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Cabbages & Choruses

Spring is in full force. Red maple led the way flowering and dropping helicopters (samaras) seeds before any other tree began to bloom. Skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus) joined in on the forest floor. Skunk cabbage produces heat, through a short burst of intense metabolism that can melt its way through ice and snow. Upland chorus frogs (Pseudacris triseriata) and spring peepers (Hyla crucifer) filled the air with mating calls rivaling any fauna's "nuptial" display. Mourning cloaks (tortoise shell butterflies) began sunning with open wings after winter hibernation. Spotted salamanders (Ambystoma maculatum) made nightly migrations filling one of our vernal pools with large clumps of eggs which will develop throughout the spring.

Shortly after this initial burst the forest floor came alive with bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis), spring beauty (Claytonia virginica), cutleaved toothwort (Dentaria laciniata), early saxifrage (Saxiftaga virginiensis), trout lily (Erythronium americanum), dwarf cinquefoil (Potentilla canadensis), violets (Viola spp), great chickweed (Stellaria pubera), rue anemone (Anemolella thalictroides), and jack-in-the-pulpit (Arisaema atrorubens). Every day brings more life, trees continue to bloom and leaf out while spring's ephemeral wildflowers are disappearing rapidly. Take a journey into the Bull Run Mountains - don't let spring pass you by!