by Leigh Macmillen Hayes
We often encourage you to maintain the vegetated buffer zone at your Maine Lakefront Property. But . . . do you know what the trees and plants are that make up the area between your house, camp or cottage and the water’s edge?

To that end, we want to share some of the spring ephemerals that you might see in your landscape.

Goldthread (Coptis groenlandica) is one of our favorites. The dainty white flower has five to seven petal-like sepals and grows separately from its three-lobed, scalloped-edged leaves. The shiny leaves remind us of cilantro and indeed, Native Americans made tea from this plant. The wiry yellow rootstock is the source for the plant’s common name.

Sessile-leaved Bellwort or Wild Oats (Uvularia sessilifolia) strikes us as being on the shy side. The delicate pale yellow, bell-shaped flower hangs below the horizontal stem, almost hiding from view. Sessile means the leaves are directly attached to the stem.

Painted Trillium (Trillium undulatum) is a white, three-petaled flower painted with crimson veins. These showy veins serve as a guide to pollinators. Let me show you the way . . .

Hobblebush (Viburnum alnifolium) gets its name because the shrub takes roots wherever the branches touch the ground, thus tripping hikers—one must hobble instead. The flat-topped flower head features a cluster of inner flowers with stamen and pistils, surrounded by larger, sterile white flowers.

Highbush Blueberries (Vaccinium corymbosum) is a plant you should become familiar with because so many grow along the edges of our lakes and ponds. Watch them mature into berries and then eat them raw or bake them in a pie.

Rhodora (Rhododenron canadense) is a strikingly beautiful lavender-colored flower. Its upper lip has three lobes, and the lower lip is divided into two petals. After such and explosion of color, once the flower stops blooming, the shrub fades into the landscape.
The Rhodora
by Ralph Waldo Emerson
On being asked, whence is the flower?
In May, when sea-winds pierced our solitudes,
I found the fresh Rhodora in the woods,
spreading its leafless blooms in a damp nook,
to please the desert and the sluggish brook.
The purple petals, fallen in the pool,
Made the black water with their beauty gay;
Here might the red-bird come his plumes to cool,
And court the flower that cheapens his array.
Rhodora! If the sages ask thee why
this charm is wasted on the earth and sky,
tell them, dear, that if eyes were made for seeing,
Then Beauty is its own excuse for being:
Why thou wert there, O rival of the rose!
I never thought to ask, I never knew:
But, in my simple ignorance, suppose
the self-same Power that brought me there brought you.
1834 [1839]
This is just a small inventory of the splendor that is blooming around your lakefront property. Look around—you may be surprised by what you spot.
To learn more about lakefront properties for sale on Bunganut Lake in Lyman, click on the green box above.
To learn more abut the lake and area, check out the blog links below.
Bunganut Lake and Shaker Pond are Sparkling Gems Near Historic Alfred, Maine
Must See Gems on Balch Lake in Newfield and Acton, Maine
Floral photo credit: Leigh Macmillen Hayes