Going natural, as always, and finding new signs of spring at the Cloister at Three Creeks.
As a bonus for those who come to this blog, and don't just check the video on YouTube, here are Five Quickie still photos, further documentation of the progress of spring:
First, in the unfinished business department, I finally identified this plant, spotted in bloom a few days ago. It is the Blue Cohosh, named for its blue berries: Caulophyllum thalictroides.
... but now I have another problem child. This looks to be in the thistle family, but multiple internet searches have not produced any identity yet. It has leaves that over-winter flat to the ground before springing up in this aptly named new season.
Here's a giant fungus with its own ecosystem, nearly a foot and a half across, decades old. It's the Crack-capped Polypore, Phellinus robiniae, growing on a living Black Locust tree. It is said (and it is my observation also) that nearly every mature Black Locust tree has its own resident parasitic Crack-capped Polypore.
Signs of spring in the canopy, the flowers of the Sassafras tree set off by the maturing winged seeds of the red maple.
Indeed, the canopy is now definitively showing its green tinge, as demonstrated in this zoom shot from a viewpoint. Most of the tree crowns that are the greenest are tulip poplar trees.
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