Dorothy’s Flora for February

Dorothy makes a few more flora observations in February. Signs of spring are coming. The hepaticas are blooming and the snowdrops are about to open.

snowdrops [Galanthus nivalis]—On 14 February 1802 Dorothy notes that it is “a fine morning but it has been a hard frost in the night. There are some little snowdrops that are afraid to pop their white heads quite out, & a few blossoms of Hepatica that are half starved.”

hepatica [Hepatica nobilis] — On 14 February 1802 “a fine morning but it has been a hard frost in the night. There are some little snowdrops that are afraid to pop their white heads quite out, & a few blossoms of Hepatica that are half starved.”

ash tree [Fraxinus excelsior]— On 23 February 1802 Dorothy notices a thrust on the still bare branches of an ash tree: “When we came out of our own doors, that dear thrush was singing upon the topmost of the smooth branches of the ash tree at the top of the orchard. How long it had been perched on that same tree I cannot tell but we had heard its dear voice in the orchard the day through, along with a chearful undersong made by our winter friends the Robins.”

mosses [Phylum Bryophyta]— A couple of days later, on a misty, rainy day walk on 23 February 1802, Dorothy again collects mosses and leaves them at Dove Cottage before going for a walk in John’s Wood: “As we came home, I picked up a few mosses by the roadside, which I left at home” .

ivy [Hedera helix] —Dorothy returns from her evening walk on 25 February 1802: “I reached home just before dark, brought some mosses and ivy, and then got tea, and fell to work at German.”

Posted on Μάρτιος 06, 2018 0336 ΜΜ by melindacreech