Eh, I have negligible interest in taking/viewing photographs for its own sake (and have little idea what goes on in the minds of “normal iNatters” who do). Flowers bore me.
But I often hear people in winter wishing for more bugs to stare at, so here are more bugs to stare at I guess?
I just thought OP wanted more “general view” photos, set by that example, it doesn’t mean plants only, though not sure how any form of life can be boring. Maybe it was just a coincidence that the first photo was like this.
That sounds ‘schmecky’ to me. I’m not saying it’s the flowers’ beauty itself that makes me feel hopeful that life will return once more in about 3-4 months (I’m in Canada), but as they are the first real outdoor announcement of the return to the full life catalogue, I truly love their ‘promise’.
As well as all things small, crawly AND also beautiful.
For me, the spring flowers are the trumpets of the return to ALL the beauty that returns with the end of winter. That’s why I like seeing pictures of them while locked in with snow and ice. But for the puprpose of this post, it’s not JUST flowers.
As for my choice of trilliums, it’s just to represent my locale. Okay, it was also to please Diana Studer whom (from the ‘Plantasy’ discussion) I know is dying to see that kind of trillium display in person… some day!
Oh, don’t get me wrong, I don’t find the flowers themselves dull. All organisms have complex and fascinating environmental adaptions, etc., you get the idea. But that doesn’t mean looking at flower (or leaf, or even insect) pictures actually gives me any real pleasure.
Anyways here is your allotted fern ration for the day! Enjoy if you will.
Delightful!
“I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a school-boy. I am as giddy as a drunken man.”
( 
)
I also like the Trillium leaves (one of the kind plants that can also be recognised when NOT flowering)
And they surely support some pollinators and caterpillars and …?
Ants. Their seeds are coated in a fatty substance that the ants love and take back to their nests for food. When finished, they’re dumped and… the species propagates.
It’s a slow growing species though. A colony the size I showed took probably 10 years to get to colony status, and the blooms take a year or two more to develop.
It’s under great threat by invasive species because of this slow growth profile. I must go back to that spot this spring and see if it’s still there or been taken over by the many other invasives that have taken over in the last decade.
Part of the reason why our fynbos survives fire, is ants taking the seed below.
How about plants that behave like animals and eat bugs? I had a bunch of Chinese mantis babies hatch where I kept Venus flytraps. They are awfully cute but they’re also invasive here, so I let the flytraps feast on them sort of as fertilizer for the plants. Now that’s schmecky - yumm!
I’m in Winterland, too. My favorite “Promise of Spring” is right outside my windows. I can see them as soon as the leaves fall. (However,I refrain from looking at them while dealing with the fallen leaves)
I’m sure you see them, too. Maple trees always set next spring’s buds, and the closer spring comes, the more I watch them. Then comes Maple Sap Season! Which still isn’t quite Flower Season.
Those buds are a promise, all winter long.
For any other Jewish iNatters here accustomed to Yiddish, this thread has a very different meaning!! Good call on adding a clarification.
I look forward every year to the blooms of the Mojave desert. I’ve explored these areas most of my life, but only in my adult years with an eye to the sudden and intense spring blooms of tiny, amazing flowers, and the desert tortoises emerging to scrounge for food.
Ah, spring. I eagerly await you. In the meantime,
Have some ramps peeking out of the duff like harbingers of spring
Toothwort
Bloodroot. Spring ephemerals seriously get me way too excited, they’re so nice after the doldroms of winter
Most of my observations are diagnostic, so it’s just a zoomed-in photo of a flower, some side views, and maybe the whole plant, composition lacking.
However, this barrel cactus had a pretty nice view of the San Jacinto mountains behind it:
Oh, Bloodroot! So beautiful, so fleeting! Thank you for that photo.
Could you post a link please, what is this species?
Pleurotus citrinopileatus, the golden oyster.
Its an escapee from cultivation in the midwest, it is native to eastern Russia, northern China, and Japan, and has a tendency to have absolutely monster flushes.
