Walking with Nature: April in Winston Woods

“The earth laughs in flowers,” according to Ralph Waldo Emerson, so maybe it was wildflowers my friend Connie and I heard in Winston Woods this week, not just bird songs. However you express the beauty of wildflowers, I recommend a walk in a wooded area while the spring ephemerals are in bloom. Once the trees leaf out and shade the ground, they will be gone for another year.

Lest you think I’m too poetic, I should report that the paths in Winston Woods are quite muddy in places, due to all the rain we’ve had lately. Maybe the mud laughed, too, as we tried to clean off our shoes at the end of our walk.

It was worth getting a little muddy to enjoy the leaves, buds and—in some cases—blossoms of such wildflowers as jack-in-the-pulpit, cut-leaf toothwort, May apples, trout lilies, violets, rue anemone, Virginia bluebells, trillium, and a few dandelions.

Jack-in-the-pulpits are among the most unusual plants found in the woods each spring. I was happy when Connie spotted one I had passed by. The plant is easily recognized once the cylindrical structure (called the spathe) has grown and the top has opened and curled back over itself. The spathe reminds people of old high-church pulpits, which explains how the plant got its name.

Inside the spathe is the spadix which is shaped like a finger or cigar—and is considered Jack, the preacher in the pulpit. In Winston Woods he preaches his silent sermons to a diverse congregation of wildflowers, trees, birds and hikers. Actually, sometimes it is Jill, not Jack, in that pulpit. Generally, the plant is male for several years, while it stores up nutrition. Once the storehouse is full enough, the plant produces female flowers and berry-like seeds. The tiny flowers are hidden in the spathe, so they are seldom seen.

We humans often complain about insects in the woods, but without fungus flies getting lured—by what seems to be the odor of a fungus—into the spathe, there would be no jacks-in-the-pulpit. The spathe is covered over at the top, but lets light in at the bottom. The flies get confused and descend toward the light, where they pick up pollen from male flowers. Tricked into another plant later, they pollinate the female flowers. Birds pick up the seeds and scatter them in the woods.

Trout lilies are beginning to bloom in Winston Woods. The flowers droop on the stem between their spotted leaves on these overcast days, but open in the sun. Winston Woods is host to numerous coveys of trillium (mostly with maroon flowers). The trillium will fill the woods with color in early May. Virginia bluebells will soon be in full-bloom. May apples, which are budding, will hide their flowers beneath green umbrellas. There is no better time than spring to walk in the woods.

“I heard a wild flower / Singing a song,” wrote the poet William Blake. I could almost believe I heard them singing in Winston Woods at the end of April this year. The woods are, indeed, a visual song for anyone who will listen with eyes and spirit.