Anyway after almost careening off the road to get a better look at my first local Trout Lily sighting, I realized my bike route was along a huge colony of these unassuming, yet beguilingly beautiful plants.
The road I almost died on
Erythronium americanum flower and foliage
Erythronium americanum aka Trout Lily or Dogtooth Violet (and a few others) is small bulbous spring ephemeral that belongs to a genus of some 20-30 similar plants, many of which also have the spotted/mottled leaves that make the group so damn cool .... and where the trout part of the name comes from. Apparently this mottling helps break up the form of the plant against the background of leaf litter where the plant is usually found, making it difficult for deer and other color limited herbivores to make out the solid form of the plant. To them, apparently (aside from blue and yellow hues), everything appears monochromatic, so the trout lily would be indistinguishable in hue from the surrounding leaf litter to begin with... add the mottling and presto! deer camouflage. Aside from being sooo excited (yeah maybe a little sad) to come across this exotic looking plant on the side of the road on the outskirts of Boston, the shear size of the colony was huge! Enough writing..... time for MORE PICTURES!
Maianthemum racemosum with non-flowering single leaf colony of Erythronium americanum below
Erythronium americanum flower and foliage
Erythronium americanum flower and foliage
Erythronium americanum flower and foliage
Erythronium americanum flower and foliage
Erythronium americanum flower and foliage
Erythronium americanum seed formation
Ironically all of the flowering plants I came across were a few feet from the adjacent road. While the interior of the woodland was covered with single leaves (only plants that put up 2 leaves produce flowers) I couldn't find a single flower. Unfortunately, someone's long forgotten patch of Lily-of-the-Valley (Convallaria majalis) was gradually marching towards the colony. Wamp wamp. Hopefully it won't be a one sided fight, but I'm not optimistic.
The fragrant invasion, Convallaria majalis colony encroachment
Convallaria majalis flower and foliage
Now for the crab part.
Thought I'd continue with another under-appreciated and often ignored plant... the Crab Apple. Growing wild in sometimes downright trashy places, you'll be hard-pressed to find any country road (or sometimes very much not country roads) that don't have a few crabs that have managed to shoulder out whatever competitive (and usually non-native) vegetation they find themselves growing next to. I was actually a little crabby (get it?) to find that the Crabs we see growing along our roadways, abandoned fields, and whatever other little plot of land people have tromped around on, are actually not native. Not to say the northeastern U.S. doesn't have a few of its own native species (Malus coronaria and Malus ioensis) but the crab apples you see, especially in New England, are most likely a homogenized conglomeration of these as well as many other agricultural and ornamental species (M. pumila, Malus x domestica, M. sylvestris, M. baccata, M. floribunda, M. hupehensis, M. sargentii, M sieboldii, and the list goes on). While it might seem crazy, all members of the malus genus are quite promiscuous (aka inter-fertile) producing individuals with countless intermediate and unique forms, flowers, fragrances, fruits, etc. As far as I can gather this homogenized group has no official designation, and because all great things should have names I'll refer to the mixed up group as Malus x intermedia, at least until I find their proper name.
Malus x intermedia, blushed variant form and flower
Malus x intermedia, blushed variant flower
Malus x intermedia, mature form in woodland
Malus x intermedia, juvenile form by roadside
Malus x intermedia, wine variant flower
Malus x intermedia, wine variant flower
Malus x intermedia, white and pink variant form
Malus x intermedia, pink variant flower
Malus x intermedia, white variant flower
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