Pictures: 265 Growing Degree Days (B42)

An interlude between rain squalls.  Normally I would have cropped this photo but I like the sense of scale in this one.  Green pasture in the foreground.  A tree line.  Orchard on the right.  Clouds above.

Mahonia, aka, Oregon Grape.  Not native to Michigan but it does grow as far east as eastern Wyoming.

There are about thirty species of currents that are native to the Pacific Northwest.  I am guessing R. aureum.  It smells like Brassavola nodosa at night.

Not many leaves on the trees, yet.  Trees that are late in leafing out favor a robust and diverse ground ecology.  That is why spruce plantations are almost biological deserts at ground level.

Bloodroot, and Zeus's tail.

Wild strawberry (Fragaria vesca)

Mayapple (Podophylum peltatum).  Mrs ERJ would gently make sport of me for filling my pockets with Mayapples and other seed sources.  My goal is to bring back as many native species as I can.

Water still sheeting across the ground from today's rains.

This clip is only 14 seconds long.