10 Adirondack Wildflowers to Admire This Spring
- Fern Crossway
- Jun 16, 2021
- 10 min read
Updated: Jun 22, 2021
From the time the snow begins to melt long into the early days of summer the wetlands and forests of the northern United States and Canada become a treasure chest of floral scents and sights. Tiny leaves emerge from the ground, petals unfurl, and a host of insects gather to search for something sweet to eat within the bosoms of the blooms. Bliss.
While there are far more than 10 species of flowering plants in the Adirondacks, here is a short list of some of my favorite wildflowers in the region. I spent many days walking the trails of the Paul Smith's College VIC admiring these beauties during my time working there as a naturalist and they still hold a special place in my heart.
Take a walk on the Boreal Life Trail or one of the many other gorgeous trails within the Adirondack Mountain region to see some of these plants for yourself. Remember to practice Leave No Trace principles and do your part to help us keep the Adirondacks 'forever wild'.
1. Painted Trillium
A single white flower shows its blushed face surrounded by 3 large, vibrant green leaves. Each of it’s 3 tapered, pointed petals starts with a splash of bright pink, bleeding through the delicate white backdrop to guide pollinators to the flower’s center. The space between each wavy petal is broken by the green and maroon sepals that lay just below.
The painted trillium (Trillium undulatum) is a rhizomatous perennial, growing in humus-rich, acidic soils. They emerge from the soil in spring, scattered in the forests of the northeastern United States and Canada and following a narrow path south through the Appalachian mountains.
In the spring, painted trilliums provide nectar to insect pollinators like flies, bees, and yellow jackets. In summer, after successful pollination, each flower produces a single fruit that turns red as it ripens. Inside of the fruit, a lipid-rich elaiosome is attached to each seed. This attracts ants, who carry the fruit off to consume, discarding the seed where it will, with a little luck and time, germinate. This dispersal relationship between certain plants and ant species is known as myrmecochory.
Painted trilliums germinate slowly, requiring a double dormancy in order to grow. After 2 winters have passed, the radicle develops, forming the rhizome. After another winter has passed, a single-leaf finally emerges above ground. Slowly, another, and then another leaf will appear and after 5 to 7 years, the plant will finally flower. The combination of this lengthy cycle with its specific soil needs makes growing painted trilliums for home gardens or landscaping a nightmare. However, knowing the difficulty of their journey from seed to flower makes their woodland display that much more of a delight.
2. Purple Trillium
Like its painted cousin, the purple trillium (Trillium erectum) displays its single, 3-petaled flower on the forest flowers of the eastern United States and Canada. It prefers damp, rich, acidic soils and is typically found in deciduous or mixed wood forests.
Similar in shape and structure to T. undulatum, the purple trillium differs in its color and height. In the center of 3 whorled leaves lies a large garnet flower, nodding downwards, resting atop 3 small green and maroon sepals anywhere from 6 to 20 inches off the ground. Its petals curve slightly backwards, pointing towards its large green leaves.
It can take 15 years before a purple trillium plant is mature enough to flower. When it does, the life of the flower is short and sweet, lasting only 2 to 3 weeks before withering. Removing the flower can result in so much stress that the plant may not flower again for years. Flower removal can even result in the death of the entire plant.
A fleshy fruit with 3 lobules is revealed after the flower wilts. This berry-like fruit turns from green to reddish purple before dropping.
The foul smell known to purple trillium attracts flies, who pollinate the flowers. Ants are also frequent visitors, dispersing seeds in exchange for tasty elaiosomes attached to the seeds. Yellow jackets and other hymenopterans also enjoy visits to purple trilliums, and several moth larvae are known to eat its leaves.
This trillium species is known by many names including purple or red trillium, red or purple wakerobin, birthroot, and wet dog trillium. Regardless of what it's called, this floral jewel is a treasure of Adirondack springs.
3. Starflower
Spring in the Adirondacks wouldn’t be complete without the common, yet often overlooked starflower. Each of these small woodland plants has 1 to 3 dainty, snow white flowers standing above a whorl of lush green leaves. Each flower is small, with a diameter of only ¼ to ½ inch and 5 to 9 white petals. The same number of lance-shaped, tapered leaves lie below, varying from 1 ½ to 4 inches in length.
Without their flowers it can be difficult to differentiate starflowers from Indian cucumber-root (Medeola virginiana), but a closer inspection of the leaves makes identification a breeze. Starflower leaves have one main vein running through their center with secondary veins branching off and stretching to the edges of the leaf. The leaves of M. virginiana, however, run parallel from the base to the tip without a main vein or branching secondary veins.
