A floral departure...

I hope you'll forgive me a diversion into flowering plants... the spring flora of Wisconsin is particularly beautiful and full of lovely flowering things. Even I can appreciate them, and some of them photograph uncommonly well. There will probably be a few posts after this one that feature angiosperms, as I visit a few rich sites with public field trips and the class I'm TAing. Then it will be back to ferns! These flowers are all from the bluff in Grant County I've written about in the last few posts. The plant above is Sanguineria canadensis, the Bloodroot. Next is Wild Ginger, Asarum canadense:

Next we have, in this order: Spring Beauty (Claytonia virginica), Birdsfoot violet (Viola pedata), Pussytoes (Anntenaria neglecta), and a buttercup (Ranunculus):

Then we were lucky enough to find Hepatica still in bloom; usually all I get to see are its liver shaped leaves with the flowers long gone:

And finally, a mainstay of the spring flora here, Dicentra cucullaria, Dutchman's breeches: