Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis)

Spring

Spring at the Arboretum is beautiful. Look for the earliest spring wildflowers at the Stork Forest in the Upper Arboretum or in Best Woods in the Lower Arboretum. Our early spring wildflowers, like these bloodroot, are called "ephemeral" because they are! Take the first opportunity to enjoy them on the warm days of April or they will be here and gone. These flowers capitalize on the abundant sunshine that reaches the forest floor in the spring prior to the trees leafing out. Their life history is very compressed; they have to flower, develop seed and store reserves for next year in just a few short weeks. Enjoy them while you can!

Birding is also good this time of year before the dense forest obscures our feathered friends. Look for migrating waterfowl on Lyman Lakes and the Cannon River in late March and April. Spring warblers are abundant in May along the river trail, in the floodplain forest, in Best Woods and near Spring Creek in the Upper Arb.