Category: West Fairmount Park

We have reached the final stages of the blooming period of Morris Park’s Sanguinaria canadensis.  Yesterdays April 12th rainstorms knocked off most of the petals on the populations throughout the park.  A few are still holding on and we expect a few nice blooms tomorrow, Thursday, April 14, 2011.

However, it is the endgame of Bloodroot blooming for us in the 2011 season here in Morris Park, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,

It has been so far twenty five consecutive days of blooming bloodroot in Morris Park.  What a great spring for this plant here in Morris Park.  The cool weather and sunny afternoons have been most welcome.  It has been a joy to walk down the path and see the drifts of white flowers forming patches on the forest floor. It has been great fun to watch the many varieties of insects buzzing about the flowers, taking advantage of this early nectar source, and pollinating the flowers.  It was also fun to see this flower in Pennypack Park, Wissahickon Park and Cobbs Creek Park, Philadelphia, as well as in the Sumter National Forest in South Carolina.  The Bloodroot has been a grand welcome into the Spring of 2011.

 

 

This population of Sanguinaria canadensis is at its peek bloom.  Not ten feet away is another population, that had peaked on Monday, and as of this writing on Thursday night, April 7th, has reached its peak and is ready to start seed production.  However, there are still a few flowers within this population that are at peak bloom.  These two naturally occurring populations of bloodroot are very different and yet are located very close to each other.  One reaches peak bloom one week earlier than the other.  They have different leaf structures: The population pictured above has deeply incised lobes, whereas the population pictured below has less incised, more rounded lobes. This species is noted for the variability of its populations, that there is a great variety within general populations of a given area. This variability makes the blooming season of Bloodroot in Morris Park very interesting.  There are groupings of flowers that bloom very early and ones that bloom much later.  The flowers themselves have a high degree of variability in the numbers of petals: Some have two concentric circles of petals, reaching numbers into the teens and some have only 8 or 9 petals at the most.

Above, a grouping of Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) in its waning bloom period. The petals, sepals, and the male portion of the flower, the stamens, fall off and land on the leaf litter below.  The female portion, the ovary, remains, and will grow in the next few weeks into a seed pod, which will mature and break open, dropping shiny brown 2mm long seeds.  Ants will become attracted to a fleshy mane called an eliasome, that covers the seed. They will come and drag the seed away, and eat the eliasome, and then discard the seed in a dumping area.  This ant dump, as it turns out , is nutrient rich, well-drained, and couldnt be a better spot for seed germination.  This symbiotic relationship with the ant is how Bloodroot expands its range and is able to survive as a species.

Where these two flowers bloom today was just three years ago an area infested with invasive vegetation such as Garlic Mustard, Japanese honeysuckle and Asiatic bittersweet. Since the removal of these problematic introductions, the native wildflowers and trees have been  growing at a healthy clip.  The original forest of Morris Park is surviving the onslaught of invasive introductions, with much help from volunteers in our community.

This specific population of flowers has been measured at 5.5 centimeters of flower diameter. However, for the purposes of this photograph and of the moment, there is no measurement that can do justice to the beauty of these flowers. They are blooming in the late morning after a period of heavy rains and wind, in various stages of bloom maturity.  A sunny day ahead winks at the possibility of good pollination for these flowers.

The Mayapples (Podophyllum peltatum) in Morris Park are just now emerging out of the earth.  They have waited all winter for just this moment.

Right here, at the end of Morris Park Road, is a happy day for the Mayapples.  The time has come to re-emerge and grow, flower and go to seed, creating a fruit that is beneficial to our native box-turtle, which we have spotted in this very Mayapple patch.

This little umbrella-like plant is spring itself. A season of turtles, fireflies, birdsongs, flowers, Owls, Hummingbirds, Crickets, all that we love about the season is now officially ahead of us. Please contribute anything we have left out in our comments section.

Bloodroot has a lot of variation (picture above) : To the left, the specimen has lost all of its petals and is ready to go into the seed production phase.  To the right, a flower at its peak bloom. These flowers are most likely connected at the root.

This is a population at the very end of its peak bloom, yet still entirely in bloom.

 

Here is a group  of Sanguinaria canadensis with the camera resting on the leaf litter. While this image can be imagined, it is the camera that becomes the eye for us viewers.  To witness this same image  from our own eyes would require an effort that would exceed our level of comfort. We would have to bend down into the forest floor and rest our head on the leaf litter.  We would be putting our selves at risk of ticks and poison ivy. We would also be in danger of crushing many emerging wildflowers.  This is where the camera is a great convenience by seeing for us what we cannot reasonably see for ourselves, and the above picture is a prime example. This picture was taken while standing on a log next to the the trail, and leaning the camera down as far as possible into the leaf litter, next to a stand of blooming Bloodroot. The most care was taken to not disturb anything in order to obtain this picture. It is very easy to accidentally crush a flower while trying to observe a flower. With the utmost humility, we at the Sanguine Root have experienced this.  Now we do everything we can can to have the most minimal impact on anyplace we go. The flower  pictured above waited all winter to bloom.

Its really happening! Spring 2011 has finally brought Mayapples out of the soil in Morris Park!  If you can find the time , get out and enjoy the flowers in your area.

Lindera benzoin

Spicebush has become one of our favorite blooms of the Spring.  It took us years to even notice them.  The spicebushes along the path leading to Morris Park Road were covered with Japanese honeysuckle.  The subtle yellow hue was never visible.  Now that the invasive vine has been removed, a glimpse of light brings out the tiny flowers, offering an airy splash of color in the early Spring.

Spicebush is not to the taste of deer, although they will eat it if they are hungry enough.  It is the most dominant remaining native shrub in our area.

 

Sanguinaria canadensis

The photo above is a symbolic testimony of the resilience of our native wildflowers in an urban, degraded forest.  The branch you can see in the foreground is Euonymus alatus, the exotic invasive burning bush that you can see at every gas station or landscaped parking lot.  Here it has been removed and the remains cover the forest floor in this area of restoration (see the post “Wall of Invasives Toppled).  Now the bloodroot can grow without being completely shaded out by invasive shrubs.  We hope to see larger colonies in that spot next year.

Another success story for our resilient bloodroot:  the colony you see in this photo was overcrowded and shaded out by a thicket of multiflora rose, only two years ago.

The lesson we have learned is that by simply removing the invasive plants, there is enough native flora already in place in the forest to grow back to a critical mass.  In some situations of extremely degraded urban forests, this may not be the case.

By the way, it looks like the weather is going to be nice this weekend, with Sunday being the best.  Come and visit Morris Park and see some bloodroot blooming!