There are two more flowers in bloom in my neighborhood, though I haven’t found examples yet along Piney Woods Church Road. The first is the Slender Ladies’ Tresses Orchid (Spiranthes lacera), which has been appearing in my front lawn for the past several years. I do the best I can to mow around them when I see them; typically, there are half a dozen of them scattered across my yard. Then, just across the road from my house, beside Rico Road and in the shade of a forest edge, I saw a single blossom of what I am nearly certain is the Carolina Wild Petunia (Ruellia carolinensis). This lovely flower looked like it had escaped from somebody’s garden. However, if my ID is correct, it is actually a wildflower native to much of the Southeast.
