A Few Recent Gifts From the Native Wildflower Gods

Two fascinating flowers are now blooming in the woods at Skidmore College, and another just showed up on its own in my Saratoga Springs backyard.

Every June, I eagerly await the diminutive Four-leaved Milkweed (Asclepias quadrifolia) to dangle its pretty clusters of pink-touched white blooms in the Skidmore woods. Most of our native milkweeds prefer a sunnier habitat, but this species prefers the dappled shade along the trails in this woods, home to many remarkable wildflowers because of the limestone that enriches the forest floor here.

 

On the other hand, Orange-fruited Horse Gentian (Triosteum aurantiacum) prefers the sun-drenched clearing under a powerline that runs through the woods at Skidmore College. The small red trumpet-shaped blooms that now circle the stems of this hip-high plant will later yield wreaths of round, two-seeded orange fruits along the entire length of the stems.

Back home, one of our loveliest native wildflowers, Venus's Looking Glass (Triodanis perfoliata), recently volunteered in my Saratoga Springs backyard and is now producing its ascending blooms of beautiful flowers.  Masses of these native plants, with their small purple flowers tucked into spikes of ruffly heart-shaped leaves, just showed up, unbidden, between the bricks in my patio. And this one continues to open new flowers from its vase on my kitchen table.

For a wildflower enthusiast like me, I sure do live in Paradise. Every week, new gifts from the wildflower gods appear where I can delight in them.