Another tree that is blooming spectacularly right now is the black cherry (
Prunus serotina - see the
Virginia Tech fact sheet). This is a native cherry that grows much taller and blooms rather later than the imported Japanese ornamental varieties. This particular specimen is in the northwestern-most corner of the Charter Oak apartment complex.
Those little white dashes that could be seen in the overview picture? Each one is a panicle full of white five-petaled flowers.
Across North Shore Drive, on the southeastern corner of Temporary Road Park, are these ornamental viburnums, which are almost certainly doublefile viburnum (
Viburnum plicatum, see the
Virginia Tech fact sheet).
Looking closer at the flower clusters, one can see the large flowers along the outside of each cluster; these large ones are sterile - they lack pistils and stamens, and consist only of petals.
Just north of the intersection of Sycamore Valley Drive with North Shore Drive is this black locust (
Robinia pseudoacacia) tree, which allows me a better shot at the drooping white flower clusters than I was able to get day-before-yesterday.
At the edge of the basketball court on North Shore Drive near the border between the Sycamores apartment complex and the Ivy Square condo complex, I found this tiny yellow flower with a very distinctive leaf pattern - three heart-shaped leaves joined at their apex.
Here is another sample, from a meadow in the Charter Oak townhouse complex (this one also properly shows that the flower has five petals). This is a yellow woodsorrel (
Oxalis spp.), either common yellow woodsorrel
(Oxalis stricta, see this
Missouri description) or southern yellow woodsorrel
(Oxalis dillenii, see this
Missouri description). I am leaning toward believing it to be the latter, as the flowers do seem to be solitary rather than branched.
Just north of the entrance to the Charter Oak townhouse complex is this fringe tree (
Chionanthus virginicus, see the
Virginia Tech fact sheet). This appears to be a favorite ornamental of local transit agencies; one frequently sees them at Park-and-Ride and Metro station parking lots.
A somewhat closer look at the long stringy white petals which give the fringe tree its name.
Just north of the fringe tree is this ornamental viburnum, which, like the doublefile viburnum pictured earlier, has a ring of sterile flowers ringing the outside of each flower cluster, but which also has three-lobed rather than simple leaves. This appears to be highbush-cranberry (
Viburnum opulus var. americanum, see this
Vanderbilt description and the
Virginia Tech fact sheet). And yes, that is a honeysuckle at the very left of the image.
Finally, I found this small yellow flower (a bit bleached in flashlight) underneath the hollies on the walkway connecting the Charter Oak townhouse complex with the Charter Oak apartments. Note the prominent green sepals separating the five yellow petals, and the trifoliolate compound leaves with rounded serrations. I believe this may be mock strawberry (
Duchesnea indica, see this
Missouri description), which is closely related to the cinquefoils (
Potentilla spp.).
