Creeping buttercup

Creeping buttercup

Creeping buttercup (ranunculus repens) is very common, but very pretty. It spreads rapidly using horizontal stems (stolons) such that a single plant can grow into a five foot square patch in a single year – choking out other plants as it spreads. Like most...
Wool sower gall

Wool sower gall

Now this is a weird one. You are not looking at a flower. Rather it is a nest or a house! A tiny wasp laid its eggs in a twig of a white oak tree. Chemicals which were injected with the eggs caused the oak tree to grow everything you see in the fluffy sphere. So, what...
Nodding trillium

Nodding trillium

This beautiful flower hides itself. From the top you only see three pointed, green leaves. The flower is on a short stem which curves over so that the flower hangs underneath the leaves. Hence the name nodding trillium (Trillium Cernuum). Short-lived excitement In...
Bluet

Bluet

Bluets (houstonia**) come in many colors. Simple, crisp flowers which look so perfect when they pop up in a wild setting. It would be obvious to say “they have four petals”. But that would be an error. The four colored parts are, in fact, sepals. It that...