29. Rough-fruited Cinquefoil

Also called Sulphur Cinquefoil, Potentilla recta is part of the Rose Family of wildflowers. The pale yellow flower has five heart-shaped leaves and numerous stamens and pistils. Though considered a wildflower in England, here in the U.S. it is officially considered a noxious weed in several Western states. Found in dry fields, Rough-fruited Cinquefoil is ignored by cattle, which may have something to do with the lamentable label the flower holds.

28. Starflower

It's been a cold, wet spring here in New England.  I have several photographs of unidentified wildflowers I'm slowly trying to make my way through: I was pretty sure I knew the common name of this one, and, unlike several others I thought similarly about, I was right, for once.  Around here we have the Northern or Eastern Starflower (Trientalis borealis), whose beauty is hard to show with my camera.

The Starflower has seven petals that form the shape that gives the plant its name, and have lanceolate leaves arranged in a whorled pattern.  A woodland perennial, it is common to a large swath of the eastern and central portions of both the U.S. and Canada.

27. Eastern White Pine

Got out ye old camera and set up the tripod at the sliding glass door yesterday. Brrrrrrr. I tried to get everything set before I opened the door, but even then, we had a bit of wintry weather make its way indoors. I'll have to go out and see (by number and type of needles per cluster and tree shape, according to The Tree Identification Book I picked up at a local Audubon gift shop) if we have any other evergreen trees growing in our backyard.

The largest, most common New England conifer, Pinus strobus can reach one hundred or so feet in height (worrisome during wind- and icestorms--we had half of one come down this past December, but luckily it was well away from the house). Its branches are nearly horizontal, and the needles grow in bundles of five.