Wildflower Shangri La!

Marsh Marigold

Wild Ginger

Dutchman's Breeches

Large-flowered Trillium

Stinking Benjamin

Today I found wildflower Shangri La!  On our drive to church this morning down Clear Creek Road, I noticed a hillside covered with Dutchman's Breeches and a ditch filled with Marsh Marigold.  So later in the afternoon I returned to get a closer look.

The Marsh Marigold was growing in a roadside swamp loaded with Skunk Cabbage.  The water in the swamp was classic southeast Ohio iron rich water, bright orange with an oily film.  It is amazing how such beauty can arise from such yuck!

I walked about 50 yards down the road to the Dutchman's Breeches hillside.  It in fact was totally covered with the beautiful spring ephemeral.  But the real beauty was actually around the corner, on the eastern slope of a very narrow ravine.  On this steep slope was a thick, rich carpet of two types of trilliums, Dutchman's Breeches, Squirrel Corn, Blue Cohosh, Spring Beauty, Bellwort, and Waterleaf.  A hiker could not take a step without trampling one of these spring wonders.  I am not sure that I have ever found such a rich spring wildflower site, with the possible exception of Stone House Trail at Salt Fork State Park.  This site every bit of stands up to the much more famous wildflower sites in Shawnee State Forest and the Hocking Hills!

I look forward to visiting this site again when the Waterleaf comes into bloom!