May 14: One-a-Day: Flowers--Nature's Eye Candy

by Allison Kelly*

Wildflowers are hard to predict exactly when and where they’ll pop up, but I enjoy discovering strange stems or leaves and waiting for the flowers to bloom. Last year in late April I spotted a patch of green foliage that looked different from the regular grass around it. I checked on it almost every day for a few weeks, but no flowers ever appeared. I was disappointed but decided to look for it again this year.

As I was admiring our colorful crocuses this April, I suddenly realized the yellow ones were not crocuses at all. They looked more like buttercups, but it was too early in the season for those.

An internet search identified these tiny yellow flowers as Winter Aconite. They are one of the first blooms of Spring, their bright color a welcome sight after the muted hues of winter.

I read on and discovered an interesting fact: the flowers emerge first surrounded by a collar of petal-like leaves, and only after these blooms die back does the main foliage of the plant appear and last until summer. So, the puzzling patch of foliage I’d discovered last year was actually the leaves of the Winter Aconite after the flowers were gone. Mystery solved!

Another interesting fact: Winter Aconite is toxic to humans and animals, so keep it away from children and pets.

* Despite living her entire life with severe juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, Allison has always enjoyed the outdoors. Growing up on a family Christmas tree farm – she could literally go over the river (creek) and through the woods to her grandmother’s house – instilled a love of nature in her at an early age. As an adult she uses a mobility scooter or power chair to get up close to nature and take photos that she turns into note cards available for sale at Engage Arts Studio, 1005 Gravel Pike, Schwenksville, in her online shop at www.noteworthynaturephotos.com, or at The Collective, 10 S. Hanover Street, Pottstown.

I have a mystery of my own. Early spring--about the time the crocus bloomed, this ground cover--yellow flowers with their heart-shaped deep green foliage appeared. Anyone know their name?  (They don't appear to be primroses.)~Jane Stahl

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• May 13: Flowers: Nature's Eye Candy The delicacy of white dogwood flowers and their dramatic pink cousins welcome spring.