Friday, February 15, 2008

Awakening

For obvious reasons, I haven't been into The Woodland that borders my home for several days. This evening, I finally felt well enough to take a few steps inside and check a very special place.

There, beneath a great oak tree, several years ago, I planted a native spring wildflower, bloodroot. While winter's chill still rules the land, this fragile but determined flower lifts its pale crown above the dry leaves, for but a few days, until the wind strips its petals away.

The flower has not yet emerged this year, but the tight green spear of its solitary leaf bud has just risen from the earth -- and what is this, a second spear rises close by it this time. So the little beauty has begun to multiply.

9 comments:

Jessica said...

Oh I do love signs of spring. Can't wait for days of green grass and warm sunshine.

Rebecca said...

I am glad you were feeling well enough to venture out into the Wood. And how wonderful that your planting has multiplied, and that its signs of life are already visible. The back of winter has indeed been broken yet again...let the rejoicing begin.

Ian Lidster said...

I'm still waiting for the trilliums to emerge. Love any harbingers of spring.

Anonymous said...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloodroot
Says the seeds are spread by ants. Very interesting.
Reminds me of anemome.

Woods floor magic!

StayAtHomeKat said...

can't wait!

StayAtHomeKat said...

I was reading this and thought of you....

Celebrating the Semicolon in a Most Unlikely Location

Janice Thomson said...

Hi ECD!
I just found snowdrops that will bloom in the next couple days - what a treat to see these beautiful brave flowers emerging.

PS: I'm back online again.

Mermaid Melanie said...

take a picture.

Eastcoastdweller said...

Foster: Me too, even though pollen and I don't get along.

Rebecca: I love it when we pass the winter solstice and with each new day, light lasts a little longer.

Ian: Trillium is the other wildflower that I have planted in that spot. It is indeed a beautiful plant. But our Virginia heat is hard on it.

Leslie: Ants are hardy little folk, although they generally lose when matched against a schoolGirl's shoe. So they would be a perfect agent, seems to me, to carry forth the seeds of this plant when most other insects are still snoozing beneath the leaf litter.

I was fascinated to learn that the magnolias, a very ancient species, are pollinated by beetles, not bees.

Kat: I read it and loved it. I've been something of a semi-colon freak all my life; albeit often incorrectly.

Janice: I LOVE snowdrops!

Melanie: I surely will take a photo!