Cornus mas

At first I thought this was another spicebush, but it just didn't look right when I got close to it. It's Cornus mas, which is in the dogwood family. This is on Purdue campus on the NE corner of State St. and Intramural. By July the fruit will ripen and it is good to eat.

These pictures were taken March 29, 2009.

There is another Cornus mas by the Undergraduate Library.

Link to Cornus mas:

Spicebush

Spicebush (Lindera benzoin) flowering along the main trail in Happy Hollow Park. The pictures were taken March 27, 2009.


Link to spicebush

Bloodroot

This is bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis), one of the first spring wildflowers of the woods. This bloodroot was poking up out of the ground along the main trail in Happy Hollow Park. The picture was taken March 27, 2009.

link to Sanguinaria canadensis

Henbit

This is henbit (Lamium amplexicaule). In the early spring henbit and its close relative purple deadnettle can turn cornfields into seas of purple. This picture was taken March 27, 2009 along Williams Street in West Lafayette.


link to Lamium amplexicaule

another link to Lamium amplexicaule

Hamamelis vernalis on Purdue campus

This is a row of Hamamelis vernalis along the north side of Stewart Center, showing the yellow flowers. This species flowers in the early spring. Picture taken March 25, 2009. You can find another couple of Hamamelis vernalis bushes on the west side of Stanley Coulter Hall.

link to Hamamelis vernalis (witch hazel)

This is not our native witch hazel that you find growing wild in Indiana woods. That is Hamamelis virginiana, and that flowers in the late fall.

This is harbinger-of-spring (Erigenia bulbosa). It is one of the first spring wildflowers to appear in the woods. This picture was taken at the Eunice Bryan Nature Preserve in Clinton County March 24, 2009. Only the Erigenia was flowering, no other spring wildflower was out yet. The spring beauty (Claytonia) leaves had started to appear but no flowers yet.

link to Erigenia bulbosa

This little insignificant plant is Veronica hederifolia. At this time of year it is growing in every yard in Lafayette. If you are reading this and this post is still fresh go out in your yard and get on your hands and knees and you ought to find it. With a magnifying glass the tiny flowers show their beauty. This picture was taken March 22, 2009.

link to Veronica hederifolia

Revision Mar. 4, 2012:  This plant is Veronica polita, not V. hederifolia.

Happy Hollow Park

At Happy Hollow Park, these are invasive plants. They have been working on getting these out of the park, it seems to be fairly successful. There is a lot less of this than there could be. Notice the bush honeysuckle (Lonicera maackii) is already starting to leaf out. In spring it gets a headstart in competition with the native plants. There doesn't seem to be much of the honeysuckle, this is just a small sprout I found. This picture was taken at Happy Hollow Park on March 18. The other plant is garlic mustard (Alliaria petoliata). Not too bad an infestation of this but there is rather a lot of it at the high part of the main trail on the north end of the park.

Forsythia

The yellow flowers of forsythia mark some of the first days of spring. You can find these forsythia shrubs planted at the east end of the pedestrian bridge over the Wabash. The picture below is a view of the still flooded Wabash River looking upstream. Both pictures were taken March 17, 2009.

You can follow the gage that measures the river height and flow here:

Wabash at Lafayette

here too

Cedar of Lebanon

This is a Cedar of Lebanon (Cedrus libani) tree planted on the Purdue Campus. This tree is listed as tree #21 on the Green Trail described in the website for Trees of Purdue. Look for it on the South Campus near University and Harrison streets.


link to Trees of Purdue

Photo taken January 4, 2009.