Photos from a walk in Appalachia’s late summer woods. The flowers of spring have now borne their late summer fruit, fungi rule the forest floor, and the intoxicating perfume of dying ferns fills the air.

From top: the incandescent red berries of partridgeberry (Mitchella repens), which illuminate the forest understory wherever its creeping foliage grows; a gorgeous Pholiota cluster, possibly golden pholiota (Pholiota aurivella); the ripening, spotted berries of false Solomon’s seal (Maianthemum racemosum), which will turn bright red by October; the luminous orange-red berries of yellow mandarin (Prosartes lanuginosa), also known as yellow fairybells; the deep purple-blue fruit of Indian cucumber-root (Medeola virginiana); common puffball (Lycoperdon perlatum), just now fruiting in the local woods; white snakeroot (Ageratina altissima), a deadly beauty infamous for diary poisonings in the 1800′s; and bluestem goldenrod (Solidago caesia), also known as wreath goldenrod, an elegant, shade-tolerant perennial unusual among goldenrods in that its flowers grow from the leaf axils rather than from long panicles at the ends of the stems.

Spotted Mandarin (Prosartes maculata (Buckley) A. Gray)

Liliaceae (Lily Family) Synonym(s): Nodding Mandarin, Spotted Mandarin, Yellow Mandarin Base Flower Color: WhiteReproductive Phenology: Apr, May For more information about this plant, Click Here. Similar Species: Yellow Mandarin (Prosartes lanuginosa (Michx.) D. Don)

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May 2018 Richland County, Ohio

I took a short hike on Scott Run Trail in Coopers Rock State Forest to decompress from work and was treated to four of the most delicate and enchanting wildflowers of Appalachia’s May woods.  From top: yellow mandarin (Prosartes lanuginosa), also known as yellow fairybells; mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum) blossom; painted trillium (Trillium undulatum); and perfoliate bellwort (Uvularia perfoliata).