By Charlie Frisk
Correspondent
We are about to move into the season of spring wildflowers, a fleeting scene of beauty, constantly changing, and over all too soon.
Spring woodland wildflowers are described as ephemerals, which means lasting a very short time.
Ephemeral plants adapted to take advantage of when there is adequate sunlight and warmth to support plant growth, but the deciduous trees haven’t yet leafed out to block the sunlight from reaching the forest floor.
April through the first half of June will be the peak time for spring ephemerals; by late June the leaves will be blocking too much of the sunlight for most to thrive.
The first woodland wildflower to bloom in Wisconsin is the skunk cabbage.
Other wildflowers to look for from mid to late April include hepatica, bloodroot, trout lily and marsh marigold.
There is a reason why botanists use scientific names, as each part of the country has different common names for wild plants.
The plant most people around here call the marsh marigold also goes by; bitter flowers, boots, bull flowers, capers, cow lily, cowslip, crazy bet, king’s cup, meadow boots, soldier’s buttons, water goggles, water boots and water gowan.
Marsh marigolds produce a spectacular show with a sea of bright yellow flowers during their blooming season, which usually starts in late April.
The best place here to see marsh marigolds is in the Baird Creek Greenway, east of Superior Road and south of the creek.
Two plants that exhibit the ephemeral trait to the highest degree are the trout lily (a.k.a. dogtooth violet and adder’s tongue) and spring beauty.
The trout lily begins blooming in late April, and the spring beauty in early May.
Both species grow in large patches that completely cover an area during peak blooming times, and if you return to the same area a couple of weeks later there will be no evidence they were ever there.
During their short period of activity, usually about three-four weeks, they’ll have pumped enough stored food into their roots to survive another year.
One of my favorite beautiful wildflowers is the Jack-in-the-pulpit.
It blooms a little later and lasts longer than most of the ephemerals, usually starting in early June.
Its appearance fits the name perfectly: It has a hood over the flower structure that resembles a pulpit, and the flower looks like Jack sitting in the pulpit.
The wildflower that would win the competition for Wisconsin’s most popular would be the large-flowered trillium, a plant that usually blooms in early to mid-May.
The large-flowered trillium is a particularly attractive white wildflower, plus it’s quite easy to identify.
The "tri" in the name stands for three; the trillium has three leaves, sepals, petals and stamens.
Because of its popularity, many myths have developed around the trillium.
Many times I have heard people say that the trillium is Wisconsin’s state flower. It is not. The state flower is the wood violet.
Another myth is that the trillium is a protected species.
Unfortunately, the trillium and most other wildflowers have no special protection.
There was a Wisconsin wildflower law that protected plants such as trilliums, orchids and other wildflowers, but it was taken off the books in 1978.
Unless they are classified as a state or federal threatened or endangered species, wildflowers have no special protection.
The snow trillium is a state threatened species in Wisconsin, but the five other species of Wisconsin trilliums are not protected.
However, it’s bad practice to pick flowers or dig up wildflower plants.
Picking wildflowers can be enough to kill a plant and of course digging them up will kill the plant.
Wildflowers wilt very quickly when picked, and if dug up and replanted they usually die.
State and county parks, as well as most nature preserves, have regulations against picking wildflowers or digging up the plants.
Wildflowers need to be enjoyed in the wild.
A great book for wildflower identification is “Wildflowers of Wisconsin” by Stan Tekiela.
A good location in the Green Bay area to see a variety of wildflowers is the Baird Creek Greenway at Christa McAuliffe Park, follow the brown loop, you will walk by many.
Editor's note: To read another Bay Area Blooms article by Charlie Fisk, CLICK HERE.
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