Wildflowers in the Woods (and Swamps)

by Kevin Strauss

Now that the weather, and more importantly the soil, is warming, northwoods wildflowers are dotting our forests and marshes. These flowers have a number of strategies to help them survive the harsh northwoods weather but this time of year, our spring wildflowers are in a race against time to put up their leaves and bloom before the trees leaf out in June. Once our deciduous trees leaf out, they will take up most of the sunlight that these flowers need to grow. Right now, wood anemones, Clintonia and marsh marigolds are blooming in the woods.

Wood Anemone (Anemone quinquelfolia) This 4-8 inch tall flower has a single five-petaled white flower and leaves with three to five toothed leaflets. This flower opens its flowers in late April to attract bees and other pollinating insects before other flowers can lure the insects away. Wood anemones have a horizontal root that helps to anchor the plant in thin or poor northwoods soils. This root also allows the plant to sprout new flower clones to produce new plants. These flowers form sizable stands at forest edges.
Folklore states that this is the flower that sprang either from the blood the handsome Adonis (lover of the Greek goddess of love Aphrodite) or from Aphrodite's tears.

Clintonia (Clintonia borealis) Clintonia, also termed "blue bead lily," for its large, poisonous blueberry-like fruits, ranges widely in the northwoods from deciduous forests to evergreen woods. It seems to thrive in shady, moist woods with acidic soil. This 6-14 inch tall flower sports 3-6 yellow, bell-like flowers at the end of a leafless stalk. Narrow, oval leaves grow from the ground. Clintonia is a member of the lily family and it blooms from mid-May to late June. In August the stalk holds their blue namesake berries in the air. Chipmunks eat the berries, proving yet again that wildlife can eat things that would sicken a human.

Marsh Marigold (Caltha palustris) If you see a large bright yellow flower growing in in a swamp or stream edge, you are looking at a marsh marigold. This 8-18 inch flower with heart-shaped leaves and buttercup-like flowers, likes to have its 'feet' wet. Marsh marigolds start blooming in late April and continue through early June. This plant contains a bitter juice that keeps most wildlife and livestock from feeding on it, but deer and moose seem to chomp along happily on this wetlands plant.

Jack-in-the-pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum) Who knows how botanists come up with their common names for plants, but this one takes some explanation. The flower of this two-foot-tall plant reminded people of a pastor sitting in his old-fashioned pulpit in church. Those old pulpits often had a sounding board or roof to them to project the sermon out into the church, before the days of microphones and speakers. With a little imagination, the flower spike of this plant can look like a person and the leaf wrapped around the flower can look like a pulpit. The scientific name for this flower translates to "three-leaved blood spike." Jack-in-the-pulpit has three leaves with two compound leaves and the third leaf wrapped around the flower. The "blood spike" part of the name probably comes from the reddish-purple color that the central leaf (the 'pulpit') takes on in shady locations, or from the bright red berries that form on the central flower stalk in the fall. But while the berries might look inviting, they aren't edible. Both the root and the berries of this plant contain calcium oxalate crystals that casuse a burning sensation if eaten. So this is a plant best enjoyed with the eyes and not the tongue.

So the next time your are outside, look around for the welcome flowers of spring.

The Ely Timberjay