SPRING WILDFLOWERS PART 2
3/25/20
A rainy-day hike in the UGA State Botanical Garden showed that most of the flowers were closed up, but there was one nice new one: a trillium.
It had just rained, and it’s been raining since yesterday, so most flowers were closed. The Common Blue Violet was everywhere, still, but its flowers were folded shut; even so, the purple was visible. Rue Anemone and Wild Geranium around but the flowers didn’t seem as common. Bloodroot leaves were everywhere, more abundant than last week, but I don’t recall seeing a single flower and they must have been folded up tightly.
A few flowers were still as prominent as last week, including Green-and-Gold, May Apples (which were significantly more developed than last week), Tiny Bluet, and Butterweed. Heartleaf Ginger, although not blooming, also seemed more common.
One that was much more common, and in the same ravine as last week, is this white flower, which I have finally identified as Giant Chickweed (Stellaria pubera). It has long stamens tipped with pink anthers, long and narrow opposite leaves, and a hairy stem. What’s most interesting is that it looks like it has 10 petals, but these are actually five deeply cleft petals.
The new flower this week is the Purple Toadshade (also called Sweet Betsy, Trillium cuneatum. It has mottled green rounded but pointed leaves, and a deep red–purple flower with no apparent stalk. I saw a couple early in my hike, so expected to see many more, but I didn’t.
