Snow Trillium, White Pine Hollow State Preserve, Iowa
It took us a while but we finally found this never common and often rare wildflower again during a late afternoon hike in one of Iowa’s wildest areas. In 2020 we found a larger patch in White Pine Hollow, but this time only these three blossoms greeted us from the forest floor at the bottom of a large tree. This rugged area is not easy to access for everybody and there is not really any trail that can lead you through the steep canyons and across the ridges. With other words, some skills to read the lay of the land are highly recommended if you want to come back safely.
Hepatica (also known as liverleaf or liverwort, German: Leberblümchen)
At our turn-around point at the end of a ridge is a cave-like sink hole. Too small for me to get in but I’m not a big fan of cave exploration anyway. While in our neck of the woods, above the Little Maquoketa Valley and only 20 miles away, not a single wildflower was spotted so far, we found several patches of Hepatica in full bloom around the sink hole. Maybe warmer air that comes out of the gap in the rocks creates a micro climate and the wildflowers have a slightly earlier start. I admit, it’s just a theory.
Where plants start growing insects find them as a food source. There is a little larvae in one of the flowers.
I have not used my macro lens, the Sigma 150/f2.8, in a very long time. I just don’t do a lot of macro anymore. It’s the oldest lens in my arsenal. On the mirrorless Nikon Z 6II this lens works only in manual focus mode but the sharpness of this lens is superb and I still like the outcome.