The first time I stumbled upon spring ephemerals, I was ecstatic.
It had been a long, cold winter, my first in the narrow valley in the Catskill Mountains, and I was looking forward to spring. The snow had melted, but the endless brown slopes of leafless trees did not offer much cheer. Nevertheless, I set off to explore a section of the state forest preserve that was posted by the road.
The sky was a pale, watery gray, as I hiked up a trail that soon petered out. A few woodpeckers hammered in the distant treetops, too high up to see. I was feeling depressed, thinking of turning back. Suddenly a spot of yellow on the ground caught my eye. Startled, I crouched down, and there was the first yellow violet I had ever seen. I shouted with joy.
Looking around, I spotted more of them. And then—oh my, what was that strange blue-purple creature? I approached a crowd of stalks, curved, with fingerlike projections compressed against the stems and hovering, starlike purple eyes with yellow centers. I was in shock—I had never seen anything like it. I wandered through the patch of plants, finding some that were more progressed, the fingers unfurling into leaves. Finally I found one with flattened leaves, and I recognized the three lobes of the blue cohosh plant. I had seen it in bushy patches in other woods, but never dreamed it started out looking like a space alien. (If you have watched peony leaves sprout in spring, they look similar except that they are a deep red.)
Next I found trillium, with its triple leaf and three-petaled, nodding flower. This plant takes four years to set seed and only produces three seeds per plant. No wonder it is severely endangered, although it occasionally coats whole hillsides with blooms.
And strangest of all, bloodroot, also endangered. Its fantastically shaped leaf and pristine white flower sprout from a thick rhizome just under the surface of the soil. When you cut a piece of rhizome, it exudes a red sap and looks exactly like a cut-off finger.
If you have the great luck to discover any of these plants, do not pick the flowers—they will wilt immediately, and they are too rare to harvest. Give them your total attention and bask in the gift of their extraordinary beauty.
For more information, see the article "Spring Ephemerals".
