King of the Woods

In the dry side of our woods, the jack-in-the-pulpit, Arisaema triphyllum, has started to spring from the ground. The individual plants seem to magically appear, rather than grow. Just like last year, this was one of the first jacks to pop up.

I would like to establish ramps over in this area eventually. In photographs I have seen of ramps, they grow alongside jacks.

When the bulldozers sculpted this piece of land, they left some lumps of earth and stone around the edges of the wetland. These tiny dry hills are covered with ferns and Canada mayflower, Maianthemum canadense, which is a delicate native plant that puts up individual leaves with seeming randomness across the forest floor.

The forest floor is still mostly bare. This will be covered with ferns soon.

Do you see the speck of yellow on top of the boulder?

That speck is the King of the Woods. The previous owners set him loose here, and now he guards the woods for us. I want to find more such dinosaurs for Gabe's Garden.