The mountain laurel that was blooming everywhere a couple of weeks ago is fading. A few stands of Kalmia latifolia near the mountain are going strong. Most are past their prime.
The fragrance of honeysuckle is almost overpowering.
If you turn over leaves of lady ferns, genus Athuria, you’ll see orange-brown spots. They’re sori, bundles of spore sacs. The new fronds on the Christmas ferns, Polystichum acrostichoides, are uncoiling.
All the clovers are blooming. I can’t believe I haven’t noticed how many reds and purples are displayed by common red clover, Trifolium pratense. I saw some that I'd call lavender. I like the little fuzzy balls of yellow in hop trefoil, Trifolium campestre.
I found just a couple of blooming spiderworts, genus Tradescantia, in the woods. The ones I saw were on the border of blue and purple.
The showiest blooms are not on the mountain but down by the pond in Wade Walker Park. Virginia sweetspire, Itea virginica, is a shrub that has long spikes of cream-colored flowers. The biologists call them terminal racemes.
Growing by them were some blue toadflax, Nuttallanthus canadensis, which have spindly, grass-like stems that hold small flowers. Despite the common name, the flowers look purple to me.
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