Rainy Day Rewards

today at 4 p.m.it was raining buckets!  I thought, oh well, not today, and came home.  At 5 p.m., it had quit and looked promising, so I pulled on my rain-pants, raincoat, and waterproof boots, and headed up the trail.  Oh yeah, I had my camera too.

I mainly wanted to check on the yellow coralroots that were coming on.  Not opened yet, but getting there.  They were almost as bright a yellow as the arnica.

As much as I enjoy taking close-ups, I thought I would try to capture what the coralroots look like in the forest setting.  Today was perfect because of the soft lighting after the rain.

Spotted Coralroot

The raindrops made this little coralroot look especially lovely.

This is the one with a bigger stem that I thought would be different.  Nope, just a little behind the others.

One of these girls has not been eating her Wheaties!
The ones with no spots on their petals are considered albino, not a different variety.

I thought the bird's-eye view looked interesting.

I did a short loop today (since Warren was waiting for me to get home and have dinner with him!), so I didn't go up to the top.  Just thought I'd see what other surprises the wet woods had in store for me today.  

Perfect day for a mushroom.

This color definitely caught my eye, despite its small size.  This is Rosy Pussytoes;
or as I like to say "Rosy-toes."

This variety of Pussytoes is a more common sight along the trail.

Lupine in the rain

In classic flower-nerd style, I was looking for a particular plant as I walked along.  A leaf pattern caught my eye and I stopped.  Flower-Karma was at work today, because I happened to look down, and right at my feet (size 10 1/2!), right next to the trail, were these little beauties.  My sub-conscious must have been hearing, "Watch out!  Look down here!  Pay attention!"   I might have just as easily stepped on them or not seen them at all!

On closer inspection I realized that they were very small STRIPED Coralroot!  I hope to find more of these soon, but by now it's raining again, and I must go.

I looked up the pink honeysuckle and sure enough found a photo that matched exactly (hurray for Google!).  It is Lonicera Tatarica and is native to Siberia.  But it was introduced to North America as an exotic ornamental plant back in the 1750's.  Probably more information than you'd EVER want to know.  It was really pretty in the rain...

You can see how it is right along the trail, and a shrub not a vine.