Thursday, May 04, 2006

More Spring Flora


This is a lovely dewdrop covered bleeding heart type plant. I don't think it's the real bleeding heart - this plant blooms for most of the summer, while true bleeding heart only blooms in the spring - but its flowers are very similar, and are a pretty purple colour, too!



The symbol of Canada, the proud maple tree! The maple's buds are already opened - they have this elaborate looking blossom, kinda neat looking! Leaves should be out soon! (You can just start to see the leaf coming out of the top of the bud, the really light green tip sticking out).



And look who's peeking out here! Fiddleheads! These are so named because of their similarities to the top of a violin (hard to see here, as they have just come out of the ground, but in a couple of days, it looks more obvious). They are ferns, who come out of the ground curled up like this, then unfurl. Fiddleheads are a popular Maritime delicacy - when they're a little bit bigger than this, you cut them off with about an inch of stem, then fry them in butter and eat them. I tried them once, but the taste didn't really appeal to me - it tasted like lawn grass to me. But don't tell that to the people who wait eagerly for the 2 week fiddlehead season! They love the stuff. :) And yes, I've eaten lawn grass, who didn't as a kid? :D