Snow Queens

Day 186: This species of Synthyris is called "Snow Queen" popularly: a lovely name for a delicate little flower which nods its numerous bells at the tops of four-inch stems.

Today I hiked in the company of a friend, covering approximately nine miles in Charles L. Pack Experimental Forest where the Queens were seen rising in a variety of different habitats. At times in open clearcut, we found them also in amongst deep mosses in the shady niches of the Wildlife Loop, or growing among lichens in rocky crevices; never more than a few in any cluster, most often spaced widely.

Perhaps just this once, their precise nomenclature matters less. "Take time to smell the roses," they say, or in this case, to spend a few moments among the Snow Queens, the ladies of Spring.