trout lily or dog's-tooth violet...

Friday was the "Friends of the Library" book sale. For $1, I now own a copy of An Introduction to Nature: Birds, Wildflowers, Trees by John Kieran. There are some wildflowers pressed between the pages by the previous owner and under Flowering Wintergreen, a handwritten note in the margin reads 'Trout Lake May 1974'.

There are beautiful vintage-looking colored illustrations, and I like the way it reads...

...here is an excerpt for the Trout Lily or Dog's Tooth Violet ~

"In moist woods and thickets and the more solid parts of shady bogs you will find the mottled leaves of this beautiful low-growing flower carpeting the ground soon after the snow has departed. The smooth flower stem rises to a height of 6 to 10 inches from between the two narrow mottled leaves that point in opposite diretions. The single nodding yellow flower has 6 segments that curl back at the tips when in full bloom. This species--there are more than a dozen close relatives in different parts of the country--is found from Nova Scotia across Canada to western Ontario and in the United States from Maine to Florida and as far west as Minnesota and Oklahoma. Dog's-tooth Violet is a poor name for this flower. It is not a member of the Violet family and doesn't look like a dog's tooth. Some call it Adder's-tongue because of a fancied resemblance of the stamens to a snake's tongue. But John Burroughs, the famous naturalist, gave it the name Trout Lily because it is a member to the Lily Family and comes into bloom at the start of the trout season. Fawn Lily is another name, appropriate because of its dappled leaves."

And here are some Trout Lilies that I found in the woods on my walks last week...

Here's what else I saw while out and about...

See the little nest...


Today we are having some 'April showers' which hopefully will bring us lots of 'May flowers'.