont
Finally, rare in Vermont, Virginia Spring Beauty (Claytonia virginica). (Our common Claytonia is C. carolina.)

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Postscript

Yes, I know, I’m late with the final Practical Nature Photography lecture in our seminar for paying subscribers. My excuses are pictured above in this post. I’ll have Lecture 5 (mop-up) for you next week. Thanks, everyone, for your patience.

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On Earth Day: Flowers of Naked Woods

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On Earth Day: Flowers of Naked Woods

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Mary Hutto Fruchter
Writes Mary’s Pocketful of Prose
Apr 22Liked by Bryan Pfeiffer

Love this and the idea that they are putting on a show first in a way- there’s something there - I hiked this morning- I’m in Spokane, Washington but I hiked in northern Idaho - we also have trillium here. Today I only saw the very first few- pretty special. I saw a few other beauties. I’m going to get a field guide for my area. I want to know more names of wildflowers, birds and trees.

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Juliano Zucareli [ozuka music]
Writes Juliano’s Newsletter
Apr 22

Beautiful! I gotta dig why some of those are called Hepatica or Sanguinaria though :P

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