Winterlinge!

Among the many floral sites around Jena (including a variety of wild orchids), is the early spring appearance of the Winterlinge. From what I can tell online, these are known as winter aconites in English, though I don't recall ever hearing the word or seeing the plant in Canada. They can be grown in hardiness zones 4-8, so it's not that it's too cold anywhere that we've lived in Canada, but they're just not that common. Here, they're everywhere - in gardens, planted in the grass like crocuses, and, most notably, covering the forest floor in some areas around Jena.

Last February after I'd arrived in Jena I heard about these flowers, and decided that I wanted to go try to find them in the woods. I set out with Anna, a PhD student at my institute, and we rode up to Rautal, a forested hillside, where they were purported to be. Unfortunately we couldn't find any. Figuring that we were just too late in the season and had missed them, we vowed to try again the next year.

And so I found myself riding up this giant mountain with super-fit Anna, trying my best not to collapse at the side of the road. Unlike last year, I made it to the top without stopping for breath (woohoo!), and we headed into the forest. This forest, like most forests that I've seen in Germany, is far from wild. In addition to being basically a monoculture (beech, in this case), it's also criss-crossed with paths, and they maintain it by carting away any trees or branches that fall, so that the forest looks tidy. Still, it is a nice place, and has a lovely little stream (the Steinbach, literally the stone brook) running through and carving up the limestone.

At first we were beginning to worry that we'd missed them again, as the forest looked exactly the same as last year, with no little yellow flowers to be seen, but we just kept walking. The area isn't so big, maybe 2-3 square kilometers, so we figured that we had to find them eventually. And then, as we were coming around another bend, we were able to make them out in the distance... And suddenly there were little yellow flowers everywhere!

Complete with an interpretive sign!


Here you can see them up close. They look a bit like buttercups, to which they're related.
And it wasn't only Winterlinge either. Here you can see a few snowdrops poking out in between.
This is a terrible picture of Anna, but I thought I should put in at least one of her...And this isn't actually a picture of the Winterlinge, but I thought that the roots of this tree at the edge of the path warranted a picture as well. Just left of the centre (a bit hard to see) there's even a small tree growing up from the roots.
The only thing that took away from the flowers was the weather. Though not raining, it was quite cloudy, and as such the flowers weren't fully opened. I might have to bring Jeremi back there on the weekend with me if it's sunny. (I shouldn't have mentioned to him how bad the hill is!) At some point we'll put up some other pictures of flowers around town. The crocuses and snowdrops have already been out for a while, and the daffodils are ready to burst any day now. There are a few bushes blooming as well, including one with pink flowers that started in December. We really didn't realize that the winters in Europe were so warm. It seems that Canada may have the reputation as the land of ice and snow for a reason...