Witchhazel

This flower has always interested me, and after reading its description from the US Forest Service

Celebrating Wildflowers website, I find much more that is fascinating. Just read this excerpt:

#308- American Witchhazel

      "Generally, its bright yellow flowers are the only sign of color in woods where all the autumn     leaves lay upon the forest floor. American witchhazel is pollinated by a moth. The small, tanish to gray, hard capsules go dormant throughout the winter and then develop over the next growing season and then in autumn forcibly expel two shiny black seeds 10 to 20 feet rarely to 40 feet. The seeds then take an additional year to germinate."



November is the eleventh month in a row, this year, that I have found and posted a new wildflower. Winters are sometimes bleak and seem that they will never end, but a wildflower is never too far in the future. I probably will see the lowly Dandelion this December after a couple of warm days, making it possible to see wildflowers every month of the year in West Virginia. A Dandelion was the first flower that I posted in this wonderful year of attempting to  photograph and record every wildflower that I can in West Virginia for one year. 308, I never really expected that high of a count. Anyone that I happen to mention that figure to usally say something like, '300? Flowers? Around Here?' and then quickly lose interest. My obsession is almost mine alone. 
        I am making plans for this Winter and next Spring. This Winter compiling this years data into charts that show information like the number of natives vs. non-natives (roughly 86% native) that I found, or how many were found on the 28 acres that I live on (wow 148 or so) and etc. I will also continue to add new flowers as I find them, I know of a few that I missed this year.

My obsessions used to be my protectors, but now they have taken me prisoner. -- Mason Cooley 

Number One - A Dandelion

Well, the premise of The Big Year is to find, identify and photograph as many West Virginia Native Wildflowers as I can  in one year. This includes common, rare and those that have been here for ever and are good as native. I thought the first would be a Dandelion, in January and it is. They were introduced many years ago, some say as a food source for the imported honeybee; which is a nice tie-in to another part of this day. Some say the deeply toothed leaves earned its Old French name of dent-de-lion, tooth of a lion. Find many facts about this interesting, edible, hardy and obnoxious flower here. Reporting a dandelion as the first flower in a wildflower big year would be equivalent to a birder reporting a European Starling as his first bird of the year.

Common Dandelion (I'll be avoiding Latin Names) 

By the way; whats going on this winter? First there was two feet of snow in October, then several ice/snow storms in December and early January like normal. But today, it was sunny and 68 degrees. It's been milder and rainy for a few days so its no wonder the dandelions are trying to bloom and I found Daffodil heads several inches above ground and my honeybees were flying everywhere.

  I suppose this winter is like many past and future winters; mostly normal with a few odd weather days. (A nice day in January when you can get in a nice hike with the grandbabies will eliminate the shack nasties for a few days) But I worry about it throwing off the normal bloom time of wildflowers. Last year was extremely mild and most wildflowers in WV, and around the east coast, bloomed a couple of weeks early, causing me to miss a few. But I am looking forward to spring whenever it gets here; Blood Root, Trout Lilly, Trillium  even those almost microscopic flowers that I can see in the yard, but have never taken the time to properly identify

What is the Big Year?

I just finished reading The Big Year, by Mark Obmascik and The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean. The Big Year is a book about a yearly contest for birders who travel their county, state, nation or world trying to see as many birds as possible. The Orchid Thief is an account of the obsession for orchids and the extremes people exhibit to posses them; by purchase, propagation or theft.
         The combination has inspired me (maybe) to have  'a big year' for West Virginia wildflowers. Beginning January 1, 2013, I will seek, photograph and record every native or common WV wildflower that I can find. This blog is only a way for me to keep up with what I find; if anyone else finds in interesting, I will be the most surprised. Knowing my own past record, it is entirely likely that I will never record another thing here. But maybe I will.
        I am obsessed with wildflowers, especially Trillium's and Orchids which are both fickle and may choose this year not to show themselves. For instance; Large Pad Leaf Orchids have not appeared in two years at known locations. I will make several trips and record what I find. I will not reveal the location of sensitive habitat. I only know the location of a dozen or so rare wildflowers because of hours and hours of reading and gleaning info from websites, journals and research papers. I will also be recording many common flowers from ditches and yards; as long as they are native or common to the state. For instance, my first flower should be dandelions in January, if the snow is gone. It is an introduced flower but is as common as weeds. I am going for numbers; a couple hundred maybe. Maybe by then I will have forgotten the whole thing and just do what I have done for years; enjoy flowers where ever they lead me.