Northland Nature: Trailing arbutus blanket conifer forests
May 10—May is such an incredible month in the Northland deciduous woods. This is the greening month. We see greening in our lawns and roadsides, but it goes beyond this.
The woods green from the ground up. In many locations, thick growths of these wild onions in spring make it look like they will bloom soon, but flowers are delayed until summer.
New leaves of mosses and fiddleheads of ferns unroll for another season.
Shrubs, such as gooseberry and fly honeysuckle along with the small tree, elderberry, begin the leafing of woody plants.
The foliage of the larger trees overhead will be a little later in the month. This allows sunlight to penetrate the forest floor for a few weeks. The plethora of wildflowers that live here need to take advantage of this sunny time to quickly emerge from underground and open leaves and buds to flower.
Attracting any insects that are active at this time, the flowers will be pollinated and develop seeds for the new season. These few sunny weeks in the forest before being shaded are crucial for the vernal flora.
A walk in the deciduous woods near mid-month can garner as many as 20 kinds of flowers in bloom. It begins with hepatica that is followed by spring beauty, bloodroot, wood anemone, wild strawberry, white and yellow trout-lilies, bellworts, trilliums, toothwort, buttercup, Dutchman breeches, wild ginger, coltsfoot, dwarf ginseng, jack-in-the-pulpit and several kinds of violets that hold petal colors of blue, purple, white and yellow.
Nearby in swamps and other wetlands are carpets of marsh marigolds that add a golden glow to the scene. As we wander here, we may tend to look down, but trees get into the flowering as well. Small trees of wild plum, juneberry, pin cherry and elderberry will also reveal multitudes of white blossoms.
Walking in the deciduous woods is full of colors now, but the coniferous forests where the shade of the evergreen needles remained all winter, things are a bit different. Though there are not the numbers of wildflower species and colors as seen among the broad-leaf trees, some wildflowers are here in spring.
Two that I like to locate each spring are goldthread and trailing arbutus. Both retain their green leaves throughout the winter. Both spread out over the ground in rhizome growths.
Goldthread gets its name from the color of the thread-like roots that extend horizontally low to the ground. Flowers are small with white petals on vertical stalks. The evergreen leaves are of three parts. Plants are mostly seen in damp areas of mixed or coniferous trees.
Trailing arbutus with its rather huge green leaves, lives up to its name by growing runner branches that extend quite far on the forest floor (trailing). The flowers in clusters are horn-shaped and range from white to pink in color and are only about a half-inch across.
These small florets give a delightful aroma and pleasant appearance surrounded by green leaves. Such properties made this flower a popular one to be picked and it is now less common than formerly.
Whether it is a walk in deciduous woods or a coniferous forest, wildflower finding and observing is a wonderful way to appreciate May. The flowers of this time will soon pass when the site gets shady. But other shade-tolerant ones will take their place and we'll see baneberry, bunchberry, columbine and clintonia blooming here along with an ever-growing patch of ferns.
The greening month of May grows into thick growth in June.
