A brilliant blue sky with wispy clouds belies the chill in the air. Eastern redbud branches are lined with hot mauve buds.
The Bennett-Johnson Prairie was given a good cleansing burn over the winter. Already, some prairie ephemerals are setting buds and leaves. The pasque flowers sport deep purple petals with yellow stamens from the center. In Minnesota, we usually see a pale lavender variety in the wild. Both are covered in soft, silky hair.
Prairie smoke buds are still forming. Colored in lipstick shades, they arch forward and are shaped like balls. Once pollinated, the buds open. Petals and sepals become thick with silky strands, and the plant stands erect, resembling its namesake plume of smoke.
Pasque flower (left) and prairie smoke (right) bloom in the Prairie in the spring.
Raucous screeching of red-winged blackbirds greets me from the wetland. These “konk-la-REE” calls help males declare their territory to competing males and let females know that a well-situated home will be provided. The males raise their red and yellow epaulets while calling; females wear brown and cream-colored streaks, which camouflage them quite well as they nest in cattails and reeds. Visit the National Audubon Society website to hear their calls, see different plumages, migration maps and more!
During a Master Naturalist Volunteer class in early April, we tracked red-wings in Bloomington wetlands. My Jamaican friend, as always, wore her Rasta cap — with brilliant red, yellow and green punctuated by black — for warmth. But within minutes, male red-wings started dive-bombing her! They came so close that she finally removed her beanie and hid it, and the attacks immediately stopped. Can you imagine why?
The vivid red and yellow wings of the red-winged blackbird stand out in the wetland.
Tulips are in full, vibrant bloom along Three-Mile Drive! There are even still some daffodils left. People are posing in front of and photographing these amazing bulb flowers in dozens of colors, sizes and shapes.
Tulips in a panoply of colors, forms and sizes decorate the Annual Garden.
But I hurry on to the Dayton Wildflower Garden and my favorite flowers of all: spring ephemeral wildflowers in the forest. These are flowers that bloom before the canopy leafs out, maximizing their sunshine intake and providing sustenance for pollinators before dying back.
I have missed the earliest ephemerals this year: bloodroot, spring beauties, skunk cabbage, trout lilies, twinleaf and more. But there are still so many to see!
Mayapple (left) and miterwort (right) are among the ephemerals that appear in the Wildflower Garden in spring.
Mayapples are just starting to set their buds, but not all will flower each year. Usually, where you find two umbrella-like leaves topping a single stem, a bud will form between the two, as it did here. It will form a single waxy white flower that droops beneath the leaves.
Miterwort flowers are a mere ⅛ inch across. Some feel they resemble a bishop’s cap or mitre, hence its name. Others say the white, lacy blossoms resemble a snowflake. A group of large-flowered bellwort is blooming, its bright yellow petals drooping downwards. A lone white trout lily shows its mottled leaves and recurved tepals. Tall meadow rue is setting its buds, too, and serviceberry shrubs resemble clouds with their billows of white flowers.
Large-flowered bellwort (left) and white trout lily (right) in the Wildflower Garden.
There is a shallow puddle about three feet long on the entrance sidewalk to the Wildflower Garden. Most people slow down to navigate it, but a few step over the path edges and walk right in the garden to avoid getting their shoes wet. After daylong rains the last week in April, the ground is saturated and sinks. This thoughtlessness can prevent some forbs from setting seeds, or others from extending rhizomes. It could prevent blooming for up to 20 years in some cases. And that includes our native orchids, such as the rare Minnesota state flower, our showy lady’s slipper!
Michelle, a home-schooler from Carver, is helping three of her children identify the wildflowers. It is wonderful to find people so interested in Minnesota native plants. And they crested the puddle rather than going off-path.
Boreal chorus frogs (aka Western chorus frogs) serenade from small ephemeral ponds (yes, ponds can be ephemeral, too!) They dry up in summer heat, but not before providing sustenance and habitat for chorus frogs, birds and many others. These inch-long amphibians sing a loud song! They sound similar to dragging your thumb down a comb.
Interested in citizen science? Want to learn more about Minnesota wildlife? Consider some of our state’s great programs, including the Minnesota Master Naturalist program!
All photos besides the red-winged blackbird image by Mary Beth Pottratz
Mary Beth Pottratz is a Minnesota Master Naturalist Volunteer. To learn more about the University of Minnesota Extension’s Master Naturalist program, visit their website.