Besides the showy ornamentals, such as cherries, pears, and magnolias, there are also many more subtle wonders of nature right now. For example, all up and down the W&OD trail the sassafras trees (
Sassafras albidum, see the
Virginia Tech fact sheet) are blooming, as in this spectacular example just west of the intersection of the W&OD trail with Michael Faraday Drive.
I did not get a good direct shot of the blossoms, but in this image one gets a sense that the sassafras bloom consists of many tiny six-rayed flowers clumped together in yellowish-green balls.
Meanwhile, in the weedy undergrowth on both sides of the W&OD trail, the devil's walking stick (
Aralia spinosa, see the
Virginia Tech fact sheet) is busily sprouting. As
this post from last fall shows, this plant turns into a quite large shrub. But over the winter most of the year's growth breaks off and decays, leaving a single stick-like stem with the scars from previous years ringed in fierce thorns. In late winter these form forbidding thickets of spiky stems, but over the past couple of weeks green buds have formed on the top of each stick, and these have now opened to reveal this year's growth starting to unfold.
In the southeastern corner of the intersection of the W&OD bike trail with Isaac Newton Square is this beautiful weeping or Higan cherry (
Prunus subhirtella, see the
Virginia Tech fact sheet) draped over some bike lockers.
This close-up of the blossoms shows the five-fold symmetry, yellow stigma, and reddish calyx as well as the pronounced horizontal lenticels on the stems that clearly identify this as a cherry.
Also quite noticeable now along the W&OD trail and throughout Reston is that the tulip tree (
Liriodendron tulipifera) is beginning to leaf out. Four weeks ago, as shown in
this posting, branches were bare, graced only with the dried husks of the fruit structures. Those structures are still present, as can be seen in today's picture, but surrounding them now are new young leaves with their characteristic four lobes.
Finally, on the W&OD trail adjoining the Fannie Mae gardens just east of Old Reston Avenue is this magnolia, which I had earlier shown in its bud stage in
this posting. The white-blooming tree in the left background is a feral Bradford pear (
Pyrus calleryana), while the dull gray-green bush in the right background is the equally invasive autumn olive (
Elaeagnus umbellata), which dominates the undergrowth along large stretches of the W&OD trail.
In my earlier posting I had supposed, based purely on the bud, that this might be a Japanese or saucer magnolia. But it clearly is a star magnolia (
Magnolia stellata, see the
Virginia Tech fact sheet) instead. For a much larger star magnolia, see
this posting from a week ago.
