Hepaticas In Kentucky

[alpines]

Greetings from the Kentuckians,

Spring has arrived in Berea forest. Thought you might like to see the variety of hepaticas that are blooming in the woods as of today.
More to follow.

Alan & Sherba

[alpines]

OK....I've done something wrong. Thought I'd uploaded 4 photos but only one showed up. Guess I've been away from the forum for too long.
Let's try again

[alpines]

Nope....that didn't work either. So come on guys....how do I do multiple postings of photos?
They're all under 70kb and I only tried to post 4.

[alpines]

Guess I could be here all night but here's another one till I get some advice. Where's Booker when you need him???

[alpines]

Ah!!!! Works better with specs on. Just saw the 'more attachments' bit on the right. Come on Maggie & Ian....spare a thought for the optically challenged ex pats amongst us !!!!!
We'll be back next week when hopefully the trilliums, sanguinarias, and suchlike decide to awaken.
Sherba sends a big hug

Cheers
Alan

[Lesley Cox]

These are really lovely. The newer doubles and "odd" forms are exciting I suppose but I still think nothing can beat the wild, growing-in-nature forms, so thanks for posting these pics. I'm looking forward to the others you mention too.

Best from NZ

[fermi de Sousa]

Hi Alan and Sherba,
glad to see the lovely spring flowers around you; looking forward to more as the weather warms up. We are entering Autumn here and it's the real start of the growing season.
cheers
fermi

[Diane Clement]

Hi Alan and Sherba,
good to see you back on line here

Brilliant hepaticas, wonderful to see them in the wild.  Are they all H acutiloba?  I didn't realise there was so much natural colour variation.  Thanks for showing them

[alpines]

Hi Diane, Lesley & Fermi,
Thanks for your replies.
I should, of course, have mentioned that these are all forms of H.acutiloba. H.americana is nowhere to be seen at the moment. Their growing habitat is quite varied. They can be found in sun, shade, wet river banks, moist open soil and growing on mossy rock.
Incredibly, for me that is, I was amazed to see erythroniums growing in abundance in exactly the same conditions and places as the hepaticas. Even found one yesterday growing under a tree. Should be in flower next week....we'll see.
All these shots were taken in the John B. Stephenson Memorial Forest at Anglin Falls in Berea, about 10 minutes from us. I've included a shot of the habitat, and Ms Sherba checking out the rock for early saxifrages. Lots of leaves, no flowers.

A few more in bloom this week
Claytonia virginica (Spring Beauty)
Enemium biternatum (False rue anemone)
Dentaria laciniata (Cut-leaved toothworth)
Cardamine ?douglasii (Bittercress)

[Maggi Young]

Hi, Kentuckians! Great to have you back around the place.
Glad you got the specs on and paid attention eventually, Alan..... isn't that what Sherba would have advised you to do in the first instance?  

If this is a taste of what's to come from you folks, I am agog

[alpines]

Hi Maggi,

You know, the strange thing is that whenever folks "do" the USA, they inevitably go west....and yet most everything that we see growing wild here, ends up on the showbenches back home. I am amazed that so few people 'do' east. I know we don't have mountain ranges like Colorado etc, but for anyone who hasn't been on the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia, I can only say you don't know what you're missing. Kentucky is probably not quite as floriferous as Virginia but we certainly have as much variety of super woodland plants. And everywhere is in such easy reach. The invitation to you and the 'old guy' is still open.
Great to be back. Life has been so hectic, Sherba and I did virtually no photography last year...but at least we have some paint on the walls now.
Have a great day
Aan & Sherba

[mark smyth]

looking forward to some unusual Sanguinaria forms.

[alpines]

So am I, Mark. So am I !!!!!
I've been visiting Kentucky for 8 years....an lived here 2 but have never seen one in flower would you believe. Seen literally hundreds of plants but no blooms. It always seems we have been walking too early or too late in the season but where we are now enables us to reccy every weekend so I am hopeful that 2008 will be the year.

[Tony Willis]

Lovely pictures great to see them in the wild.The fact that my sister lived in the area for a while and I would have had to see her has put me of visiting and has kept us in the West. Now she is in Florida we may get to Kentucky.It seems full of wonderful flowers.

[Ed Alverson]

Alan, I live in the west but I would jump at the chance to walk in the spring woods in Kentucky with you!  There is something about the diversity and abundance of the understory flora in the eastern forests that is not duplicated in the west.  I'd especially like to see photos of your local Erythronium, if you have a chance to post some.

Actually, I have wanted to visit your area for some time because my ancestors were early settlers not too far from where you live, having settled in the Sugar Creek area of northern Garrard County in the 1790's.  But then they moved on, first to the virgin prairies of SE Iowa in 1848, presumably after the forests were all cut down and the farmland lost its fertility.  A typical American story....

Ed