Specimen of the Month: Signs and Slides of Spring

If only spring might arrive as joyfully as generic greeting cards lead us to expect. But the grass is not yet green and sunshine often gives way to sudden flurries of snow. The time between now and unbroken days of warmth may still feel endless. Thankfully, from the cold muck of forest floor already grows a beloved sign of spring—the wildflower.

One of the earliest spring arrivals is skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus). Skunk cabbage seems to
appear out of nowhere, fearlessly establishing herself among the remaining ice and snow. 

If spring came about more easily around here, perhaps I wouldn't explore the Museum's wildflower portraits with such relish. But likely I still would. The old slide photos detail a wonderful variety of blooms that the Museum's first director encountered many years ago, and there's something quite enchanting about holding that old piece of someone else's experience in nature.

While I soon expect to venture out with purpose (to locate these wildflowers, of course), today I have the good fortune of such ready access to a collection of wildflower slides.

Jack-in-the-pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum) arrives much later in the spring. Photo by Lois Nestel.