In damp spots, eastern skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus) squeezes from the cold soil.
Late in March Dutchman’s breeches (Dicentra cucullaria) begin to appear, like miniature pants pegged on a bowed washing line.
As the weather warms, the flowers of spring beauty (Claytonia virginica) crowd the short grass in open spaces.
Japanese knotweed (Polygonum cuspidatum) begins to emerge in April. The weed is prolific and exceptionally hard to eradicate. The shoots are edible. If you collect them, you will be contributing to the plant’s mechanical control.
Delicate wood anemones (Anemone quinquefolia) stand no long-term chance against the progress of plants like Japanese knotweed, or the army of day lilies (Hemerocallis fulva) on the forest floor.
Low on the leaf litter are the earliest shoots of native Solomon’s Seal, Polygonatum biflorum.
The pretty flowers of cutleaf toothwort (Cardamine concatenata) grow in drifts beneath the still-bare deciduous trees.