20170531 Trillium, Cinquefoil, Moose, Cotton Grass, Bunchberry, Dragonfly, Starflower, Snapping turtle, Clintonia, Sheepkill, Labrador tea, Blue-eyed grass, Tamarack

Trillium, Cinquefoil, Moose, Cotton Grass, Bunchberry, Dragonfly, Starflower, Snapping turtle, Clintonia, Sheepkill, Labrador tea, Blue-eyed grass, Tamarack

We took some detours on our way to and from Parry Sound on the last day of May and saw some nice sights ….

Including this field of maturing Trillium grandiflorum along the bank of Harris Creek along Hwy 529.

When this marsh plant shows it little purple flowers we’ll be able to positively ID it as Potentilla palustris.

New mom with calf  south of Pte au Baril  ….

Cottongrass, probably this one:

Bunchberry, Cornus canadensis, one of the three flowers competing for Canada’s National Flower. Voting closes on June 30, 2017.

Labrador Tea …  easy to identify by the rust-coloured  wooly underside of its mature leaves.

Either a solitary bee or a fly …

Thankfully the Dragonflies have arrived.   Outdoors folks are thankful because of the huge numbers of mosquitoes and black flies they consume.

Starflower:

Keeping a beady eye out for the photographer taking a close up.  Click on the photo to see it really close up…..

This article tells how to pick up a Snapping turtle, if you really need to.  I’ll let someone else do it if required.

Clintonia borealis (commonly blue-bead lily or Clintonia, also Clinton’s lily, corn Lily, cow tongue, yellow beadlily, yellow bluebeadlily, snakeberry, dogberry, and straw lily) are just starting to bloom.  It’s blossoming follows the yellow Trout Lily in deciduous forests  by a week or two.

Kalmia angustifolia contains a poison and is known as ‘lamb-kill’, ‘sheep kill’, ‘calf-kill’, ‘pig laurel’, ‘sheep-laurel’ and ‘sheep-poison’.  It is also known as narrow-leaved laurel and dwarf laurel.   It has a pretty flower and is often in association with leatherleaf, labrador tea, cottongrass, bog rosemary and a variety of sedges … often in tamarack bogs.

Blue-eyed grass holding some rainwater …

Female cone along with several male pollen “cones” along a Tamarack twig .

I just looked at Mark Berkery’s latest post Black and White – I fly.    Very interesting subject from a very interesting man who happens to also be a great photographer.

 

Save

20170504 Honeysuckle, Carolina Spring Beauty, Trout Lily, Trillium, Catkins, Mosses & Lichens, Red Maple, Blue Cohosh

A nice few hours up on Hwy 522 to see spring flowers, some emerging and some at their best  …

Lonicera canadensis, Fly Honeysuckle are blooming on a shrub about a metre or so tall.

Carolina Spring Beauty in normal habitate.

And a trout lily in typical habitat…

A clump of Trillium grandiflorum, Ontario’s flower, with its petals still furled.

Willow, Salix, showing the difference between this male catkin …

… and this female catkin on an adjoining plant:

A collection of moss-lichens showing the great diversity of their symbiotic relationships:

 

 

 

 

Clear example of clusters of female Acer rubrum flowers:

Blue Coshosh bloom very quickly.  One week, even in this cold weather is about the length of the bloom.  A day or so, for each individual floret.

Although I’ve seen one moose this spring, very few deer and no bears have been seen yet.  Perhaps the rainy/snowy cold weather has been a factor.