April 17 - Downy Yellow Violet? and Trillium!

In its half-hearted way, April is trying to warm up, though it's not doing a very good job. It's about 52 degrees, but at least it's sunny. But in this cold weather the flowers seem to be a bit closed.

These days the forest floor is covered with False Rue Anemones. Here's a shot with Tawny and one of the plastic bottles she always finds to play fetch with.

False Rue Anenomes and Tawny waiting to play fetch

I think this is a Downy Yellow Violet, although the leaves look a bit chewed up.

Downy Yellow Violet?

Here's a Common Blue Violet once again. Violets are related to pansies, and this is evident here! 

Common Blue Violet doing a pansy impersonation.

But I was most excited to see a Trillium!

Trillium

Trillium have gotten rarer in the woods near my house. I only spotted two today, but hopefully more will come. Sadly, the Trillium decline has been a cause of contention between a neighbor and myself. This neighbor is convinced that dogs running about will harm the Trillium, so on the rare occasion that she has chosen to speak to me, she has complained about my dogs possibly hurting the flowers. However, it has been shown that Trillium decline is more likely to be caused by changes in soil make-up, and from munching by deer, which studies show are partial to white flowers. My dogs chase off deer so she should probably be thanking me! 

I know protecting nature is an emotional issue, but nature lovers, please research, not react.