As a ground cover on the sun-receiving north side of the W&OD bike path one now frequently encounters this five-petaled white flower, which is associated with serrated three-lobed or trifoliate compound leaves. I believe this is dewberry (
Rubus flagellaris, see this
Virginia Tech fact sheet and this
Missouri description).
This plant forms long trailing or flat-lying vines which, as I verified by hand, have curved prickles along them.
Also bursting forth into flower all along the W&OD bike path now is the Amur honeysuckle (
Lonicera maackii, see the
Virginia Tech fact sheet), as seen here east of Michael Faraday Drive. For a view of the prolific berries of this plant in the fall, see this
earlier post.
This is a bush honeysuckle rather than a vine honeysuckle, so it is not Japanese honeysuckle (
L. japonica), and the petals are not evenly spaced around the flower, so this is not Morrow's honeysuckle (
L. morrowii). Instead, four of the petals are fused into an upper lobe, which is characteristic of the Amur honeysuckle.
Another invasive species blooming profusely right now is the winged burningbush (
Euonymus alatus), which has rather small, inconspicuous yellowish-green four-petaled flowers. It is far more noticeable in the fall, when its leaves turn a bright burning red, as seen in
this post from last fall.
On this particular specimen, which is a feral plant on the north side of the W&OD bike path east of Michael Faraday Drive, the wings of cork that give this species its name are also very noticeable, far more so than on the ornamental specimen in
this post. As this
very informative Ohio State article points out, the wings that are very distinctive in the wild-type have been largely bred out of the "compacta" cultivar that is most commonly used for ornamental plantings.
Meanwhile, poison ivy is not yet in bloom, although the developing flower buds can be clearly seen in this image from east of Michael Faraday Drive.
Finally, in the southwestern corner of the intersection of the W&OD bike path with Michael Faraday Drive is this hydrangea plant in full snowball bloom. The leaves are lobed, and thus it appears to be some form of oak-leaved hydrangea (
Hydrangea quercifolia), but the leaves are much smaller, and the flowers are blooming much earlier than those on the ornamental specimens near Plaza America featured in
this post from last fall. There are many cultivars of hydrangea bred by humans, and thus the specific identification is beyond my means right now.
Added by edit April 25, 2010: Oh, how embarassing! This is not a hydrangea at all, but rather a snowball bush cultivar of the European cranberrybush viburnum (
Viburnum opulus var. opulus, see the
Virginia Tech fact sheet and this
Missouri gardening site).
