#pyrola

[geopsych]

Took a walk at a different local park this morning. Didn’t see much to take pictures of but got to see some beautiful pileated woodpeckers close to the ground and not far away. They’re beautiful when their wings are spread. I saw a few rue anemones starting to bloom and the leaves of a couple species of pyrolas, including the lovely leaves of this Pyrola americana.

[wildflowers-of-southern-ontario]

Wintergreen Pyrola sp. Ericaceae

Photographs taken on June 18, 2023, at Purdon Conservation Area, Lanark Highlands, Ontario, Canada.

[vandaliatraveler]

Above are a few odds and ends from my short hike on Snake Hill last weekend. From top: poke milkweed (Asclepias exaltata), a particularly beautiful milkweed that grows in partly-shaded forest habitat; shinleaf (Pyrola elliptica), an enchanting, shade-loving evergreen perennial that sends up stalks of drooping white flowers in early summer; eastern cauliflower mushroom (Sparassis spathulata), considered one of the premier edible mushrooms when young; rock harlequin (Corydalis sempervirens), a delicate biennial beauty that inhabits rock ledges and dry woods; hillside blueberry (Vaccinium pallidum), distinguished from lowbush blueberry by its broader, smoother-edged leaves; white bergamot (Monarda clinopodia), also known as basil beebalm, a shade-tolerant Monarda with white, purple-spotted flowers; and a lovely eastern garter snake (Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis), on alert for intrusive human beings bumbling about with their photo-optical devices.

[dendroica]

American Wintergreen, Pyrola americana (by me)

[wildflowers-of-southern-ontario]

Wintergreen Pyrola sp. Ericaceae

Photograph taken on July 21, 2023, at Mono Cliffs Provincial Park, Mono, Ontario, Canada.

[vandaliatraveler]

Shinleaf (Pyrola elliptica), like its fellow members of the heath family, spotted wintergreen and eastern teaberry, is a perennial evergreen herb of Central Appalachia’s dry to moist, shady woods; it blooms in early to mid-summer, long after the canopy has closed over, and the spring ephemerals are a distant memory. The plant’s erect, flowering stalk rises 6 to 10 inches above a basal rosette of waxy-green, elliptical leaves with red petioles. A cluster of up to fifteen drooping, waxy-white flowers with long, protruding green styles grows from the top of the stalk. Shinleaf, spotted wintergreen, and eastern teaberry all bloom at around the same time as great rhododendron does - it’s a good way of gauging when to look for their flowers in the forest understory. Photos above were taken at Snake Hill Wildlife Management Area.

[geopsych]

Pyrola in bloom!

[geopsych]

The pyrola from underneath. Those red pistils are pretty impressive.