Wildflowers: February 2020 Wildflower Beginnings

On February 12, I hiked through the woods looking for wildflowers beginning to bloom since we have had such a warm, wet winter so far. Very few flowers were open. I did find this native thistle I have not noticed before.

Clustered thistle/Indian thistle/Short-styled thistle (Cirsium Brevistylum)

Lots of these (below) but I do not yet know what it is. Looking in past blog posts, I'm guessing Montia sibirica, Candy Flower. We'll see if it gets 5 petalled, pink striped white flowers. (It did!)

Can't say that I know what this one is, either, although my guess is it's one of those confusing Cardamines, maybe C. integrifolia? I'll go back in a week or so and try to get a photo when it's open.

On Feb. 24, a few what I call Spring Queens were open.They are one of the Cardamines, I think. I'm giving up sorting them out. But I think Howard Bruner, who has helped me id these before, would say they are C. angulata.

On February 17, I found one mystery lily coming up in the area I've found them before. They never get far before being either eaten by deer or smothered by the huge cow parsnip near them. I went back the next day and a second one was up. I put a wire cage over them in hopes of protecting them.

As of Feb. 24, they were still alive. And so were two more I found nearby on Feb. 18. Except by March 1st, it was obvious those two were actually trilliums just coming up.

Feb. 18

March 1st, trillium unfurling

March 1st, trillium

Feb. 24

On March 1st, this one still had just one leaf, while the other one was much taller with many leaves.

March 1st

On March 5, the one had grown taller and the other was just the same.

Looking back through past posts on this blog, I found where these lilies had been eaten off below ground in March of 2015, so I'm wondering if it's slugs. Perhaps I should try putting Sluggo around the lilies. These may be Columbia Lilies like come up along a path every year... and seldom bloom. But those are not appearing above ground yet, so maybe these are a different lily? Or two different lilies since they are looking different from each other? It's all such a mystery.

Many more Spring Queens were blooming on March 1st, some a deep purple. I call them Purple Spring Queens. Original, huh?