Spring "Ephemerals"

I used to go to this particular trail at the river maybe 2 or 3 times a year, often during the heat of the summer. Lately, I've been going once, maybe twice a week, from winter into spring. I had no idea that this trail had so many spring wildflowers!

Called "ephemeral" because the wildflowers bloom briefly, and then the green part of the plant only lasts maybe a few weeks longer before it disappears. So in the heat of the summer, I would never have seen them.

For example, I had no idea there were Virginia Bluebells on this trail! I love the native Bluebells, and mine in the yard are beginning to bloom.



Then there were these plants. I had seen lot and lots of these leaves growing along the trail and wondered if they were Cranefly Orchids. But the back of the leaves didn't look right, and there were none of the expected bumps on the leaves. When I saw some of them blooming, I was able to search and found that these are Yellow Trout Lillies.







I thought these were really cute "daisy-like" flowers. No idea what they were, so another online search led me to the name Bloodroot. Evidently, toxic to eat but can serve as an insect repellent if applied to the skin, and if you don't mind turning your skin red. They are in the poppy family.





And some Cutleaf Toothwort --


Speaking of that name...."wort" or "wyrt" in Old English just meant "plant".


And last but not least, the cute little flowers that grow in a lot of areas here. Called "Spring Beauties" --



You might have noticed in the photos how bad the English Ivy is -- invasive and spreads everywhere!