Flowers and Foolishness

 Piper has great patience with me when I stop and photograph things in which she has no interest. 

Things like sweet starflowers  showing bright green and white against the brown of last autumn's leaf duff interest her not at all, but I love their cheerful blossom faces with the long, bright yellow eyelashes. 

She also doesn't have any use for the pink lady slipper orchids which are a rare and special treat for me. 

Piper also didn't particularly care about this unusual specimen, which took me forever to look up and identify. Of course, I don't have any of my books at present, so I had to rely on online resources and these don't seem to be pretty enough to rank on the who's who of wildflowers lists. In case you, too, are unfamiliar with this strange and almost otherworldly plant, may I introduce you to Conopholis Americana, otherwise known as Bear Corn. If you look closely, those little spiny bits are actually tiny flowers. It's a parasitic, non-photosynthesizing plant that depends entirely on oak roots for its existence, though happily, it doesn't seem to harm the oak at all. I found it fascinating, but Piper remained unmoved. 

She does like to see what I'm doing, though, and frequently photobombs my pictures. That small black bear behind the trillium is Miss Piper coming in to check on my progress. :)