JEFF TOME
Photos by Jeff Tome
Every forest has its own wildflowers. These Virginia Bluebells prefer wet forests.
Wildflowers explode across the forest floor like a slow moving fireworks show. It starts with a trickle of hepatica, then bursts with thousands of pink and white Spring Beauties blooming en masse. Then, bright yellow Trout Lilies bloom in bursts scattered through the forest. Trilliums appear after that, forming masses of white and maroon. The forest changes week by week each May as wildflowers burst out in full color, then disappear while another flower bursts out.
The flowers don’t really disappear. Many of these perennials are probably older than I am and grow from the same root each year. Their flowers disappear, but the plants linger for weeks or months as they create seeds to spread their little plant babies about the forest. Later, they die back completely and leave their space open for a new flower to fill later in the season.