Spring Flowers: An Update

It won't be long, if our weather warms a bit, before the Skidmore Woods here in Saratoga will abound with Hepatica, both the Sharp-lobed and the Round-lobed species.  From evidence I found just yesterday, the furry little buds have already emerged, and some are almost ready to raise their heads and open their pretty faces. (The plants are easy to find, since their colorful leaves have persisted all winter.)

Today, I stopped by the Orra Phelps Nature Preserve in Wilton to see how the Skunk Cabbage that thrives there was developing.  There's a watery swale there where not only do many plants grow, but also the spathes grow larger and more colorful than I've seen them grow anywhere else.

Here's the tallest and reddest Skunk Cabbage spathe I have ever seen!

The scars on one of the spathes looked as if some creature tried to eat it. If so, I hope its mouth has recovered from the cuts rendered by the sharp calcium oxalate crystals that Skunk Cabbage plant tissue contains.