My camera club took a field trip to Cedar Creek Park in Belle Vernon this past Saturday. Every year we try to get there around the same time. This year the weather was cool and cloudy, but we were fortunate that the rain held off the entire morning.
It seems that the wildflowers we went to see were not as far along as in previous years, but there was still plenty to see if you took the time to look. Two prime examples were the jack-in-the-pulpit and the trout lily. I knew they would both be in bloom (or at least they had been the last two years we went), but they are not brightly colored or particularly showy. Many of my fellow club members walked right past them without seeing them. When I pointed them out, the other photographers were happy to take photos, but would never have noticed them on their own.
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| Jack-in-the-Pulpit |
Because the jack-in-the-pulpit is mostly green with some brown, it is hard to see. Also, the jack-in-the-pulpit does not colonize an area quite the way some other wildflowers do.
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| trout lily |
The trout lily flower is yellow with brown on the outside of the petals. In cool, cloudy weather it tends to keep its pretty little face turned down, so it can be hard to see. But it does form colonies of thick, fleshy, mottled, almond-shaped leaves. The patch of leaves is pretty easy to spot, but without showy, colorful flowers, it doesn't attract immediate attention. Unlike trillium, woodland phlox and Virginia bluebells.
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| red trillium |
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| white trillium |
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| woodland phlox |
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Me in action
(taken by another club member) |
By the end of the morning, I was sore and exhausted from climbing up and down the paths, getting up and down from my knees and lugging my camera equipment around. But this was just the first half of my day...
Here's a
link to part 2 of last Saturday.
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