By Mary Beth Lane, The Columbus Dispatch, and staff reports
LOGAN — Get outside this month to see nature’s riot of color, as trilliums, violets and other spring wildflowers open their petals across Ohio.
READ MORE: In The Columbus Dispatch
The spring wildflower season is short but sweet. Wildflowers begin blooming first in southern Ohio, then in central Ohio and last in the northern part of the state. Wildflowers bloom in the early spring, taking advantage of full sunshine before tree leaves have fully emerged into a canopy that shades the ground.
“They get all that sunshine, and once the canopy closes, they wither away until next year,” said Rick Gardner, chief botanist at the Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Natural Areas and Preserves.
“Things are earlier this year,” he said. “We had that warm spell in February, and then it was colder in early March. There was a concern about wildflowers being frostbit, but they’re tough. They look like they’d be wimps, but they’re pretty tough.”
The sprays of little flowers adding washes of color to the Hocking Hills and parks and nature preserves elsewhere across Ohio are drawing throngs of hikers, many with cameras or smartphones in hand.
Although more people show up in state parks for leaf-peeping during fall-foliage season, the wildflower season is popular enough that the department is in its third year of issuing weekly wildflower reports. Posted on the department’s website, the reports detail what’s blooming where.
Stacey Artinian, visiting from Massillon in northeastern Ohio for several days last week with her 6-year-old son, Charlie, took in Old Man’s Cave at Hocking Hills State Park and then walked through nearby Conkles Hollow State Nature Preserve identifying the wildflowers. She reported they had seen the species called spring beauty, plus Virginia bluebells and yellow trout lilies. Charlie, who is home-schooled, said he was enjoying his day seeing and learning about wildflowers while other kids were in classrooms.
“We’re a nature family,” said Artinian, 40. “We’re all into that. The world is a classroom, that’s for sure.”
Wildflowers bloom early in the spring in Ohio, according to the ODNR, and the leaf canopy on trees above closes quickly, leaving only a few weeks for the best viewing.
The best days to see open wildflowers are warm, sunny days with temperatures above 50 degrees.
Early bloomers include harbinger-of-spring, snow trillium and hepatica.
These are soon followed by spring beauty, cut-leaf toothwort and bloodroot.
Finally, showier flowers like large white trillium (pictured), Virginia bluebells and marsh marigold carpet the forest floor with a wash of color.