At Centennial, I saw only one single bloom of this, but down the street by Walker Pond, there is quite a colony. They’re beautiful — the color so subtle. Cannot find why they are called Quaker Ladies!
Bluets, Quaker Ladies (Houstonia caerulea)
There are a lot of little yellow flowers out there! They’re all different! This is low-growing, kind of like a wild strawberry plant. It has 5 leaves — that’s what cinquefoil means– and 5 petals on the blossom. The Rose family.
Dwarf Cinquefoil (Potentilla simplex)
These seem like domestic wanderers, but evidently they count as wild. I finally found a group of them whose blooms were open. Look how the petals curl back. Fragrant! Lily family.
Lily of the Valley (Convallaria majalis)
This is from the Ranunculacea family, which means “little frog.” (Meaning they like wetlands.) Introduced from Europe.
Common Buttercup (Ranunculus acris)
Bonus picture: I went to Volante Farms today, and after all this searching for tiny hidden flowers, the bounty of giant blossoms seemed almost fake…
Saw this at Elm Bank today but can’t identify it. Ideas, flowerophiles? Maybe it’s not wild and that’s why I can’t find it in the usual places. Look at the pollen on the petals…
Bonus mystery purple flower: some variety of violet with dark leaves, and a spur on the back of the blossom. At Ridge Hill today.
I was excited to notice these beautiful little yellow flowers hiding on this thorny bush. Now I find out it’s another destructive invasive. It can form thick brambles that crowd out everything else. Red berries in winter. Origin: Japan. (Thanks to Alert Flowerophile Irit for wrangling Lucy while I took pictures.)
Japanese Barberry (Berberis thunbergii)
Saw a drift of these at Elm Bank. Lovely. Wood anemone have four to nine sepals. These have five. Native. Buttercup family.
Wood Anemone, Nightcaps (Anemone quinquefolia)
