As I peered out the truck window, scanning the sun-bathed hillside in hopes of spotting a bedded deer, a brilliant band of yellow came into view.
“Coltsfoot!” I exclaimed. “Look at all those flowers.”
Knowing me as well as he does, my friend Bill Carter was already pulling off the road before he asked, “Do you want to stop and photograph them?”
I did, of course, and minutes later I was crouched behind a camera and tripod to record images of the stunning yellow blooms now decorating the roadside. Anyone who knows much about our local wildflowers, however, might be wondering what all the fuss was about. Coltsfoot is not a rare species by any means, and in fact, it isn’t even native to Pennsylvania. And its bright yellow flowers resemble a smaller version of another non-native species, the pesky dandelion. Although rather than invading lawns as dandelions often do, coltsfoot tends to bloom in disturbed places and roadsides, such as along the Huntingdon County back road where I spied them last Wednesday.
But as common and otherwise unremarkable as coltsfoot may be, it does have the distinction of being the first wildflower in our area to offer a spot of color to the otherwise drab spring landscape. Technically, skunk cabbage is the first wildflower to bloom in our part of Pennsylvania, often sprouting through lingering patches snow as was the case this year. But its flower is a brownish spike surrounded by a hood-like leaf, not the conventional form of a flower in the eyes of most folks.
Coltsfoot derives its name from the shape of its leaves, which don’t appear until long after the flower itself blooms. In order to be such an early bloomer, the plant apparently devotes all its energy to flowering and then the formation of leaves. And like so many introduced species of plants that were brought to North America from the Old World, coltsfoot was once thought to have medicinal properties, in particular the ability to cure coughs.
Even though I have seen and photographed coltsfoot many times, I always regard the first ones I find each year as an official declaration of spring and can rarely resist the urge to photograph them, especially since it has probably been nearly six months since I have seen a wildflower in my viewfinder. And the ones I shot last week were undoubtedly the freshest ones I’ve ever found, having bloomed just a few hours before. I know that for certain because none of those blooms were there when we drove by earlier in the day; but on the return trip just four hours or so later, hundreds of yellow flowers decorated that same hill and roadside.
I think what I enjoy most about seeing the first yellow blooms of coltsfoot each year, however, is that I know they signify that many more of our beautiful and remarkable native wildflowers of early spring will be appearing in the days to come.
Spring beauty, Dutchman’s breeches, bloodroot, trout lilies and a host of different violets in shades of blue, white and yellow are just some of wonderful flowers that will brighten the hills and stream banks in our area. And after the long winter we just experienced, they will be a welcome sight again indeed.