While pulling garlic mustard every spring our stewardship crew visits nearly every corner of our parks. Along the way we find some native plants. Check out the cool plants we found this week! What have you seen?
Horse-gentian (Triosteum aurantiacum) at Bear Creek Nature Park is getting ready to flower.
Christmas fern (Polystichum acrostichoides) in moist woodland
Starry False Solomon-Seal (Maianthemum stellatum)
Wild blue phlox (Phlox divaricata) in moist woodland
Spring beauty flowers at Stony Creek Ravine Nature Park
Pollinator visits spring beauty (Claytonia virginica)
Foamflower (Tiarella cordifolia) in rich, moist woods.
Natural Areas Notebook 
Hi Cam – the horse gentian was in the brushy areas on the west side of the park along the trail that goes down to the township hall. Pretty hidden in the thicket there, so it’s been hiding! It seems to like the areas that are partially shaded.
So great to see these ! I love the delicate little foam flower – we need a closeup of that one! And that wild blue phlox is such a beautiful subtle color.Where di d you find the horse gentian in Bear Creek? I’ve never known about that flower before. I looked them up on Google and their flowers look pretty exotic! And I never knew about Christmas ferns either.
Thanks, Ben. Great photos.
Such a wealth of wildflowers in our township’s woods! Thanks for showing them to us and reminding us. This is one of my favorite blogs.
Maryann
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