One of the lovely blue flowers that bloom in April along the Cacapon's banks is the Virginia Bluebell. It is also known as Virginia-cowslip, Roanoke-bells, lungwort, and oysterleaf. When the plant first begins to break through the soil along the riverbank, it at first has a purplish cast, then later turns green. The blossoms are pink before they emerge, and turn beautiful shades of blue as they mature, then revert back to pink after pollination occurs. The flowers hang down from stems that are up to 2 feet tall. Immature or plants with unhealthy rhizomes sometimes have no stem at all but just one or two green leaves while the mature and healthy plants are blooming. The flowers are shaped like inverted funnels, and the mature plant often gets bent over with the weight of the blossoms as the stems straighten out when the flowers are at their peak of bloom. By the time the trees are fully fleshed out, there is little evidence save a few yellow leaves and stems that the bluebells were ever gracing the riparian soil where they had been so grand only a month before. The strategy of the flower is to be pollinated before there is a lot of competition for the insect pollinators, so they die off quickly as they become shaded.
They were once used to treat pulmonary disorders, hence the name lungwort, and if the foliage is eaten, it has the flavor of oysters, hence the name oysterleaf.
At our cabin in Largent, we can also see Dutchman's Breeches (in the bleeding heart family), spring beauties, trout lilies, violets, bloodroot (Easter candles) and quaker ladies at about the same time of year. The redbud, serviceberry(shadbush), and dogwood are making the woods a spectacular sight at about this time, and the round-lobed hepatica and harbinger of spring are finished blooming.
This wildflower is not in any danger of extinction, but its habitat can be greatly diminished by the thoughtless action of man. I have seen bulldozers and tractors ruin habitat in the moist woods and river valleys where this plant grows. I have seen people pour concrete slabs on their river frontage, forever ending the cycle for the plants under the slab. I have had people dig the flowers, root and all from my river bank, not realizing that the plant is likely to be doomed, since it will only thrive in the special alluvial soil of the river and creek boundary. It also requires neutral or acidic Ph, not typical of most flower gardens. At least the thief won't be back for more after the plant dies! Virginia bluebells are particularly abundant in the Potomac River watershed and along the Cacapon and Shenandoah rivers. One of the finest stands I've seen is along Town Creek in Allegany County Maryland. Here is a picture of a plant growing in my front yard.
