Georgia Piedmont, early March

 The shrubs are greening. Most of the trees are not.

Some of the dogwoods are brilliant white — all blossoms, no leaves. Some have a faint green tinge — the blossoms are competing with the new leaves.

Among the plants that are blooming:

• Woolly ragwort, Packera dubia, has yellow flowers over dark spear-like leaves. The first blooms I saw were in a seep. 

• Rue anemone, Thalictrum thalictroides, a little herbaceous perennial, is putting on flowers. The first blooms I saw had white petals in a whorl around a green eye. 

• Strawberry bush, Euonymus americanus, is budding. The plant looks like a green Tinkertoy set this time of year, all elbows and angles. Biologists describe it as a “multi-stemmed, suckering” shrub.

• Yellow jessamine, Gelsemium sempervirens, has bright yellow blossoms and grows everywhere. The sight of yellow flowers in a young pine lured me off the trail. I had to get closer before I could see the vine.