A few flowers from the Wildflower Pilgrimage 2012

The wildflower pilgrimage lasted a few day and I arrived 4 days ahead of time. There wasn't a lot in bloom because we had an early spring. Below I have put together a few of the flowers I found that weekend.

Bishop’s Cap (Mitella diphylla) so named because of it’s resemblance to a Bishops hat, was found along the side of the road near the Sinks of Gandy in WV. Another common name is Miterwort. After the flower have bloomed and gone to seed raindrops hit the seed capsule which bends back and then flings forward sending the seeds flying. Their main pollinators are Syrphid flies and short-tongued bees such as Halictid bees.

Barren Strawberry (Waldsteinia fragariodies) has a nice little yellow flower instead of the white flower usually associated with wild strawberries. In many of the New England States this flower is listed as Endangered to Rare.

Compare to the longer toothed leaves of the Wild Strawberry (Fragaria virginiana) I found a few feet from the Barren Strawberry. Also this one has the obvious white flowers. The fruits of both species are edible.

Wild Geranium (Geranium maculatum) was used by Mesquakie Indians (Great Lakes region) in a tea for toothaches and painful nerves. It is an astringent and can cause contraction of the tissues to stop bleeding. At least that is what I found Wikipedia. Nevertheless it is a pretty flower.

We found Clintonia borealis up at Olson’s Tower still in bloom. One of the common names is Blue-bead because of the bright blue berries. Clintonia is in honor of Governor DeWitt Clinton of New York (1769-1828). He also served as a US Senator and is credited for working on our nation’s infrastructure, namely the Erie Canal.

Striped maple or moosewood (Acer pensylvanicum) in flower. I didn’t think to get a photo of the bark which has short stripes and very pretty.

In the Fernow Experimential Forest Showy Orchis was still in bloom (Galearis spectabilis) along the bank of the stream.

Unfortunately I didn’t get a good focused photo of this One-flowered Cancer Root (Orobanche uniflora) because my footing was rather rocky. But I have included it anyway because it is so unique. Chantelle Delay and Terry Miller wrote on the US Forest Service web page, “A fascinating aspect of the biology of this species is expressed by is brownish stems and minute scale-like leaves. This plant does not contain chlorophyll, and is dependant on other plants to produce nutrients. The species is parasitic on a wide array of species to include the genus Sedum and members of the families Saxifragaceae and Asteraceae.”