mayapple blossoms
cradle their nascent fruit under
twin green umbrellas
The third week of May and it's tornado season already. So far, the funnels have missed us, but last night we had a big thunderstorm with high winds that knocked down trees and sent flash floods catapulting down rivers. Today while I'm picking up fallen branches, I stop to admire a clonal colony of mayapples growing in the shade of a big oak tree. Under the protection of the green umbrella leaves, I find only one blossom still intact, with the nascent fruit wearing its golden stigma like a crown. The "apple" has a lemony taste, but should be eaten sparingly because large amounts are poisonous.
This congregation of mayapples popped up less than a month ago, sending up the most amazing shoots from the interconnected rhizomes. At first they look like white cones, then these protective husks split open and the bud appears, looking like a green brain sitting on top of a pair of tightly folded leaves. As the shoots continue to unfold, they look like angels with delicate green wings or magicians wrapped in russet cloaks. Finally, the deeply lobed leaves spread their umbrellas on paired stalks over the buds.
Here a mayapple leaf holds a collection of flowers blown off by the storm: one white mayapple petal and several shagbark hickory blossoms.
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