Jack in the Pulpit

This is the time of year when the jack-in-the-pulpits pop up around here. This year is the best I remember seeing in a long time. There are dozens of them.

Jack in the Pulpit is an interesting plant. It doesn’t look much like anything else that grows around here. That’s because it’s pollinated by flies instead of by birds, bees, or the wind.

Later in the year, these will all have clusters of bright red berries.

Peter spent a lot of yesterday pulling up this stuff:

That’s Garlic Mustard. It’s a horrible invasive plant which we have everywhere. Yesterday was Garlic Mustard Day in Lexington. It’s a perfect time of year to hunt it down because it has those bright white flowers and the ground is still soft enough to easily get the root out. Hopefully Peter got enough of it to ensure that we get more interesting native plants like Jack in the Pulpit next year.