Ahh, Spring!

My sister, the Median Sib, has been galavanting around the woods in Tennessee with a camera again. She caught a Trillium cuneatum in bloom and taught me a different name for it: Sweet Betsy. Here are a few of my Nature Trail pics:

Toadshade or Sweet Betsy (Trillium cuneatum)
Update 5/1/07: also called Little Sweet Betsy and Wake Robin.





Sweet Shrub or Carolina Allspice (Calycanthus floridus)
being examined olfactorially by a trio of young Homo sapiens. One time when we were visiting the Giles sisters between Fayetteville and Fairburn, Mama Baird (my maternal grandmother) pointed out this plant -- I think Sweet Shrub is the right plant -- as the toothbrush bush of her childhood. She said you could crush and fray the end of a twig and use it as a toothbrush.
Update: I must be wrong. I googled "toothbrush bush" and "sweet shrub". My blog is the only web site in the world that associates those terms. Maybe it was witch hazel. Or sassafras.
Update, 5/1/07: Sweet Shrub is also called Strawberry Shrub, Bubby Bush, Sweet Bubby Bush, and -Ta-dah! - Sweet Betsy!




Does anyone know this one? Update, 5/1/07: Teresa Ware identifies this as Eastern Blue Star (Amsonia tabernaemontana). Thanks, Teresa!



Our Sensory Image Walk along the nature trail. No talking, just walking, listening, tasting (dandelion and sassafras leaves), smelling, looking, feeling... imagining and writing.