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Wildflowers

What's blooming?

This Wildflower Gallery is a colleciton of first blooms, identified with location and date and any other details we can gather. You can build a virtual bouquet with images from your wanderings. Post your pictures with as much information to identify them as you can, including the date, habitat (roadside, meadow, wetland, forest) and any other details you'd like to include to our Virtual Flower Table on Facebook.

June 19 (Danville, Concord, Newark, St. Johnsbury)

cinnamon fernroyal fernmountain maplebirdstoot trefoildame's rocketriver grapespreading dogbane

 

June 9 (Concord, VT and Littleton, NH)

bishop's weedblackberrycommon cinquefoilgarden loostrifetower mustardgolden groundsel

June 7 (Newark)

water avensred-osier dogwood

May 29 (Peacham)

greater celendineshowy orchidmitrewort

May 28 (Concord and Passumpsic)

rhodorarhodora bushappleannual fleabane

May 26 (Concord, VT)

clintoniablue-eyed grassfield mustard

May 23 (Concord)

hobblebush

May 22 (St. Johnsbury)

garlic mustard

May 20 (Danville and Concord)

canada plumstarry false solomons sealgolden alexandersfly honeysuckle

May 12 (Peacham)

May 7 (Peacham, Danville, St. Johnsbury)

dutchman's breecheshorsetailwild gingercommon dandelion

May 5 (Danville)

White and salmon-colored form of Red Trillium

red trilliumpennsylvania sedge

May 4 (Danville)

periwinkle

May 3 (Peacham)

Dutchman's Breechessharp-lobed hepaticaTrout-lilyVirginia spring-beauty

May 1 (St. Johnsbury)

Red Trillium

April 27 (Concord)

Yellow Violet

April 27 (East St. Johnsbury)

Carolina spring-beautyDutchman's Breeches

April 26 (Danville)

Rose DaphneSharp-lobed Hepatica

April 15 (St. Johnsbury)

scouring rush

April 8

April 6

It's amazing to see the leaves poking out of the ice in some places. In other places they are in a flowing stream. 

marsh marigold

The Wildflower Table at the Fairbanks Museum & Planetarium is a living exhibit that reflects the diversity of flowers, grasses, berries, ferns and evergreens found in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom and the northern reaches of the upper Connecticut River Watershed. 

It has been part of the Museum since 1903, when the display was introduced as a simple arrangement of vases with wildflowers in bloom set out by Museum staff. With time, the Wildflower Table has grown to include some 400 species displayed throughout the year, in both fruit and flowering stages.

Since its earliest days, the Museum’s wildflower collection practices have depended on dedicated and trained team of staff and volunteers who collect and catalogue the specimens twice a week. A logbook contains over a century of entries that document the first local bloom date for each species of plant. 

The seasonal cycle begins in late winter with early blooming Pussy Willow and continues through December with winter evergreens. Annual entries record some dwindling species, such as club mosses, Partridge Berry, some spring wildflowers, and many orchids. Other plant varieties have been introduced to the area that were not present a century ago, such as Purple Loosestrife or Bird’s-foot trefoil. Some non-native plants such as Chicory reflect the flow of European migrants to New England. One such plant, the Red Clover (Trifolium pratense), is now such an accepted wild plant in Vermont that is has become Vermont’s official State Flower.