The starflower (Lysimachia borealis, previously Trientalis borealis) makes its home in the forests of the Northeastern US and Canada, trickling down through the Appalachian mountains. They are tolerant of a variety of sun and soil conditions and can be found in moist woodland soils with dappled sunlight, acidic bogs, dry, sandy areas, and open fields adjacent to woodlands.
Asexual reproduction through tubers and rhizome growth is important for starflower success, especially in shaded areas. Native Halictid and Andrenid bees also play an important role in the reproductive success of this plant by pollinating flowers.
4. Bunchberry
Take a walk through a mixed wood Adirondack forest and you will likely find yourself surrounded by dogwoods - but not the kind you might expect. A close relative of the 20-40 foot flowering dogwood commonly used in home landscaping, bunchberry (Cornus canadensis), or dwarf dogwood, reaches its maximum height at just 10 inches tall.
Scattered across forest floors throughout the northern United States and into Canada, these peculiar little dogwoods can also be found farther south in Colorado and New Mexico. It is typically seen in clumps growing from rhizome sprouts, however, it can also regenerate by seed, with invertebrate and wildlife dispersers.
The leaves of bunchberry sit in a false whorl, with 4 leaves typical in sterile stems and 6 leaves common among flowering stems. Each leaf is oval and pointed, measuring up to 3 inches long with prominent veins forming an arc from base to tip.
The single, showy white flower of a bunchberry plant is similar to the flowers seen on its larger cousin, but there is more than meets the eye. 4 soft white petal-like bracts surround a cluster of tiny green flowers, each with their own 4 petals. These tiny flowers are insect pollinated, commonly by a variety of bees and flies.
After flowering, bunchberry produces a cluster of bright red fruits, each containing a single seed. These fruits are eaten by a variety of wildlife including black bears, American martens, ruffed grouse, and Warbling Vireos.
5. Canada Mayflower
The small white flowers of Canada mayflower (Maianthemum canadense) sit atop a 3 to 6 inch stem like a fluffy cluster of candy. Canada mayflower, also known as false lily-of-the-valley, is a low-growing wildflower common in mixed wood forests in the northeastern United States and throughout Canada.
Spreading through rhizomes, Canada mayflower can form carpets of these fragrant, foamy flowers with shiny green leaves resting underneath. Each leaf is ovate, sharply pointed, and often heart-shaped or round at their base. There is typically only one leaf on sterile shoots while fertile shoots can have up to 3 alternate leaves. Individual flowers only have 2 petals, with two petal-like sepals, with each of these flowers measuring just ¼ to ⅜ inch long.
After flowering in late May to early June, mayflower fruits begin to develop. Small berries appear in autumn, turning from spotted green to red as they ripen. These berries are eaten by ruffed grouse, Canada jays, and Eastern chipmunks.
6. Bogbean
The fuzzy star-shaped flowers of bogbean (Menyanthes trifoliata) are a treasure to see in wetlands across the United States and Canada. Also known as buckbean, these plants are wetland obligates and prefer the wet soils of bogs, fens, marshes, shallow ponds, and rich swamps.
Bogbean can grow up to 10 inches tall, with 3 oval leaflets sitting at the bottom of its stem and large, trifoliate leaves reaching upward above the water’s surface. Bogbean flowers sit in a cluster on top of a single flowering stalk. Each flower is white with 5 petals and covered with curved, white hairs.
After flowering, a capsule develops. This capsule contains bean-like seeds, giving justification to its name. Interestingly, bogbean, also native to parts of Europe, has bitter leaves which have been used as an alternative to hops in beer making and boiled in honey to make mead.
7. Bluebead Lily
The bluebead lily (Clintonia borealis) makes its home in the northeastern United States and Canada, extending its range down through the Appalachian mountains and grazing northern Georgia. A colonial species, this member of the lily family (Liliaceae) can often be found in clusters where there are shaded, moist, acidic soils.
The leaves of this plant are shiny, thick, and oblong with a prominent central vein and can be found in numbers of 2 to 5. Above the leaves rises a single leafless stem up to 15 inches tall with 2 to 8 yellow-green, nodding flowers at the top. Bluebead flowers are bell-shaped, and each flower has 2 to 3 petals and 3 petal-like sepals.
Although flowers are usually the showstopper for most plants, the true beauty of the bluebead lily is revealed after its flowers have dried and fallen to the ground. In midsummer the fruit begins to develop, starting green, then turning white, until finally, deep porcelain-blue berries stand tall above the green leaves below.
