May Day 2015
Sweden, Maine

This year the snow stayed around and around.  It is gone now and everything is springing out.

For more pics and poetry of this day, go here.

Speckled alder (although I see an animal). 



Beaked hazelnut




Pink female flowers  and male catkins. Short male catkins form in the fall. In the spring, they bloom and expand to 4-6 cm in length.



Magnifications of the spring catkin (10x - 25x)




My task now is to learn these various parts of the catkin.

Checkered rattlesnake plantain (Goodyera tessalata).
I often see the more common rattlesnake plantain (Goodyera pubescens), which has much darker  green leaves with very white veins.



This red trillium has taken advantage of being free of snow that covered it just a short time ago.



The skunk cabbage is so beautiful, it would like me to refer to it as a False Hellebore.





This may be a red-belted polypore



The polypore was at the base of a white pine. It was so close to the bottom that I couldn't get anything but the camera underneath to take a look. I was surprised to find this when I downloaded my images.


Beautiful moss. On my list of a zillion things to learn to identify.


The magic rock.


How organic.


This sarsaparilla deserves some attention.  This is the 3rd year that it has grown in about 1" of forest debris in the crevice of a rock. As shown in this shoot, it is a vigorous grower.


Go to www.EskerRidge.com for other local walks and trails