Spring Violets

This is a Sweet Violet (Viola odorata). The cold does not prevent it from flowering.






















There is another violet flowering early in march, the Hairy Violet (Viola hirta) you see here.
















They look very much alike. Mostly the Sweet Violet has flowers a bit earlier than the Hairy Violet, but not always. Mostly the former is darker in colour, and the latter slightly hairier, but not always. Leaves and flowers of the Sweet Violet are a bit rounder than those of the Hairy Violet, generally, but not always. The Sweet Violet mostly smells sweet, but is sometimes odorless. The Sweet Violet often has stolons, the other one never has. Most of the time you find the hairy one in slightly drier and sunnier places than the sweet one. Etcetera, etcetera. And there exists also an intermediate form, a crossbreed between the two.

Well, how to distinguish the two? You have to take into account a number of characteristics at the same time, and even then it is easy to be wrong.

But does it really matter?

Common Alder

The Common Alder (Alnus glutinosa) only grows on marshy ground. Often, in a valley, a ribbon of trees marks the course of a streamlet.



In winter tree fellers leave piles of trunks in their wake. Those of the Common alder are easy to recognize by their clear orange colour.

Soon the tree will flower, but now only last year's female catkins are visible, they look like small black pine cones. The new male catkins are already growing longer, getting ready for things to come.

Cranes

The cranes (Grus grus) are returning from the south!


A few dozen among the thousands circling and wheeling under a pale daytime moon, today.

Bird's Nest Orchid

Seven degrees below zero this morning; and the last snow does not melt.
What is this dead, brown, stalk between the fallen leaves and a patch of snow?
 

It is the remnant of a Bird's Nest Orchid (Neottia nidus-avis), a stalk with empty seed pods.

In May it looked like this. Also brown, but a bit more pale. It has no green at all, and that's why it can live under the shadowy canopy. It gets its nutrients from the roots of other plants, not from photosynthesis.












The Ivy (Hedera helix) in the picture lives also under the canopy, but it is still green when after the falling of the leaves the winter sun reaches the forest floor.

Common Bracken

A thin coating of frost, and look, the Common Bracken (Pteridium aquilinum) changes of color and mood.


From soft brown and grey ...

... to furry white and cool blue ...

... to a deep golden hue against night blue.

Winter color

Rather depressing, this rainy winter: grey and brown and black and grey again. And the sun does not show up at all ...


But look, brilliant green with gold, streaks of bluish grey with little pink specks. Mosses and lichens do their best to impart some colour to their surroundings.

Snow!

Snow, and sun ...


And what could be more black than a black dog against the snow?