A strange year for wildflowers

It seems the wildflowers arrived early this year. I did some scouting for the Brown County Wildflower Foray over a week ago and only found two wildflowers. I also talked to others who said we were too late to find wildflowers as they had bloomed early this year. Last year, they were late to bloom.

I had a chance to search a couple of hours for wildflowers in early April at McCormick’s Creek State Park. I caught up with the naturalist who was preparing to lead a hike and she suggested a trail where I could find some wildflowers. Her group caught up with me as I was taking my first photos. I had found several prairie trillium, but they only had bud and were waiting for some warmer weather to bloom. I was beginning to wonder if I would see any blooms.

Hiking a few yards down the trail where I saw the tour group stop resulted in several spring beauties in bloom. I have photographed them before, so I really needed a different angle.

After shooting some of the spring beauties, I hoisted my backpack and continued to walk down the trail. I spotted a single cutleaf toothwort hiding off the trail. It looks like it also waiting for warmer weather to bloom. The temperature was around 50 degrees, but would warm to almost 70 by early afternoon.

The naturalist had mentioned a trout lily was blooming beside the trail. I was skeptical given my findings so far. I kept walking and then I found two trout lilies to photograph. It was the first time I had seen a trout lily in the woods.

The rest of my hike was non-eventful, so I decided to return home and check on my wife who was recovering from some problems with her knee and leg. When I arrived home, she had scouted the wooded area our backyard and several wildflowers she had planted were blooming! I should have checked our backyard before my trip. Hopefully, it will stop raining and I can find some Mayflower blooms in the backyard.