Yellow Flowers Take Center Stage

The yellow flowers took center stage in the Skidmore College woods late last week.  And the Red-necked False Blister Beetles soon showed up to feast on the pollen. 

Happily, I found dozens of beautiful Yellow Trout Lilies (Erythronium americanum) in full bloom, and most with their pollen intact. This lovely group of blooms was tucked into a protective tree-root niche, and its anthers still held the deep-red pollen that will shortly attract (and be consumed by) hordes of hungry beetles.

Large-flowered Bellwort (Uvularia grandiflora) was dangling its large yellow blooms with flaring petals below stem-perforated leaves. I find this species of bellwort only in lime-rich habitats, which certainly describes the limestone-underlaid woods at Skidmore College.

The later-blooming species of Blue Cohosh (Caulophyllum thalictroides) was now bearing its open yellow (not purple) flowers. The purple-flowered species called Early Blue Cohosh (Caulophyllum giganteum) had bloomed a week or so earlier and still held many flowers.  The two species grow within a few feet of each other in the Skidmore woods with no signs of hybridizing.  As the plants mature, they become quite difficult to tell apart, so I am delighted I know where to find both species so readily observable as they first come into bloom.

 

I had found the first yellow trumpet-shaped blooms of Leatherwood (Dirca palustris) just peeking out of their brown furry buds a couple of weeks ago, so I feared that they would be gone by now.  But no, these lime-loving shrubs with their tough leathery bark were still festooned with bright-colored flowers, even as their green leaves began to unfold.

The Spicebush shrubs (Lindera benzoin) were now fully in flower, with sessile tufts of bright-yellow blooms, male and female flowers borne on separate shrubs. If you want to know how Spicebush acquired its vernacular name, just gently scratch the bark of a twig and take a sniff. Aromatic! Also, the female shrubs will later bear red berries that can be dried and ground to substitute for Allspice in baking. Or so I've been told.

Well, it didn't take long for the Red-necked False Blister Beetles to find the pollen-bearing male Spicebush flowers. The shriveled brown tips of several anthers indicate that these two have finished their meal and are now engaged in post-prandial activity to ensure the continuation of their species.

But as this photo of an eating-orgy reveals, there doesn't seem to be any population shortage among these pollen-eating insects. They really do love Trout Lily pollen! 

When I returned the next day, I could not find a single Trout Lily that hadn't had all of its pollen devoured, leaving the anthers shriveled and black.

Luckily, unlike those beetles, Trout Lilies don't have to depend on sexual activity to reproduce. They are well able to increase their numbers clonally, by underground runners called stolons. The white stolons can sometimes be seen emerging from under the ground as they travel across the forest floor.  But it seems that they must quickly return underground, to judge by tiny "croquet wickets" I sometimes discover surrounding their patches of speckled leaves.

As the summer approaches, all traces of Trout Lily -- leaves included -- disappear from the forest floor. I wonder where the Red-necked False Blister Beetles go next, to eat their fill.