Lilies of the mountain

My husband and I went for a hike up in the Catskills the other day, high enough that the trees are barely even thinking about leaves just yet, whereas down here in the valley it’s all leafy green splendor at this point. I hadn’t thought of this outing as garden research, given that fact, but as we climbed up and up (and up!) the extremely rocky trail, through conifers and leaf litter and the occasional mud, I started to notice fields of little bay-like leaves on single stems poking up from the forest floor, like tiny flags someone had staked all around. Not much higher, I suddenly spied the teeniest wildflower I’ve ever seen in my life, no bigger than my pinky fingernail, sunning itself against a rock face. I thought maybe it was the elusive Hepatica from my wish list but it’s apparently a Carolina springbeauty (Claytonia caroliniana). 

It was growing near another tiny beauty with a pendulous, pale yellow, bell-shaped bloom that an app tells me is called sessile bellwort (Uvularia sessilifolia, aka wild oats) that goes straight onto my list. A little higher up the trail, these were joined by a sea of bright yellow trout lilies (Erythronium americanum) and then came the stunning red trilliums (Trillium erectum), which are actually dark burgundy and also got bigger in size as we gained elevation. I don’t know what to make of the fact that the higher we got, the larger and more abundant the wildflowers were, given that they’re all early spring bloomers (I’m assuming all ephemerals) and it seems too soon for them to be dying back at lower elevation, where it also seemed more like they were just getting started.

Whatever the explanation, I was absolutely thrilled to happen upon them in the wild. And more inspired than ever to collect native spring ephemerals for my own garden in the years to come.