Detail shot of two yellow tulips, drooping towards the earth.
Together -Tulips in Embrace
Trout Lily
One of the earliest ephemeral spring flowers in Wisconsin is the trout lily. Large colonies of this flower appear in woodlands, as hundreds, even thousands of the lilies pop up from the forest floor in late April. The flower probably gets its name from the unusual brown mottled markings on its large leaves which resemble the brook trout. It also has several other common names, including Fawn Lily, Adder’s Tongue, and Dogtooth Violet, although the flower is a member of the lily family, not the violet family.
It blooms early in the season before the trees have leafed out and while the sunlight still reaches the floor of the forest. I saw large stands of it on Sunday while hiking the Woodland Trail in Governor Nelson State Park. This state park is an urban park located on the shores of Lake Mendota; downtown Madison and the Capitol building can be seen looking across the lake from the park’s shores and bluffs.
Jack’s Back
Spring is for real when I can walk in the woodlands and see the first wildflowers in abundance. Today on my Sunday hike I counted thousands of trout lilies, a few buttercups, and hundreds of patches of sweet violets, Confederate violets and white violets. I only saw one Jack in the Pulpit. It’s a bit early for the Jacks, but they’ll be covering the woodland floor in another week.
I love these early spring wildflowers.
I Love Garden Centers!
Capitol Silhouette
New news from Seeded Earth Studio! I have recently taken official steps to branch my photography into two directions.
I shoot a lot of nature and landscape photography, and these photographs will continue to appear (almost daily) on the Seeded Earth blog.
But I also have a passion for visiting and photographing historical places, and I’ve recently started a new website and blog which focuses on this genre of photographs. The new site is called, quite originally, Historic Places Photography. I feature a historic building (for now, mostly from Wisconsin, Illinois, and Arizona) two to three times a week.
I intend, in the future, to offer architectural photography to the dedicated people who undertake restorations of historical properties, and also to provide downloadable walking tours featuring photographs and information on the architecture of historic buildings in smaller cities and towns throughout the Midwest.
For now, I hope you’ll visit Historic Places Photography and check out the photography.