Here's a sample of some of the wildflowers that have caught my eye while hiking this spring. I have organized them here into several groups based on what period in the spring then tend to bloom: Late March to Early April, Mid-April, and Late April to Early May. Flowers in the last (and largest) group are still blooming.
By clicking any of the photos below, you can look at a larger resolution of the photo. Once you are viewing a larger version, you can also use your arrow keys to move between photos.
Late Read more ➜ Spring Wildflowers 2017
Here's a sample of some of the wildflowers that have caught my eye while hiking this spring. I have organized them here into several groups based on what period in the spring then tend to bloom: Late March to Early April, Mid-April, and Late April to Early May. Flowers in the last (and largest) group are still blooming.
By clicking any of the photos below, you can look at a larger resolution of the photo. Once you are viewing a larger version, you can also use your arrow keys to move between photos.
Late Read more ➜ 
Goll Woods State Nature Preserve is a 321-acre preserve in Fulton County with 5.25 miles of trail. The trail system approaches the Tiffin River in two places, and it also passes by the Goll Cemetery and the preserve office for the Northwest Preserve District. One hundrd acres of the preserve are old growth forest (sometimes referred to as "virgin woods"). Some of the trees in this region are up to 400 years old and have reached a diameter of 4 feet. Among the largest trees are bur oak, white oak, 
The photos below are a sample of some of the wildflowers we've seen in June, July, and August. All were photographed in Ohio.
Native Orchids
I had the good fortune of seeing two, new species of native orchid for the first time while we were attending Mothapalooza. Mothapalooza is an annual conference held in Ohio that focuses on moths, but also deals with nature more generally. The most colorful of the two was the Yellow-fringed orchid.
Although mostly pale, the following orchid 
Last summer we visited two of Ohio's smallest state nature preserves: Bigelow Cemetery and Smith Cemetery. Within these two preserves are remnants of prairie that once extended over 5% of Ohio. Because both sites were 19th century cemeteries, they were undisturbed by the plowing that converted 99% of this rich, prairie soil into Ohio farmland. Today I will discuss the half-acre Bigelow Cemetery State Nature Preserve, and I'll save the nearby Smith Cemetery State Nature Preserve for a later post. 
Here a sampling of the wildflowers that I saw in March and April of this year. With each photo below, I've identified the flower and indicated when and where it was photographed. I'm leading off with a flower called Pride of Ohio out of Buckeye pride. 🙂 It is also known as Shooting Star.
Additional information
If you liked this article, you might be interested in our post, Common Spring 
Over a hundred years ago, the American chestnut tree (Castanea dentata) was virtually wiped out. Now the Ohio Department of Natural Resources is working on returning this grand tree to Ohio forests.
A long time ago (over 100 years) not far away, giants ruled the Ohio forest. The American chestnut tree grew to heights of 100 to 150 feet. The tree dominated eastern forests from Maine to Georgia. Then one day in 1904, its nemesis arrived from Asia - a fungus by the name of endothia parasitica 
Between eight and four thousand years ago what later became Ohio experienced a prolonged drought. This allowed the drought-tolerant plants of the Great Plains to displace Ohio's more typical, water-loving plants. This eastward thrust of the prairie into Ohio has been referred to as a "prairie peninsula." The prairie peninsula encompassed nearly 400 square miles of the Darby Plains in western, central Ohio. Today only 1% of this prairie survives. There are a number of MetroParks in the Columbus and 
This is a collection of some of my favorite wildflower photos taken in April and May of this year. If you'd like to see a larger version of any flower, just click on its photo.
The above photo was taken at the Wahkeena Nature Preserve. The staff there make it really easy to locate their most picturesque wildflowers. We were greeted by the in-house naturalist, Tom Shisler. He actually gave us a map of the grounds with the locations of the orchids identified by pink marks on the map. 
Crall Woods is a 97-acre woodland that's one of two tracts of land making up Pine Hill Park in Ashland County. It was named as a National Natural Landmark by the National Park Service in 1974. According to a sign in the park's kiosk, there are three nature trails at Crall Wood with a total length of 2.45 miles. However, we saw two unlisted trails (one under construction and the other complete) that were not listed on the kiosk. All the trails were wide and well-maintained.
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