If you’re a fan of wildflowers, you’ll find lots to love at Shenandoah National Park – home to more than 850 flowering plants. On Saturday, May 14th the park will celebrate wildflower weekend with hikes and programs.
There is a charge to enter the park, but once you’re in, there are priceless tours for free. Naturalists like Ranger Mara might tell you about the common violet – which also comes in white and yellow, each bloom offering its own runway for tiny bees.
“Violets have what are called nectar guides. These are dark lines on the petals that direct the pollinator – the bee or whatever is going to pollinate it – right to that sweet spot right in the middle," she explains.
The tour guide could also point-out Jack-in-the-pulpet, a plant that decides each spring whether it will be male or female . If the soil is good, it’ll be a Jill.
“It takes more nutrients to make seeds than it does to make pollen,” she says.
And there’s the secretive wild ginger plant, with its flowers tucked low to the ground – often invisible to passers-by.
“Little insects that are under that leaf litter will crawl in there, looking for something to eat, and get pollen on their bodies, come out and pollinate the flowers.”
The root of the plant is spicy – hence the name wild ginger, but rangers warn that it’s illegal to remove any plants or flowers from a national park.
