We Learn Something New Every Day

Spring flowers have been popping out left and right. Many of the flowers are familiar to us, but every day we find a few flowers that we don't know. Liz and I have been pouring over our field guides lately, trying to figure out what we've been seeing. Below is a picture of a flower that I found in the woods near the teams course over the weekend. 

I wasn't sure what the flower was, and I couldn't find it in my field guides. So I called in a expert--Dan Barringer, the preserve manager at Crow's Nest Nature Preserve. Crow's Nest is located just outside Philadelphia, and I have worked there off and on for years. Dan has an amazing memory for plants, so I knew I could count on him. Sure enough, he was able to tell me that it was called bellwort (Uvularia perfoliata). In fact, Dan was able to send me a link to where he had written about bellwort on his blog. You can check it out at:  http://natlands.typepad.com/nlt_preserve_blog/2007/05/crows_nest_flow.html