Tag: nature walks

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Ozark Wildflowers Blooming

The race is on. The spring ephemeral Ozark wildflowers blooming now are in a race with the trees. They want to put out their leaves for the summer.

Most spring ephemerals grow on the forest floor. All summer the trees shade this area making it hard for plants growing there to get enough light to photosynthesize. Certainly there isn’t enough light for a plant to make seeds.

Edible seeds on American Elm
Unless the tree has showy flowers like redbuds or dogwoods, people don’t think about trees having flowers. Many trees like elms, oaks, hickories and walnuts are wind pollinated so their flowers are tiny. The pollen clouds are noticed because they cover everything with a yellow film. These elm seeds are called samovars and are edible. I found them a nice snack, if I could reach them.

Trees Race Too

Many trees are wind pollinated. Leaves slow down the wind and the pollen. This yellow cloud coats the leaves instead of the pistils waiting to be pollinated. So the maples, ashes, willows, oaks and black walnuts are busy trying to bloom before the leaves too.

American elms are rare here due to Dutch elm disease. I’d found some down by the river in bloom. One even had branches low enough for me to get a picture or two.

On a recent walk I found the seeds on these trees. Since they were listed in “Foraging the Ozarks” as edible, I tried a few. They are bland, but a nice snack. Elms make lots of seeds so eating a few won’t hurt.

Nearby the green ash were blooming. November’s flood washed out my favorite ones, but I did find a few young ones I could get pictures of.

Ozark wildflowers blooming like Spring Beauty
Spring Beauty is a spring ephemeral. It forms large colonies in moist ground. I have seen it carpet lawns in town as well.

Ozark Wildflowers Blooming

The trees were expected. So many wildflowers weren’t. Beautiful spring beauties lined the road and the path along the river. Rue anemones are just opening. Blue violets are having trouble growing up through the sand leaving their flowers sandy.

Redbuds are blooming. Fragrant sumac is opening. Virginia bluebells are getting ready. Rose verbena has its purple pink bouquets out along the road.

Ozark wildflowers blooming like rose verbena
This native wildflower, Rose Verbena, blooms all spring and summer. It is a low growing plant and would be a nice groundcover. It is one of the earliest bright wildflowers blooming along the roads.

Time Frustrations

Now is the time to go hiking to find, admire and photograph all the Ozark wildflowers blooming. It’s also time to get the garden ready and to start planting early crops like peas, turnips, kohlrabi, mizuna and more.

Trying to do both is frustrating.

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First Spring Hike

The grass is starting to grow hinting at mower time coming. The wayside speedwell and early cress are blooming in the yard. So I went on my first spring hike looking for the earliest wildflowers.

Disappointment

The upper Meramec River is a short hike away. Usually I find harbinger of spring there.

Not this year. This year the river bank is totally different after the big flood that came through the end of last year.

Debris in the bushes marked the high water mark. It was over five feet up. Fallen logs were swept away through much of my hiking path. Sand was left behind.

Dreams of crossing onto the gravel bar in the center of the river were mostly cancelled. The river had cut into its bank, toppling trees and leaving sheer drops of four to ten feet into deep pools. This summer’s swimmers with their small children may not want to stay here this year. Already the party crowd has gone elsewhere as the far gravel bank is now inaccessible.

first spring hike find: American Elm flower
American elms aren’t doing well in my area of the Ozarks. Those near the house have all died. A few hang on in the river floodplain. My first spring hike was timed well as these trees were blooming. I was lucky to have a branch within reach to get a few pictures.

Only One Flower

A few spring plants are trying to force their way up through the sand. Some of the dirt areas are still clear. However, I found no early wildflowers.

Silver maples grow along the river. They had finished blooming. I don’t worry much about getting pictures of them as the flowers are thirty feet over my head.

The American elms had washed away in the area I had found. There does seem to be others further down and these trees were in bloom. One branch was even within reach of my walking stick-hooked on the end.

Later On

This first spring hike was mostly exercise and looking around. My next forays along here will hopefully find other flowers in bloom.

Some, like Virginia bluebells, rue anemone, false rue anemone, Confederate violets, are nice to see again. Another, Virginia waterleaf, is one I need more pictures of. I’ve found it along here in the past, but my return trips were thwarted by stinging nettle. Perhaps the flood swept most of these away. I can hope.

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Winter Hikes

The hills are covered with bare branches. They don’t look very inviting for winter hikes, but there are interesting things out there.

Birds

Most of the year birds say hidden behind leaves. I hear them singing or scolding, but rarely catch more than a glimpse.

Winter is different. There are few leaves to hide behind. Fewer kinds of birds are out there, but they can be seen.

Cardinals are the most visible. The males have put on their mating finery so their red glows.

Woodpeckers are beginning to nest so the sound of wood being chiseled is everywhere. The males are drumming to advertise their latest nesting holes.

Carolina Wren on Bird Feeder
I put out fresh sunflower seeds to lure in a couple of cardinals. They went elsewhere. Chickadees came to enjoy the bounty. Carolina wrens don’t normally stop at the feeder, but this one decided to inspect it.

Plants

The trees and shrubs may be bare, the ground isn’t. Mosses and lichens coat the ground with greens and grays. Christmas and ebony spleenwort ferns add green spikes.

A number of plants do sprout in the late summer into fall and overwinter as small sets of leaves. Trying to identify them is a fun challenge on winter hikes.

Trees and I have an uneasy relationship. I like trees. However, photographing them is difficult as they are so tall.

Still, on winter hikes, I take photographs of winter buds on branches I pull down. Then I go in to stumble my way through the “Missoui Trees in Winter” keys trying to identify them.

Once the trees leaf out, I will go back and use leaves to identify these trees. And I can look up to the branches far overhead on some trees I can’t include in my Flora project unless I learn to climb trees.

green mosses light up winter hikes
Mosses are among the very earlies plants. They need moist places and thrive even in frigid temperatures. Over the winter, with the trees bare, mosses green up absorbing the winter sun adding color to the Ozark hills during winter hikes.

Weather

The biggest drawback to winter hikes is the weather. Many days I stand at the windows looking out at the hills. Cold, rain, snow, ice are good reasons to stay inside.

One nice thing about the Ozarks weather are the warmer spells mixed into the cold ones. Going out walking is possible then.