This rule holds as well for our forest preserves today as it did in his England of four centuries ago. After wave of wildflowers come into bloom, brighten the landscape and wane from early spring until the killing frosts of autumn. The first big surge of blossoms is in the rich moist woodlands. After the trees have leafed out, a second crop of taller broad-leafed flowers overshadow the early spring forest bloomers. Thus the parade of color marches past, ending with broad bands of gold and purple on the prairies in late summer, and masses of white snakeroot and blue bellflower in the autumn woods.
Flowers bloom first in the woodlands because they get an early start.
Under an insulating blanket of fallen leaves and leaf mold forest soils freeze but little, even in the most severe winters. As the days lengthen in spring the ground warms beneath the leafless trees and the early flowering plants push up. They pop up quickly because, unlike later flowers, they can draw on food stored the year before in bulbs, tubers, fleshy roots and rootstocks. These contain starches and sugars which are literally bottled sunshine for a growing plant. It is characteristic of these abundant flowers of the spring woods that they bloom, make seed, replenish their underground stores of plant food, then wither, soon after the trees come into full leaf and shade them.