On the west side of the W&OD bike path, just south of its intersection with Sunset Hills Road, is this tall white-flowering shrub. On closer inspection, though, the flowers turn out to have four rather than five petals, and the leaves are simple rather than compound, so this is neither a blackberry nor a rose.
Instead, it is a form of mockorange (
Philadelphus spp.). Given the prominent yellow anthers in the flowers, the lack of serration on the leaves, and the shape of the dried four-valved seed capsules visible in this image, this may very well be sweet mockorange (
P. coronarius, see this
Virginia Tech data sheet and this
Connecticut disquisition).
In the median between the W&OD bike path and the W&OD gravel path, immediately south of their intersection with Sunset Hills Road, is this inconspicuous plant with small four-petaled flowers. It is difficult to see in this image, but the leaves are sessile or even clasping. This appears to be a member of the mustard family (
Brassica spp.), of which only two species are listed by the Digital Atlas of Virginia Flora as occurring in Fairfax County, and since of those two
B. nigra has petiolate leaves, it appears that, by process of elimination, this is a turnip
(B. rapa, see this
Vanderbilt description). The spiny-appearing upward-pointing projections below the flowers, incidentally, are not leaves or bracts, but rather siliques, which are the characteristic fruits of the mustard family.
Hidden on the east side of the W&OD gravel path north of its intersection with Sunset Hills Road is this inconspicuous plant with blue six-petaled flowers. The leaves look all the world like grass leaves, which is reflected in the plant's name blue-eyed grass (
Sisyrinchium spp., see this
Wikipedia article), but this is not actually a grass, but rather a relative of the irises and lilies.
On the north side of the W&OD gravel path just east of its intersection with Michael Faraday Drive is a whole row of fleabanes (
Erigeron spp.) getting ready to bloom. Given that the ray flowers are white rather than pink, this could be either
E. annuus (see
Missouri description) or
E. strigosus (see
Missouri description).
This small ground-covering plant with its characteristic pinnately compound leaves with around 20 leaflets is ubiquitous along the W&OD path. This particular specimen on the north side of the bike path just west of its intersection with Isaac Newton Square has now started blooming. This is crown vetch (
Coronilla varia, see the
Missouri description), which is a member of the Fabaceae or Pea family, just like the black locust that has similarly-shaped leaves.
