A Post-freeze Walk in the Skidmore Woods

My friends Dan and Sue and I put on our masks and practiced "social distancing" as we walked in the Skidmore woods today.  Luckily, there was lots to see and photograph separately, so we could keep plenty of distance among ourselves, even while we delighted to share our enthusiasm for wildflowers.

Many of the wildflowers looked rather wizened today, after a night when temps fell well below freezing. But the spectacular Large-flowered White Trilliums (Trillium grandiflorum) looked none the worse, and oh my, did we find a LOT of them!

There were even a few of the Red Trilliums (T. erectum) still holding their dark-red blooms.

We also found abundant numbers of the tiny-flowered Miterwort (Mitella diphylla) blooming throughout the woods, some of it looking a bit desiccated. But this particular cluster of stems had found shelter among the roots of a tree and looked as perky as ever.

I'm sure that many of our native shrubs have evolved to tolerate late-season freezes.  These gracefully floating leaves of an Alternate-leaved Dogwood shrub (Cornus alternifolia) showed no signs at all of having been nipped by the cold.

This spring's plants of Sharp-lobed Hepatica (Hepatica acutiloba) are sporting fresh new leaves, now that the flowers are fading.  But many of last summer's now-year-old leaves still persist on the ground surrounding the plants.  Having made it just fine through the winter's sub-zero freezes, they looked as lovely as ever today, especially when set alight by a sunbeam to glow like ruby glass. 

Each of us knows where some very special flowers grow in this woods, and Dan showed Sue and me some Yellow Lady's Slippers (Cypripedium parviflorum) already in bud.  It looks like we'll be donning our masks again in a week or so, when we come back together to photograph this native orchid's spectacular flowers. Happily, this particular plant made it through last night's freeze unscathed. Tonight is predicted to be another cold one. Let's keep our fingers crossed that we will yet see this flower in bloom.