Golden Carpets

     Daffodil and forsythia flowers are yellow and common on many lawns in the United States, including here in southeastern Pennsylvania during April and May.  But look beyond those two kinds of cultivated plants and see many species of adaptable and abundant wild vegetation, many of them originally from Europe, bearing lovely, golden blooms in those same two months.  Those plants are, in arbitrary order of blooming, lesser celandines on moist, woodland floors along creeks.  Dandelions and field mustards that grow and bloom on lawns, fields and roadsides.  Colt's foot, trout lilies and yellow violets that sprout golden blossoms on woodland floors.  And celandines that occupy some roadsides and buttercups that carpet meadows with gold.  All these plants, except native trout lily and yellow violets, have long ago adapted to human activities and habitats in Eurasia, making them immediately successful when arriving in North America.
     The beautiful yellow blooms of these flowering plants bring cheer and inspiration to viewers.  And that bright color is highlighted and enhanced by lush grass and other green vegetation the blossoms grow among.
     Fuzzy bee flies and other kinds of active-early bees and flies pollinate many of these flowers.  Bee flies are restricted to deciduous woods where they are quite interesting in themselves. 
     Having golden, glossy blooms, lesser celandines are members of the buttercup family.  This alien species forms large, yellow carpets on moist, bottomland woods along creeks and streams.  And the striking blossoms of this lush, prostrate plant is enhanced by the blue flowers of grape hyacinths and blue violets. 
     Like American robins and American crows, dandelions are known by most everyone.  This alien grows in abundance on lawns, pastures, fields and roadsides.  Its yellow flowers are a bit more than an inch across and those blooms are enhanced on many lawns by the pretty, blue blossoms of blue violets.  Mice and a variety of sparrows, finches and other seed-eating birds eat dandelion seeds, while wood chucks and cottontail rabbits consume the leaves, blooms and flower stems.  Dandelion seeds are scattered on the wind by the fluff each one grows for that purpose.
     Field mustards, also aliens, are the only tall plants in this grouping.  Growing and blooming along roadsides and in fields, its pale-yellow flowers are small, but grow in clusters, making this species obvious, especially in fields of dark-green rye plants.
     Alien colt's foot and native trout lilies and yellow violets all have yellow blossoms, but there their similarities end.  Interestingly, colt's foot grows only along roads in woodlands.  Perhaps it has adapted to disturbed soil where it's rewarded with a bit more sunlight. 
     Colt's foot flowers grow first, followed by their rounded leaves like a horse's hoof when the blooms go to seed.  Colt's foot seeds each have a little fluff that carry it away on the wind.    
     Trout lilies carpet many bottomland woods with their oblong, dappled, prostrate leaves and their single bloom per plant.  The flowers of this species is one of the favorites of bee flies. 
     Yellow violets, however, grow in little clumps and are not restricted to bottomland woods.  White-tailed deer, wood chucks and cottontail rabbits in this area ingest violet leaves as part of their diets.
     Celandines are the largest of these plants.  They have big leaves and blooms about a half-inch across.  But this alien species is mostly restricted to roadsides in rural areas. 
     Like lesser celandines and dandelions, common buttercups are aliens in North America, and all three species blanket whole patches of ground with their yellow flowers.  But while lesser celandines bloom mostly in riparian woods in the beginning of April and dandelions blossom mostly on lawns during the second half of April, buttercups flower largely in pastures by the second week in May.  Buttercups are another striking flower in abundance that bring awe and inspiration to human souls.  Like dandelions in particular, they seem to be everywhere the habitat is right for them.
     Get out each spring to see some of these flowering plants with the beautifully golden blossoms.  They, like most of nature, are heart-warming and intriguing.