Beginnings and Endings

So often we pay attention to beginnings: the first blooms for each wildflower, the first sighting of that migratory bird. Seldom do we witness the last of each bloom. With the exception of last likely frost date (which for us should be Monday—May 15) we don't pay attention to the last happenings.

For example I was excited to hear the first spring peepers and American toads, but until the rain last night, I hadn't realized they had long fallen silent. The extremely dry weather abbreviated their mating season, and some of their wetland breeding grounds had dried up. But the rain made some of them vocalize again, and I realized I had missed their absence.

Plenty of the wild geranium (Geranium maculatum) are still blooming, but some are finished and going to seed. As the seed pod forms you get a sense of why the other common name for this plant is "cranesbill."

Another beginning: this parasitic plant, squawroot (Conopholis americana) has appeared in the woods. Its leaves are reduced to yellow scales; they do not provide energy through photosynthesis; the plant feeds on the roots of oak trees.