Wild about wildflowers? Here are a few places in the area to see summer blooms
Are you a flora fanatic with visions of spring wildflowers dancing in your head? Unfortunately, you're probably too late to see them in their full glory, if at all.
If you're lucky, you might see a straggler here and there, but with late June ushering in summer, the blooms of spring — skunk cabbage, bluebells, trilliums and jack-in-the-pulpit, to name just a few of Ohio's 170 spring wildflower species — have hightailed it out of town like so many seasonal vacationers.
"We're at an in-between moment in the growing season. The spring wildflowers have tapered off and the prairie wildflowers are just starting to show themselves," said Kevin Kasnyik, resource manager for Columbus and Franklin County Metro Parks.
"The showy, more fashionable, for lack of better word, spring wildflowers — some grow in forest areas and they get shaded out — lose their luster and go dormant."
Rick Gardner, chief botanist for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Natural Areas & Preserves, agreed with Kasnyik.
"There may still be wildflowers blooming in the woods, but they're not as showy as the early ones," he said, adding that spates of warm weather impacted both the beginning and end of the spring season.
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"We had a mild winter, so blooming was a week or two ahead of schedule, then mid- to late May was so warm and dry that what was blooming was done. It's interesting to see the fluctuations."
ODNR posts a weekly Ohio Wildflower Bloom Report that offers specific information on native wildflowers, as well as a look at what’s currently blooming at ohiodnr.gov/go-and-do/see-the-sights/wildflowers.
Kasnyik said wildflower worshipers should wait until about mid-July, when local prairielands are bedecked with blossoms.
"The milkweeds are starting to bloom, and I’ve seen some blazing stars starting to bloom. The Dyer Mill Trail at Battelle Darby is a great place to see them," he said. "Also, a lot of our orchids are starting to bloom and irises, of course, and some of the prairie plants like purple coneflower and gray-headed coneflower."
In addition to Battelle Darby Creek Metro Park, 1775 Darby Creek Drive in Galloway, Kasnyik mentioned several other Metro Parks where anthophiles can enjoy summer flower displays, including:
Homestead Metro Park, 4675 Cosgray Road, Hilliard. "The prairie plants look really, really fabulous in mid-July," Kasnyik said. "The purple and gray-headed coneflowers are the most abundant and brightest and stand out the most."
Prairie Oaks Metro Park, 3225 N.E. Plain City-Georgesville Road, West Jefferson.
Scioto Grove Metro Park, 5172 Jackson Pike, Grove City. "There's also a lot of prairie areas where you'll be able to find a lot of coneflowers," Kasnyik said.
Sharon Woods, 6911 Cleveland Ave., Westerville.
Three Creeks Metro Park, 3860 Bixby Road, Groveport.
"Royal catchfly is a beautiful plant, not as prolific as the other species, but it can be found at Homestead, Prairie Oaks and Battelle," Kasnyik added.
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In addition to prairielands, wetlands and grasslands also are breeding grounds for summer wildflowers, Gardner noted.
"In the wetlands, spatterdock — which has large, kidney-shaped leaves with yellow flowers — is very common in marshes. Also, water lilies are blooming now, and water lotuses," he said.
Gardner's recommended wildflower-sighting sites include:
Bigelow Cemetery State Nature Preserve, 600 Rosedale Road, Irwin.
Glacier Ridge Metro Park, 9801 Hyland-Croy Road, Plain City.
Smith Cemetery State Nature Preserve, 4400 Boyd Road, Plain City.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Places to see summer wildflowers include Columbus metro parks
