Wood Poppy – Native Plant of the Day 03/20/2024
Photo from 03/26/2008. Location: The Pocket, Walker County, GA.
More photos / info at the Stylophorum diphyllum detail page.
Wood Poppy, Celandine Poppy – Stylophorum diphyllum
It had been 10 days during the ‘peak development period’ of wildflowers at The Pocket since I’d last been there. It was a beautiful day today, and in spite of the fact that the boardwalk past the loop and the trail to the falls were closed, I counted 31 species blooming. I suspect that had I been able to access those areas, I would also have seen Bishop’s Cap (Mitella diphylla), Heartleaf Foamflower (Tiarella cordifolia), and White Baneberry (Actaea pachypoda).
Bloodroot – Sanguinaria canadensis
Wood Poppy – Stylophorum diphyllum – has been significantly updated on USWildflowers.com with 4 new photographs, and species and genus descriptive information.
The Pocket is in full swing with most of its signature species in bloom, although with the exception of a single plant, we saw no Bloodroot blooming today. We lost a species or two, but what has started blooming since my last trip (3/17) more than made up for it, starting with the Bent White Trillium (Trillium flexipes.) Probably the big surprise for me was that we still had many Dutchman’s Breeches still blooming – since early March! I don’t remember a previous 3-week+ bloom season for this plant at The Pocket.
Bent White Trillium –Trillium flexipes
Questions in my head about identification of the yellow Violet drove me back down to The Pocket today. I’ve decided I’m going with Viola pubescens var. scabriuscula – Smooth Yellow Violet (syn. Viola eriocarpa and Viola pensylvanica among others. ) But there were a couple of noteworthy additional species to last Friday’s list. Firstly, the first of the Wood Poppies (Celandine Poppy) have started to bloom.
Wood Poppy – Stylophorum diphyllum
The warm weather has continued, along with a fair bit of rain. It’s been 10 days since my last trip to The Pocket (3/2), and I was expecting some significant changes in what was blooming. Some news – the Harbinger-of-Spring is almost gone. However, that’s not the only news… Wait for it…
Wood Poppy – Stylophorum diphyllum
Not just the Wood Poppy…
This is a great time for a visit to The Pocket; I hadn’t been able to get down there in nearly 3 weeks (apologies to those that were looking for a status report last week) and so many species are blooming now! Bluebells, Wood Poppies (Celandine), Purple Phacelia, and all three Trillium species are at peak, along with a couple of others that aren’t considered “signature species” for The Pocket.
For the full story…
Yesterday (3/27) was one of the rare days this spring – mostly clear skies and warmer weather – into the 60’s. As a plus a couple of my grandkids wanted to join me, so a great time at The Pocket was guaranteed. Several of the “signature species” at The Pocket – Virginia Bluebell, Wood (Celandine) Poppy, Dutchman’s Breeches (or, as my grandson called them, “Upside Down Pants from Holland), Trout Lily are blooming right now. I’m developing a checklist to use so I won’t have to photograph or remember what all is blooming, and of the 51 species on my current version of the checklist, 25 are blooming right now.
Trailing Trillium – Trillium decumbens
For the rest of the story…
While the weather is keeping things slow, things are picking up at The Pocket. Several species have started blooming, and even more are “almost there.” Checking last year’s reports, we’re tracking pretty close to 3/10/2013. The big excitement for me today was finding that a few Dutchman’s Breeches have started blooming.
Dutchman’s Breeches – Dicentra cucullaria
Read on for a more complete update…
It was a cloudy and dreary day today, following a lot of rain yesterday and last night, but Cindy and I made a quick run down to The Pocket at Pigeon Mountain again today to keep from being cooped up in the house another day. We were glad we did – the yellow and blue are out – Bluebells and Wood Poppies are blooming!
Virginia Bluebells – Mertensia virginica
Read on for the rest of the list, and a few more photos. Click on the photos for larger images, and then “back” to return to this page.