Only in Ithaca...

While botanizing in the woods with some friends yesterday, we happened upon something extraordinary. No, not just the blooming spring beauties (Claytonia virginica). We saw a VW Bug made out of stone. One will only find this in Ithaca, NY, where old hippies go to die and new ones are converted. I could not help but laugh at the associations with a "Stoned VW". The detail was amazing, and there was a ring of bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) surrounding it.

The other night I went with fellow Philosophe Five member JM to dinner with a seminar speaker visiting from Costa Rica. En route to the restaurant, we talked a bit about subtle flowers and how they actually dominate the landscape. With that in mind, I figured I should give some credit to these underdogs here. The first is a pendulous species of willow, Salix repens 'Iona'. You can see the catkins (pussy willows) whose yellow anthers (the boy parts) really stand out against the gray below. This species makes a great rock garden plant, particularly if allowed to crawl and sprawl out over the stone.

Another plant in bloom right now is one near and dear to my heart, the katsura (see my first post for the full story). What you see to the right are the flowers of a male tree, a weeping selection known as Cercidiphyllum japonicum 'Morioka Weeping'. (Weirdly, all weeping katsura trees are male). Sure, they might lack the showiness of a magnolia, or the heavenly scent of a mock orange, but when you get up close, don't they look cool? The species is wind pollinated, so there is no need for the plant to invest precious resources in making pretty petals. It just make lots of pollen and throws caution to the wind (literally!)