#pepper root

Cardamine diphylla / Pepper Root at the Sarah P. Duke Gardens at Duke University in Durham, NC

The dreary weather persisted today, so I blew off a planned trip to Ohiopyle and hiked several trails along Clay Run in Coopers Rock State Forest instead. The pink lady’s slipper orchids (Cypripedium acaule) are now coming into bloom, reminding me that May is just around the corner.  From top: flowering dogwood (Cornus florida); the plummeting green-yellow flowers of striped maple (Acer pensylvanicum); broadleaf toothwort (Cardamine diphylla); Canada violet (Viola canadensis); two-leaf miterwort (Mitella diphylla); Jack-in-the-pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum); and pink lady’s slipper orchid.

At about 1200 feet above the Monongahela River, spring is finally catching up on Chestnut Ridge. Temperatures today climbed into the mid-fifties after an extended cold spell, and the streams in Coopers Rock State Forest were running full after recent rains. In another week, the forest floor will be unrecognizable from the onslaught of spring ephemerals. A few of the wildflowers making an early push (top to bottom):  wood anemone (Anemonoides quinquefolia), also known as nightcaps and windflower; broadleaf toothwort ( Cardamine diphylla), also known as crinkle root and pepper root; heartleaf foamflower (Tiarella cordifolia); twoleaf miterwort (Mitella diphylla), also known as bishop’s cap; halberd-leaved yellow violet (Viola hastata); and long-spurred violet (Viola rostrata).