A plant pundit comments on plants, the foibles and fun of academic life, and other things of interest.
Friday Fabulous Flower - wild ramp
Today's FFF is often a surprise to people because they just don't expect it. Wild ramps, Allium tricoccum, are a native woodland plant, an interesting spring ephemeral. The distinctive broad, oniony leaves emerge in the early spring, and disappear again after just a few weeks. Then in mid to late July flowering stalks appear bearing a rounded umbel of white flowers; pretty typical for an onion. Considering how naked the florest floor can be in July, patches of these flowers can be quite a surprise. And of course many wild flower enthusiasts won't see them because who goes out looking for woodland wild flowers in July? The flowers are followed by a small dark berry. Since the fruit and fruiting stalks tend to persist a bit many people are more familiar with the fruiting stage than the flowering stage.
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