Confusing Spring Wildflowers

I met only one other person walking at Palisades State Park today just as I was leaving.  He said "Lots of pretty flowers out today."  I agreed.  "Yes, the woods are full of them!"

I almost said "Yes, the hepatica are in bloom, and so are the bloodroots!"  But I stopped myself--didn't want to sound like a flower geek.

Really, though, it took me until the end of my walk to realize that those flowers WERE hepatica.  Every year I get confused by them.

They look a little bit like spring beauties, another one of the spring ephemerals (wildflowers that appear in the spring, and completely die back after they bloom), and they confuse people.  When my friend Nancy, who works at the Nature Center, told me that people were telling her that spring beauties were in bloom, I knew that they couldn't be right.  Spring beauties are a bit later, even in a warm year.  Here are some spring beauties.

They have leaves like grass stems, and the flowers look like Candy-Stripers.

The reason I didn't figure out the hepatica right away was that they didn't have leaves.

The hepatica leaves are distinctive three-lobed, mottled leaves that supposedly bear resemblance to a liver (early settlers used hepatica to treat liver ailments).  At first, I saw NO leaves with these flowers.  But then I found a plant with a few leaves.

The drought and subsequent hard winter must have caused the leaves to shrivel back.  Usually, they're somewhat evergreen.

There were a few bloodroot abloom, too.  Bloodroot are striking flowers--bright white with bright yellow stamens.  They bloom singly, not in a clump like hepatica, and with a single leaf wrapped around the stem.

I used to have both bloodroot and hepatica in my shade garden, but I think the drought and hard winter killed them off.

The pants were just starting to bloom.  I'll have to go back for a better view of them.

Besides the flowers, I had a nice conversation with a ruby-crowned kinglet.  I spotted it in a tree far away, and wasn't sure of what it was--its song/calls seemed familiar.

I stood there thinking that I wished I'd brought my binocs.

Then I tried to lure it closer by pssshing.  The bird flew right over!  It hopped around in the low-hanging tree branches over my head, cocking its head back and forth to get a good look at me.  I got a good look at it, and was able, with the help of my Peterson's Guide app on my iPod, to identify it.  Definitely a ruby-crowned kinglet!

Such a cute bird! And so bold!  (I had to borrow this picture from the Carolina Bird Club's website as I didn't have a good camera for birds.)

I spotted a couple more on my walk, and was able to lure them closer by pssshing!

Why was I out walking on a Monday morning in April?  It was Flunk Day at Coe.  Great day for a spring ephemerals walk!