My childhood was spent in suburbia among house sparrows and dandelions. As a result, sometimes native species seem more exotic than the invasives. Scarlet tanagers bring a dash of the tropics to our temperate deciduous forests, although this is appropriate since they spent our winter in South America. Flowering skunk cabbages seem to belong to some alien planet. Later blooms like jack-in-the-pulpit defy a simple flower diagram.



Mayapple is one of my favorite plants to watch. I noticed it last month popping out of the ground leaves and all, like little umbrellas.



They've only just begun blooming, but you have to crouch down to discover the subtle pleasure of their concealed flowers.