Sunday, April 17, 2011

Recent Spring Blooms

Despite the recent bout of chilly weather, flowers are blooming. Here are a few that I have seen and photographed recently. The one up above was at Bamboo Brook yesterday. I am not sure what it is; it is not one I recognize and the closed flower buds make identification difficult. It was growing along the edge of a stream, in the same area as some trout lilies.

Daffodils have been blooming for several weeks now, but different varieties keep appearing. This one is particularly striking, with an orange center and white outer petals.

A lot of trees are in bloom, with more to come. This one is a Norway maple.

These tiny flowers were blooming in the mown lawn-type fields in my local patch. I doubt that the stems were taller than three inches. I think it is whitlow grass, a type of mustard, probably Draba verna.

Here is a closer view of the flower.

Flowers like this were growing among the whitlow grass. At first I thought they were the same species, but when I noticed that they had a different number of petals (four for whitlow grass vs. five for this one), I reconsidered that idea. I now think that it is probably mouse-ear chickweed (Cerastium vulgatum). I was interested to find this because two years ago, I found a Chickweed Geometer in the same location.