A lengthy though non-comprehensive list of plants observed (mostly)  starting at parking area near Ferry Hill mansion, and going in a clockwise direction of what I call the Ferry Hill loop.  March 31, 2021

I = Invasive  NYO = Not yet observed this year

Hairy bittercress  (I)
Spicebush
Wineberry  (I)
Multiflora rose  (I) (W)
Bitternet hickory   (W)
Maple
Nettles
Avens
Garlic Mustard  (I)
Japanese Honeysuckle (vine)
Cleavers, Bedstraw  (weedy)
Onion grass  (I)
Cutleaf Toothwort
Pawpaw    (Agressive native spreader)   (W)
Ironwood (Hop Hornbeam)   (W)
Spring Beauty
Star chickweed
Smooth Rockcress
Starry campion (NYO)
Holly    (W)
Early Saxifrage
Shooting Star
Rattlesnake hawkweed
Beech
Witch Hazel   (W)
Leatherwood   (W)
Ragwort
Pennsylvania sedge
Broad-leaved sedge
Rue Anemone
Zizia or Thaspium
White wood aster
One flowered cancer root  (NYO)
Maidenhair spleenwort
Ebony Spleenwort
Wild Stonecrop
Walking fern
Trout lily
Tulip poplar    (W)
Hepatica
Bloodroot
Dutchman's breeches
Sessile Trillium 
False Solomon's Seal
Bladder Fern (lowland or fragile)
Early Meadow-rue
Speedwell  (I)
Twinleaf
Small flowered leafcup
Dwarf Larkspur
Buttercup
Virginia Bluebells
False Mermaid
Box elder  (Agressive native spreader)   (W)
Dame's Rocket   (I)
Purple Dead Nettle  (I)
Indian-strawberry  (I)
English Ivy  (I)
Raspberry
Sycamore    (W)
Blackhaw
Goldenrod
Violet
Canada waterleaf
Squirrel corn
Star of Bethlehem  (I)
Nodding Star of Bethlehem  (I)
Sweet cicely
Cow parsnip  
Ligustrum  (I)
Virginia waterleaf
Bladdernut    (W)
Japanese barberry  (I)   (W)
Hydrangea
Canada moonseed
Hazelnut   (W)
Wild columbine
Ground ivy  (I)
Elderberry
Japanese knotweed  (I)
Jewelweed
Cutleaf coneflower
Chickweed
Bulblet fern
Spreading rockcress (?)
Miterwort
Bellwort
Blue Cohosh  (NYO)
Cucumber tree    (W)
Mayapple  (NYO)
Atlantic white cedar    (W)
Lyre-leaf rockcress
Serviceberry  (W)
Jack-in-the-pulpit
Wild Ginger
Christmas fern
Woodfern

Notes: 

Article about the Atlantic White Cedars:
http://botsoc.org/Larry_Thuja_MD.pdf

Lots of the spring wildflowers are referred to as Spring Ephemerals. Many, such as Bluebells, Spring Beauty, Squirrelcorn, Dutchman's Breeches and Rue anemone are truly ephemeral.  Others, though their flowers are quite fleeting, will still have leaves in evidence for much of the summer. These include Hepatica and Twinleaf.


Elaiosome: small structure attached to a seed; rich in lipids and proteins; attracts ants which then carry seed off to their nests and feed them to the larvae.  This type of seed dispersal is called myremecochory. Approximately 30% of spring ephemerals produce seeds with Elaiosomes.


Peltate leaves: when a leaf does not attach at its margin but rather on the lower surface of the leaf, often in the middle of the leaf (Mayapple, nasturtium) or sometimes just slightly in from the edge of the leaf (Canada moonseed)

Dioecious:  Spicebush is "dioecious" which means that there are distinct male and female individuals. Female flowers are small and yellow with six colored sepals and no petals. Male flowers have nine, reddish stamens. The flowers are clustered in groups of four to six. Pollination is by an array of small dipteran and hymenopteran species. 


Look on the Maryland Native Plant Society's YouTube page for a wonderful presentation by Carole Bergmann about Spring plants.  (It should be available by about April 20, 2021.)

Some good apps:

	 Seek (free and closely related to iNaturalist)

	 The Flora of Virginia ($20 but well worth it; has the contents of the whole Flora which weighs about 15 pounds.)

	 iNaturalist  (free)
		


--Kathy Bilton   kathy at-the-domain fred dot net