Wildflowers Woods - Loblolly Nature Preserve

 Sunday, April 9  

Photos and words by Melissa Fey 

 

The weather is sunny and warm today. The previous weeks rain has helped Wake up the Woods.  

A walk across the prairie towards the Upland Trail brings forth several small Brown Snakes. They quickly slither away from the path.

 

The floor of the woods is covered with small white/pink flowers. The Buckeye trees are the first to bud and get leaves in the Spring. The entrance to the woods is filled with them.  

The Spring Beautys are everywhere. The small pink lines look as landing strips to the bees that see the ultraviolet light patterns that help bring the bees to the nectar of the flower.

The trillium have emerged (on left) but have not started to bloom yet. The Appendage Waterleaf (on right) has started to leaf out but will be a month or more before the blooms arrive.

The Purple Cress has appeared here and there. A member of the Mustard Family.

The pond has a short log with several turtles taking advantage of the sun to warm them.

The Spice Bush is everywhere in the woods. The flowers and the branches have a tart odor. The Spice Bush is the host plant of the Spicebush Butterfly.

The Trout Lilys are starting to leaf out. Only saw one that was blooming, it was white which is rather rare, they are normally yellow. They get their name from the leaves that are mottled and somewhat resemble the coloring of trout fish.

Another interesting side note on Trout Lilys. Their seeds are dispersed by ants that carry them back to their nests. The outside of the seed is fed to their young and then the seed discarded.  This process is called Myrmecochory.

The leaves of Jacob's Ladder are coming out, it will be a month before the purple blooms bud out. The plant got it name because the leaves are opposite each other which appear as a ladder.

The pink blossoms of the Cut-Leaf Toothwort are just starting to emerge. This plant is easy to spot because of the deep cut leaves. The word "wort" means plant and is an Old English Word with Germanic Heritage.

There were a couple of Violets blooming and the May Apples are just starting to emerge.

The small ephemeral ponds were teaming with life.  We found mosquito larvae along with Fairy Shrimp.  As the ponds warm the tadpoles and salamander larvae will emerge.

At the end of the Upland Trail as it heads south along the ditch of the Limberlost Creek you have a clear view of the new Eagle's nest.  One of the Eagles was tending the nest, but we could not see any little heads peaking out yet. 

 
The walk back along the ditch presented groups of bees.  They were small and black and could easily be confused with flies.  We watched as they went in and out of small holes they had bored in the dirt.  Unfortunately they were too small and quick to get any pictures of them.

A short walk along Veronica's Trail brings you to the bridge over  the pond.  There were a couple of turtles taking advantage of the sunny day to crawl out of the pond on small logs to sun themselves.

The woods are just waking up so this is just the beginning of the hikes to share the beauty of the Limberlost during this Spring Season.