Garter Snake and Common Blue Violets

I found the Water Garden Garter Snake wreathed in violet flowers while warming itself on the sunny brick patio.  It was early enough in the morning that the air was still cool, so I thought I would try for a few close-up photos before the snake became more active.  It was probably the snake’s cool morning sluggishness combined with the protective feel of the surrounding violet leaves that caused the snake to allow my close approach.  I took several shots before backing away and allowing the snake to continue warming.

Snake eyes have a neat habit of reflecting their surroundings.  If the snake is cooperative, I try to get in close enough to capture my reflection in the snake’s eye.  That’s my head and hands showing between three and four o’clock in the snake’s pupil.  I was belly down on the patio and about two feet away when I took this shot.

Common Blue Violets gave a wonderful background for the snake.  This native plant is quite aggressive and will readily colonize any open ground.  It has done exceptionally well at surviving in the spaces between bricks on our patio and at filling in between the rocks around the Water Garden.

I eliminate the non-native plants that try to grow here, so the violets can develop without competition.  Common Blue Violets seem to be eaten by any animal that includes vegetable matter in its diet.  Ants commonly visit the flowers to collect nectar.  The plants won’t make it through the spring without suffering some damage from plant consumers.  Sometimes they get eaten right to the ground.

The lower petal forms a rearward projection known as a spur.  Length of the spur can vary considerably between species and is often an important identification characteristic.  I find it amazing how many people have never looked at the back side of a violet flower.  This flower is found in millions of American lawns, but is so often ignored.

There’s considerable competition between violet seedlings for any available space.  Only a few of these will develop into mature plants.  Now, if I get really lucky, I’ll come out one morning to find a litter of baby Garter Snakes lounging in the young violet plants.

Field Growth

Having the fields mowed makes it easy to follow the growth of the early spring plants. The fields have only been mowed three times in 25 years, which might explain why I never noticed this plant. Another new entry to the Blue Jay Barrens plant list, number 525 is the Dwarf Cinquefoil, Potentilla canadensis. This is a low growing plant that would be really hard to see among the tall dead stalks of the previous year.

I think it’s amazing how many ferns grow beneath the canopy of tall grasses and goldenrods. These are the emerging leaves of a Christmas Fern. This specimen is growing in the middle of a thick stand of Indian Grass.

Identifying violets can be frustrating because there is a lot of variation displayed within a species and there are several similar looking species. This is the Common Blue Violet, which Gleason & Cronquist refer to as Viola sororia. G & C have grouped several species identified by other authors into this one, so the Common Blue Violet may include individuals that have anything from completely smooth stems and leaves to those that display a heavy fur coat. When I converted my Blue Jay Barrens plant list to G & C, I lost several species from the list as they were all merged into one.

This violet fools me every year, because when it first flowers it appears to have only basal leaves. Closer examination always shows that stalks are forming that will give vertical growth to the plant. This is the Creamy Violet, Viola striata, a violet that will grow much taller as the season progresses.

Wild Strawberries are common across the fields. They usually produce a lot of fruit, but the ants and turtles seem to get most of it. Don't be misled by this particular bloom. The typical strawberry flower only has five petals. I notice a lot of flowers here that have more than their standard complement of petals. This is just a noticable expression of species diversity; that resiliency that gives a species the chance to survive ever changing conditions.

Small-flowered Crowfoot, Ranunculus abortivus, is one of the tiny Buttercups that is commonly found in the field edges. There’s just enough yellow in the flowers to make them stand out from the dead grass and dark greens of early spring. Fortunately, my flag spraying activities are making me walk over the majority of the field area multiple times, so I’m able to keep a good watch on what’s growing.