It was a stunning sight for us winter-weary wildflower lovers -- thousands of blooming, yellow-flowered trout lilies covering the wooded hillsides along Rottenwood Creek in the West Palisades unit of the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area in Cobb County.
Going to see the flowering trout lilies, as we did last weekend, has become sort of an annual rite of passage for us members of the Georgia Botanical Society. When the trout lilies bloom, we know the blooms of an array of other beautiful spring flowers aren't far behind. They belong to a group of woodland wildflowers known as “spring ephemerals,” which seem to be here today and gone tomorrow.
Spring ephemerals are early-blooming, short-lived wildflowers that emerge from dormancy in early March and April, quickly make fruit and set seed, and then die back to their underground parts by late May. By summer, it is hard to find evidence they ever existed.
In addition to the trout lily, spring ephemerals in Georgia include blood root, toothwort, harbinger of spring, squirrel corn, blue cohosh, twinleaf, Virginia bluebell, Dutchman’s breeches, spring beauty, wood anemone, windflower, bleeding heart, bluet and others.
Some plant lovers also list trilliums, violets, jack-in-the-pulpit, wild ginger, hepatica, rue anemone and other early spring bloomers as ephemerals. But although their blooms are also short-lived, their stems and leaves may persist through much of summer. Therefore, most botanists don’t consider them true spring ephemerals.
In general, ephemerals have adapted to the rhythms of the deciduous hardwood trees they dwell underneath on the forest floor. Their bloomings in early March and April come well before the tree canopies leaf out, thus allowing them time to absorb sufficient sunlight to reproduce. In summer,when the trees are in full leaf, the wildflowers go dormant instead of wasting energy trying to grow their leaves in deep shade. They wait until the next spring to emerge.
During their short growing periods, spring ephemerals also must compete to attract pollinators, mostly insects. That's why the ephemerals sport some of the showiest, most colorful, sweetest-smelling blooms of the year -- to lure insect pollinators.
Over the next several weeks, you can see many of these remarkable flowers along woodland trails throughout Georgia, including those in state parks, nature preserves and the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area. Several of the parks offer guided wildflower walks.
For information on state parks, visit www.gastateparks.org/parks.
For information on the Georgia Botanical Society, visit www.gabotsoc.org.
In the sky: The moon will grow from a thin crescent this weekend to first quarter by the end of next week, said David Dundee, astronomer with Tellus Science Museum. Venus rises out of the east about two hours before sunrise. Jupiter is very low in the west just after dark and will appear close to the Moon on Sunday evening. Saturn rises out of the east about 9 p.m.
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