The Return of a Jewel

While walking in Wildwood recently, I saw my friend Clyde Kessler. As we wandered, talking and listening for birds, he showed me an area where he had found a couple of foamflower plants about ten years ago and asked me to help him hunt. He had not seen any signs of the plants for three or four years. Well, I didn't know what they looked like, so I wasn't much help and we soon gave up. The following Saturday, I received an email from him saying that he had found the white flowers in full bloom. I grabbed my camera and headed out!

I could see that I was in for a treat - there were about a dozen plants (a welcome increase from the couple of ten years ago!) with white flowers spikes rising above the floor of green. I began snapping lots of photos and getting a closer look.

The Latin name for the plant is Tiarella cordifolia. The word tiarella means little tiara or crown, and the blooms certainly rival any of the jewelry adorning the queens and princesses seen in the media at the royal wedding this weekend.

I can imagine that a fairy princess might choose one of these sparkling flowers for a crown. As with most wildflowers, foamflowers have a variety of common names: heartleaf foamflower (The leaves do not look heart-shaped to me!), false miterwort (The leaves of this plant look very much like miterwort leaves), sugar scoop (Clyde's favorite), coolwort, and Allegheny foamflower. Whatever the name, it is a lovely treasure and I feel very fortunate to have had my camera handy when I first saw its freshest flowers.

When I visited Wildwood today, I checked on the foamflowers. Many of them are bearing fruit now as the flowers drop off. Yes, Clyde, we can see where the sugar scoop name might have come from!

The Brown "Nut"

It was a cold and dreary day, but I was eager to get back to Wildwood after ten days in Wisconsin (where it was really cold!) visiting our grandchildren. After riding in our van for a day and a half, I needed to stretch my legs and breathe fresh air.
I began my short hike at the south end of the park and walked briskly along the bike path, soon reaching the wetland near the Main Street entrance. My camera had stayed snugly tucked in its case because a mist of rain had begun shortly after I arrived at Wildwood, and my hands were too cold to press buttons. At the water's edge, I saw a few large dandelions looking like sunbeams in the grass and plants. I also noticed a medium sized brown nut among the flowers. I knew that there were no nut trees in the area so I stooped down to get a closer look and saw a slug curled over an unopened bloom. Out came my camera - I couldn't leave Wildwood without a few photos!

The slug slowly stretched out, and I continued snapping. I watched it stretch out its tentacles to explore its surroundings.  

     The rain and mist left beads of water on the jewelweed seedlings that were also beginning to sprout.

As I reflect on that moment, I realize that unpleasant weather had drawn me to a lovely creature that I probably would have overlooked if other flowers and critters had been more abundant and I had been taking lots of pictures. And yes, I do think that the slug has a peculiar beauty of its own.