Loblolly pine pollen season has arrived here in the Georgia Piedmont. After today’s rain, I wandered Piney Woods Church Road, encountering powdery yellow flecks everywhere I looked: on the petals of a dogwood blossom, on a break in layers of pavement at the intersection with Hutcheson Ferry Road, and coating individual pebbles in a pothole beside Rico Road….
The title of today’s image is in homage to the intriguing beauty of the Chinese wisteria, just coming into bloom along Piney Woods Church Road. For the next week or more, the forest will be draped with purple curtains of blossoms, and the air nearly intoxicating with the wisteria’s sweet scent. In another post today (from the Examiner archives), I will speak at length of its aggressive, highly invasive habits. But for a moment, I will pause and appreciate its gift to my daily walk.
Now the black cherries are blooming along Piney Woods Church Road. There is so much happening now that it is difficult to keep up with it all!
After a series of photographs of tulip poplar buds, here is an image of a single leaf, newly unfolded.
Along the edge of Piney Woods Church Road at the junction with Rico Road, I glimpsed some of the earliest blooms of everlasting pea (Lathyrus latifolius) today. This photograph makes this small flower look almost glamorous. An immigrant from southern Europe that commonly frequents waste places (such as roadsides), everlasting pea arrived in the New World around 1720. Despite the flower’s unassuming, pea-like appearance, Thomas Jefferson judged it worthy of a place in his Monticello garden, so it certainly merits inclusion here.
Everywhere I glance down Piney Woods Church Road (or, at least, everywhere that is fairly wild and was not recently mowed), I see flower buds and blossoms. Here are four images from my walk today: flowering dogwood (Cornus florida), a lovely pale purple violet, and the much loved and hated Chinese wisteria (Wisteria sinensis). The wisteria is just coming into bloom; soon, much of the roadway will be lined with curtains of pale purple flowers, exuding a heady, almost sickly-sweet scent. There will be more about Chinese wisteria in future posts.
On my walk late this morning, I was serenaded by the shrill calls of an Eastern Towhee (Pipilo erythrophthalmus), perched in the undergrowth along the roadside. I am not a birder, and have no intentions of beginning a life list. But I am pleased to say that this is a species of sparrow that I had never seen before.
Today I took yet another in a series of photographs of tulip poplar buds opening. This image reminds me of a figure with bowed head (the folded over leaf) extending a raised hand in blessing to travelers along the road.
As a change of pace, I set out this morning for Piney Woods Church Road by way of Hutcheson Ferry Road. Glancing in the ditch at the end of Piney Woods Church Road, I saw what I thought at first were unusually small dandelions, with flower heads perhaps half an inch across. What I found suspicious is that there were so many, all of which were about the same size — leading me to think that this might be a different flower altogether. Returning home, I did a quick internet search and discovered that they are, in fact, dwarf dandelions (Krigia virginica), native annual wildflowers common to roadsides, fields, and lawns in the eastern half of the United States. Despite its similar look, the dwarf dandelion is only distantly related to the non-native true dandelion (Taraxicum officinale).
From my walk today, I offer these three signs of springtime: another tulip poplar leaf emerging from the bud; a bluebird on a fence rail; and a dogwood tree in bloom.
