Wild flowers are found in remote niches of woodlands

John Blankenship

Wild flowers are a feast for the eye and food for the soul.

They sing a silent song, according to those who enjoy their vibrant hues in early spring.

A variety of wild flowers grow just beyond our doorstep.

Beds of wild flowers are found in remote niches of the Appalachian woodlands, shrouded in dense undergrowth, growing out of rotted, hollow logs and stumps, bedded behind rocks.

Wild flower enthusiasts say they don’t have to go very far to witness a kaleidoscope of nature.

“I’ve found pods of wild flowers in the same places where I saw them as a stub-toed boy,” says J.K. (Kent) Lilly of Camp Creek.

Lilly’s study of the woods began more than 70 years ago when he first saw late spring snowflakes captured in the red hearts of phlox clusters near his boyhood home.

As a youngster, he roamed the woods, searching out prime wild flower locations.

Now, the retired forest ranger goes back to visit these same sites.

“Some people might think I’m eccentric,” says the soft-spoken mountain man who fashions a variety of home remedies from herbs and roots that grow near his hill land farm on Stovall Ridge.

“Not many people will stop to appreciate wild flowers. I never get tired of them.”

The forest’s fertile floor nourishes a veritable botanical garden near Lilly’s old home place at Camp Creek.

Yellow lady slippers like the rich soil of the easterly slopes, Lilly says. Pink lady slippers grow among pine, huckleberry and oak.

Lilly can count a hundred different kinds of blossoms on a solitary stroll through the woodland flowerbeds.

“Every time you go out and get to looking, you find some new ones. I doubt if all of them have ever been catalogued. Some were brought here from Canada by the glaciers.”

Engulfed with the mass of breathtaking beauty, some wild flower lovers say the colorful blossoms offer bewitching fragrances that can never be captured in a perfume bottle.

The pink lady slipper is a favorite wild flower among those who relish spring’s garland of beauty.

Yellow lady slippers thrive in the rich soils of easterly slopes, according to one wild flower enthusiast.

Foam flower, sometimes referred to as a mystery flower, is white. It can be found nestled among other varieties of forest bouquets.

Blue violets abound in shaded forest floors.

“Flowers give a cheerful face to the landscape,” my mother-in-law Ellen Lilly says of the wild flowers that grow near her home in Daniels.

“They grow abundantly along old logging roads and mining trails. They bloom at different times, and a different flower is blossoming each time you go out.”

Wild flowers seem to grow in unlikely places—in deserted railway beds, in the creases of unkempt walkways, or along woodland paths and trails.

They include ox-eye daisies, St. John’s wort, wild roses, pink and yellow lady slippers, spotted touch-me-nots, hepaticas, chicory, evening primroses, goats beard, Dutchman's breeches, honeysuckle, Jack-in-the-pulpits, skunk cabbage, fox gloves, native rhododendron and more.

Some of the other varieties are painted trillium, wild geranium, dogwood, bell wort, violets, buttercups, wild ginger, periwinkles, trailing arbutus and numerous mints, including penny royal.

“Wild impatiens or touch-me-nots thrive in moist rich soil,” according to Lilly, a folklore enthusiast and veteran forester of Mercer County. “Bears really like to wallow in them. It offers a kind of healing lotion for their briar-raked hides.”

He adds, “When you touch or jar one of these little elongated pods, it bursts and scatters the seeds. The seeds taste like nuts.”

Spring wild flowers are most common in the woods before the trees get their leaves. Many of them have their flowers, bear fruit, scatter their seeds, and store food in their roots for the next year before summer arrives.

Then, they disappear from view until the next spring.

Although May is the ideal month for viewing the wild flowers, every month from April to September has something to offer, according to Lilly.

“Joe-Pie weed and Queen Ann’s Lace are common in the fall,” he says.

Golden Rod and Life Everlasting (commonly called Indian tobacco) blossoms right up until it frosts.”

Top o’ the morning!

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