I'M GREEN....

 

     It begins like the lyrics of a well-known song written by Agnieszka Osiecka - but unfortunately that's not what I'm going to write about today.

 

Our colleague Wojciech, already known  from the post - SPRING ON THE NYSA KŁODZKA RIVER - recently told us about an interesting plant that rarely occurs in the wild in Poland - the green hellebore (Helleborus viridis).

Green hellebore

The matter with this hellebore is not simple. In one study I read that it is a neophyte (a plant species of foreign origin), not belonging to the native flora, which has settled here in recent times, but in another that it is an extremely rare species occurring only in a few places in Poland - so I don't know.

 

We are lucky that the largest amounts occur in the Kaczawskie Mountains in the Ochotnica stream valley. Since it's relatively close, Asia and I, together with the professors - Gosia and Andrzej - decided to go to the indicated place.

We arrived. There is no special parking lot, but parking is not a problem.

First, our attention was drawn to a Conciliation cross, also known as roadside cross standing by a ditch. 

Off topic but worth noting.

After walking about 100 m we enter the forest. 

 

Quite quickly above the meandering stream we come across fields of spring snowflakes and the green hellebores we were looking for, and all around us, in the air was rising up the smell of… garlic??! 

 

Yes, yes - garlic. The culprit is none other than wild garlic (Allium ursinum) whose leaves

 (still small, yet) cover the entire area. When it starts to bloom, then things will really happen….

Spring snowflakes and green hellebores

After finding the first hellebore, we noticed more and more with each step. 

It turned out that in this location, hellebore with snowflake reigns supreme - wilds garlic will have its chence soon.

 

So we spread out in search of good shots.

From left: Asia and Gosia

Andrzej

Asia taking her first steps in photography

Gosia

The plants are beautiful. I had never seen them before (even though they are common in gardens - I don't have a garden) so it shouldn't be surprising that they immediately aroused my admiration. Large, green flowers - a rare color - surrounded by leaves similar to ... strawberries - at least that was my first impression.

Anyway, take a look for yourself.

After some time, during a walk, Asia - my wife - found another color variety of hellebore, which was a bit of a change from the green flowers.

Below in pink-red.

The area itself has great photographic potential. 

In addition to the plants already mentioned, anemones, lungworts, Gagea lutea, known as the yellow star-of-Bethlehem -  are slowly starting to appear, speedwells are blooming, and I was reading that there were also common hepatica, yellow anemones, and common toothwort (a parasite, but interesting).

Anemon

Lungwort

Gagea lutea

Speedwell

Hellebore and snowflake accompanied by a charming ladybug

The snowflakes looked interesting through the "window" created by the flowers of the pink-red hellebore.

 

I mean, I liked it 😃

At the end, sitting in this greenery, I imagined Shrek (to tell you the truth, I look a bit like Shrek myself) in the scene: - green Shrek, giving green flowers to his beloved green Fiona…

Oh my! Where are these thoughts coming from !????? 😳😱

Photo: Marek Czubaszek

PS - we will repeat the trip soon