Their names can be unusual… Names such as Spring Beauty, Bloodroot, Trout Lily, Dutchman’s Breeches, Virginia Bluebells and Liverwort. They begin blooming as early as March, and continue through June, but if your timing is off, you’ll miss seeing them altogether and have to wait another year to witness these delicate, spring wildflowers. I’ve missed a few of these species for several years in a row now. I’ve used up all my excuses. This spring my quest was to find a few trilliums and photograph them before they were done blooming. After four trips in a two week period to a few sites I knew about, I finally found them. My persistence finally paid off!
A friend once asked me, “What exactly is the definition of a wildflower?” I’m no botanist, but I answered his question by breaking the word down – wild and flower. By dictionary terms, it’s simply something in nature, not controlled by humans, and, the colorful part of a plant that produces a seed or fruit. So, a wildflower is a plant that grows in nature without being managed by humans, and is usually colorful and produces seeds. We can even take this one step further and classify our wildflowers as native, or non-native. A native wildflower is one that has been growing here since before Europeans settled here (1600s). Non-natives are not originally from this country, but were brought by settlers and planted here. Some species escaped (spread) by accident, and others were planted in nature on purpose. Additionally, if you hear the term “non-native, invasive wildflowers,” these are generally non-native wildflowers that can take over and threaten our native wildflowers. Ok, that’s your wildflower science lesson, now let’s cover some of the more interesting and fun facts about wildflowers!
There are nearly 2,000 species of wildflowers that grow in Pennsylvania. They can be found growing just about anywhere, from roadsides to fields to steep mountains. One thing many of these splendid-looking plants share is that their bloom time is pretty short. I’ve found a few species that were just getting ready to burst, returned as little as a week later, and the main flower had already wilted. They come in all shapes and colors, like the yellow Trout Lily, which gets its name from the markings on its leaves that looks like the skin of a Brook Trout. Or, the white-colored Bloodroot, an early spring flower that oozes bright, red-orange sap if any part of the plant is broken. This is where the wildflower gets its name. Native Americans used this sap as a dye.
One of my favorite spring wildflowers is also one of the most unique. Jack-in-the-Pulpit, also called Indian Turnip, is an odd-looking, native wildflower found in rich woodlands of Eastern U.S. It can grow up to 18 inches tall, and really doesn’t have a colorful “flower head” like many others. Instead, the greenish flower with maroon stripes is shaped like a small vase, with a leafy cover. This “vase-like” part of the flower is called a spathe, and is where the “pulpit” part of its name comes from. The spathe surrounds and covers another part of the flower called the spadix (“Jack”), a slender, fleshy tube that sticks up in the “pulpit.” Its smell attracts flies, which help to pollinate the plant. In late summer, green fruit forms, then ripens to a bright red color by fall. These berries are eaten by many songbirds and small rodents. Jack-in-the-Pulpit has been known to live in the wild for 25 years.
Each spring, I look forward to knowing the wildflowers will begin blooming once again. Their beauty and the important role they play in pollination in our natural ecosystem is more than enough reason to enjoy these valuable plants. As Thomas Wentworth Higginson wrote, “The first wild-flower of the year is like land after sea.” I couldn’t agree more!
Rich Wood is Region Manager with the Montgomery County Division of Parks, Trails, and Historic Sites. He has a B.S. in Environmental Education/Interpretation from Penn State and enjoys all things outdoors.
