First of the Forest Flowers

Milk maids (Cardamine californica) are a kind of bittercress, or toothwort - they're in the mustard family. They spring early, and are common in shady woods. Some Cardamine species are garden pests and are hard to control because their prolific dehiscent fruits spew seeds efficiently. Milk maids quickly become so ubiquitous in the early spring you stop noticing them. But notice them, because they're interesting: the variation in flower color and leaf shape is wide - at least in this area where I was photographing. These photos were taken today by a forest road in the Juan Creek watershed north of Fort Bragg. They're all within a 10 meter radius of one another yet all so different. (Perhaps different variations, but I think they're all C. Californica.)

And now for a photography note - a demo of the beauty of depth of field in creating different effects with the same subject. The one of the left is shot at f/5.6 and the other is at f/11 (both at 135 mm). They're hand held and the light was low, so the second shot had to be taken at a higher ISO (from 125 up to 800). Anyway, my point is just that both are lovely images but the depth of field gives each shot its own personality. The shallower DOF photo on the left is pretty, and kind of dramatic, but the one on the right has more detail throughout, calling attention to the whole plant, not just the flowers. I couldn't decide which effect was important now, hence the side by side.

There were other early blooms today: salmonberry, violet, coltsfoot, manzanita, iris. But I'll save those for later....