Bloomlist for May 2, 2019

    This week's bloomlist for Wildflower Island is at the end of the post, and Bonnie's pictures
    can be found HERE. Peterson names are used for consistency wherever possible, and comments
    and clarifications are welcome in the comments section.

The mama goose is still sitting on her nest for the third week, as if nothing's new.  But more on that later.

Going down the path about fifteen feet there’s a Highbush Blueberry with the largest florets we’ve ever seen on the island. You have to get to the northern and western paths to see the Lowbush Blueberries and Black Huckleberries. I’m not sure which of these is to the left of no. 21 on the map (it wasn’t open yet, and leaves were not fully formed: am leaning towards Huckleberry), but there are good examples of them at nos. 23 and 27. The tiny, glistening glands on the leaves make it a Huckleberry.

Behind the Toadshades is a single Nodding Trillium, with pink/maroon anthers and up-curved sepals and petals. Surprisingly, the Rosy Trillium around the bend had two blooms this year. Its yellow anthers were striking, and there was even more of a curve in the petals than the Rosy's.

       
I'm thinking this is a Common Woodland Sedge Carex blanda  growing out of a seam of the rocks, but I couldn’t get close enough to ID it.


The Blue Cohosh is still blooming, for those who missed it last week.





Looking at these two pictures, there's no way one could continue to confuse the Star Chickweed with the Starflower.

Looking upwards, Bonnie caught some striking shots of the Gray Birch catkins and the blooms of the Black Oak against the sky.

Reminded me of Japanese Sumi-e painting: http://www.sumi-e.it/en/what-is-sumi-e/ and those similar kinds of art.

On the way out, a surprise. The very accommodating mama goose lifted herself up (quite a few times, actually) and let us have an extended look at her new brood. There were at least 4 goslings, but some others might have been hidden farther back under her chest.
Here's the picture we took, and a video clip Phyllis took later.

What we think was the papa was watching us carefully the whole time, though patient and not once objecting in his usual (vociferous) way.

The Jacks are just starting to come up in one or two places, and it was particularly nice to see the Dog Violet in its usual spot in The Woods near the path. It’s low to the ground and has a enlarged spur.

Also in The Woods, we noticed by the Court Bridge that Someone-I’m-not-naming-names ate the tops off the Irises along the edge of the lake. And it looks as if Teatown has been clearing out the Lesser Celandine by the other (Waterfall) bridge. There were quite a few blue violets in The Woods with stems exceeding the leaves by several inches, a characteristic of the Marsh Violet. But who knows if they were just hybrids of the Common Blue.


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