It was a dreary Saturday on Chestnut Ridge, but even the bleakest days are brightened by Spring’s dazzling gifts. From top: a wood anemone (Anemone quinquefolia) grudgingly unfolds its petals in search of sunlight; common sassafras (Sassafras albidum) shows off its yellow-green blooms; smooth Solomon’s seal (Polygonatum biflorum), whose pendulous flowers are near to bloom; the magnificent marsh blue violet (Viola cucullata Aiton), a lover of damp stream banks and bogs; heartleaf foamflower (Tiarella cordifolia), whose resplendent flower spikes are matched in beauty by its velvety, luxuriant foliage; and the fragile, sylph-like sessile bellwort (Uvularia sessilifolia), whose principle pollinator (Andrena uvulariae) specializes in this wildflower.
