Flowers in Full Force

It's now been a few weeks since the first spring ephemerals started blooming. Although many of them are still in bloom, there time is coming to an end until next year. Luckily the second wave of blooms are here to take their place. As I've been exploring for the last few days I've been taken aback by how many blooms are out, every year around this time I forget the absolute biomass that our ecosystems produce, although just for a short time before fall and winter return.

Graham's rockcress

Rock whitlow mustard - special concern

Lowbush blueberry

Serviceberries

Fire cherry

Bearberry

Hookedspur violet

Virginia strawberry

Small pussytoes (almost in bloom)

Virginia saxifrage

Sand bittercress

Rock harlequin

Nodding trillium

Pink lady's slipper

Striped coralroot

Dwarf bilberry is a rarer species, I found it but sadly didn't find any flowering plants

Some other noteworthy finds recently: 

Cinquefoil sp. (I think maybe costal cinquefoil, but I'll have to check back when it blooms)

Taphrina johnsonii - a leaf curl fungus on quaking aspen fruit

Anemone smut on wood anemone (inside this swelling the black smut fungus was more obvious)

I've seen quite a few flowers, my next mission will be to work on documenting some cool pollinators. Now that we are in the tail end of spring, it'll just be successive waves of blooms until later in the fall, so I'll have plenty of time. 

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