Know your neighbourhood
Sometimes you go seeking nature, other times you find it all around you
Did you know that where you live is super exciting, floristically speaking? So often I've gone out, to some conservation area, park, or patch of greenery that was somewhere else to find nature. Like many, throughout the pandemic my range shrunk and I found myself at home. With nothing but my yard, drive, and shore to explore, I began to take more of a closer look at all the things growing around me. Then I looked at my previously overlooked neighbourhood. And I haven’t stopped looking.
As much as I'd like to get out, somewhere really remote and wild, most days the nature most accessible to me is the nature in my neighbourhood. So let's take a stroll together and see what's been blooming.
From winter aconite
A escapee or relic, winter aconite can offer a glimpse into the past and the future. There have been times that I've come across these early yellow bloomers in the woods, seemingly in middle of nowhere - a clue of a past land use. This particular bouquet was blooming along the forest edge, across the street from a farmhouse, and likely have been working their way there, expanding their bounds, over the years.
To pussy willows
Not actually in flower in this photo, but a favourite from my childhood that I cannot resist including. Not only are these delightfully cute, but they are built with a purpose! These soft hairy buds provide a warm space for developing flowers. And this extra insulation is important for early spring flowers faced with cold and unpredictable weather, a strategy sure to come in come in handy.
To violets
Now that the crocuses are finishing up, purple splashes in yards can only mean one thing - that it is time for violets to shine! This diminutive beauties, our native wild cousins to garden variety pansies, have been popping up everywhere. They have a fair bit of variation, with multiple shades of purples, and a tendency to hybridize with other violet species, so you may find a mixture of colours represented in the petals.
And horsetail
One of my favourite weirdos! A gentle shake sent thousands of spores out into the world. This is an ancient type of plant. I often find myself imagining being in a forest of horsetails, and hundreds of millions of years before present I may have found myself precisely there. Rather than having horsetails towering above me, I find clusters of the early fertile stems about ankle-high. This plant is dimorphic (which is a fancy word for saying that it has two distinct looks) and green vegetative stems are emerging too, as the brown fertile stems shoot their shot and, well, die back.
And, finally, to my backyard bloodroot
In my literal own backyard, these bloodroot were successfully transplanted from a friend’s farm down the road last year. It’s hard to play favourites with wildflowers, but bloodroot is definitely up there. The blooms open on sunny days under the still bare forest canopy, and along the fence line of farms in my neighbourhood.