8. Yellow Trout Lily
Throughout the eastern United States and Canada the ephemeral yellow trout lily (Erythronium americanum) can be seen blooming before the waking trees fully unfurl their leaves. One of the first wildflowers to emerge in the spring, the basal leaves of trout lilies are green and mottled with brown, purple, or red, somewhat resembling the side of a trout.
The two leaves of each mature yellow trout lily are lance-shaped and smooth. Immature plants only produce one leaf. A single nodding flower rests atop a solitary stem. The flowers are yellow and sometimes tinged a reddish-purple color. They have 3 petals and 3 petal-like sepals that produce a classic lily shape.
Yellow trout lilies are an important food source for eastern chipmunks. Black bears also dig up the corms of these plants and deer sometimes eat their leaves. Insect visitors include ants, bees, blowflies, and butterflies. Ants are responsible for some seed distribution and the bee species Andrena erythronii are weakly (oligolege) specialized with trout lily species.
9. Pink Lady's Slippers
The full, pink lips of a pink lady’s slipper bloom sits atop an elegant, bowing stem. Dark pink veins weave through each side of its labellum, the inflated central petal, giving this flower a skin-like appearance. Like other orchids, the flower of this plant resembles a vulva.
Pink lady’s slippers (Cypripedium acaule) are a delight to behold. Found in the northeastern United States and Canada, these orchids can be seen in a variety of woodland habitats including well-drained and acidic soils.
Two basal leaves appear to come directly out of the ground, each oblong with smooth margins and pleated parallel veins. They typically bloom from late May to the middle of June and are pollinated by bees who enter the slit in the front pouch, tricked by the color and sweet scent. Disappointed as they may be by the lack of reward inside, they only have one route of escape and pollen sticks to their backs as they exit.
Seeds are wind dispersed and rely on mycorrhizal fungi to obtain nutrients from the soil, making these plants extremely difficult to propagate. Once mature, the fungi they relied on for nutrition in youth now turn to the flower to obtain nutrients, switching roles. Without disturbance, these plants can live for over 20 years.
10. Purple Pitcher Plant
At home in some of the most inhospitable places in the eastern United States, California, Washington, and Canada, the purple pitcher plant (Sarracenia purpurea ssp. purpurea) makes the best of its situation with some unusual and brilliant adaptations.
Thriving in the acidic, nutrient-poor peat soil of bogs and fens, this pitcher plant has to find other ways to obtain important nutrients like nitrogen, calcium, magnesium, and potassium.
To do so, pitcher plants have turned to carnivory. The leaves of this plant have been modified into pitchers, often filled with water. These pitchers have 5 distinct parts, each working together to attract, trap, and digest insects. Brightly colored veins and nectar glands summon insects to the plant. Downward facing hairs encourage insects to take a journey further into the pitcher, and causing great difficulty to prey trying to escape. Further down the pitcher lies sticky cells that immobilize their victims, trapping them in place until they drown. Digestive enzymes circulate within the main body of the pitcher, and eventually, the indigestible parts of the insect are separated.
These pitcher-shaped leaves grow from rhizomes, with new leaves appearing in the spring and summer. They can be reddish-green to reddish-purple and have attractive reddish-purple veins, giving the plant its name.
As if they weren’t already cool enough, each purple pitcher plant also has a single peculiar flower. Measuring 2 to 3 inches wide, the flower sits on top of a long, slender stalk. 5 rigid, waxy sepals lay like an umbrella over 5 oval petals, red and incurved. The flower is pollinated by bumblebees and the pitcher plant fly (Fletcherimyia fletcheri).
What it takes away from the animal kingdom for nutrients, it makes up for in benefits. For example, several moth species rely on these pitcher plants to feed their caterpillars including the epauletted pitcher plant moth (Exyra fax) and the pitcher plant borer moth (Papaipema appassionata). A variety of arthropods also rely on pitcher plants, living inside of them and feeding on the insect victims. They are able to avoid becoming victims themselves thanks to anti-enzyme. Some of these species include larvae of the pitcher plant fly, pitcher plant midges (Metriocnemus knabi), and the pitcher plant mosquito (Wyeomyia smithii). The Eastern flesh fly also resides within these pitcher plants.
Is there a wildflower that you think deserves to make it on the list? Have you seen all 10 of these species before?
Stay wild,
Fern
References:
Gunther, R., & Lanza, J. (1989). Variation in Attractiveness of Trillium Diaspores to a Seed-dispersing Ant. The American Midland Naturalist, 122(2), 321-328. doi:10.2307/2425919
https://riwps.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Trillium.pdf
https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/trillium-undulatum/
https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/plant-of-the-week/trillium_undulatum.shtml
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