I don’t have much patience. I always want to know now! Nature teaches me to slow down and wait for answers. At the end of April, I was hiking at the Girl Scout Camp and ran across these tight little buds. This plant was anywhere that it was wet – ditches, along the banks of the lake, in the creek beds. Flower field guides don’t do you much good unless the flower is in bloom, so I knew I would have to wait.
Today, while walking in a different woods, I stumbled on a huge patch of this same plant… but now it was in bloom. The vibrant yellow absolutely took my breath away.
Golden Ragwort. Truth be told, I showed the above photo to a wildflower fanatic friend of mine and he told me what it was, so I’ve known its name for quite some time. I looked it up in the Peterson Field Guide and saw the rather unimpressive colored drawing and was mildly interested that the red buds would turn into yellow flowers. I wasn’t expecting much… Then, toward the end of a walk that hadn’t turned up anything new… there it was. Just stunning! Next year, I will know the plant by the leaves and buds.
I was also impatient about wanting to see Mayapple Blossoms. I wrote in my last post about searching and searching until I finally found one or two plants whose buds had opened. Today, of course, nearly all the Mayapples had open flowers! I shot a ton more Mayapple blossoms today.
A few of the Canada Mayflowers were open, too… but just a few tiny, tiny ones. And how about this False Solomon’s Seal? Is this what the flower looks like, or was I impatient? Did I just get the buds?
Sometimes I hate waiting also! Jen – your wildflower photos are amazing and love that Golden Ragwort plant! the back ground colors are perfect!
Looks like you have to wait a little bit for that Solomon’s Seal 🙂 I can relate about patience – I do not possess a great deal of it myself! Birdwatching has probably done more for me to develop patience than anything else, as if you’re not patient, you won’t see much!