Category Archives: Location

Hairy Bittercress

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The flower is so small I might have missed it if I weren’t specifically watching for what is springing up. A weedy plant of the Mustard family. The foliage is edible! This name would be good for a nasty Harry Potter character.

Since I’ve started keeping this record, I’ve learned a new word: phenology, the study of periodic plant and animal life cycle events. Something people are thinking about a lot since the winter was so freakishly mild…

Hairy Bittercress, Hoary Bittercress (Cardamine hirsuta)

Skunk cabbage

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The first wildflowers I’ve seen this spring are Skunk Cabbage! The purple hood (spathe)  is the flower, which appears before the leaves, and inside it is the reproductive part (spadix). The odor attracts flies, which pollinate the flowers.

We also heard wood frogs—they sound like ducks quacking. (We heard the first spring peepers of the season earlier this week, March 12.)

Skunk Cabbage (Symplocarpus Foetidus). Ridge Hill Reservation, Needham MA.

Audio of peepers and wood frogs: http://www.mister-toad.com/frogcalls.html