White clover (
Trifolium repens, see this
Missouri description and this
Virginia Tech weed guide) is in bloom across Reston now. This particular clump is in front of the Exxon station at the intersection of Wiehle Avenue and Isaac Newton Square.
Also very prominent now alongside paths and in unmown areas is this relatively tall grass with distinctive thick seedheads that form a triangular plane. This particular sample is on the east side of Wiehle Avenue just north of its intersection with the W&OD bike path. Also highlighted by the low sun in this image are some smaller grasses of a different species that I have not yet been able to identify, but which may be a form of
Poa spp.
Here is another specimen from further south along the W&OD bike path. It is a bit farther along in its development, with anthers now protruding from the seedheads. I believe this grass is orchard grass (
Dactylis glomerata); compare this
Missouri description and this
Wikipedia article.
On either side of the W&OD bike path, as here just east of Michael Faraday Drive, large thickets of blackberries (
Rubus spp.) are now in bloom.
Not all flowers on a cane bloom at the same time (some of the flowers in this image have already lost their petals); if they did, this would be even more spectacular. Note that complete flowers have five relatively large elongated petals, and the leaves generally are composed of three leaflets. This may be southern or sawtooth blackberry (
R. argutus, see this
Virginia Tech fact sheet, this
Duke description, and this
Missouri description).
At the same time, there is another thicket-forming shrub that is at the peak of bloom, as here on the north side of the W&OD bike path just east of Michael Faraday Drive. This is the multiflora rose (
Rosa multiflora), a highly invasive species (see this
Virginia Tech fact sheet and this
National Park Service indictment). For an image from last October of the red berries born by the multiflora rose, see
this post.
A close-up of the multiflora rose. Unlike with the blackberries, all of the flowers on the rose are blooming at the same time. Also, the white petals are a bit wider and less elongated, and the flowers have prominent clusters of yellow stamens at their center, unlike the blackberry flowers. Finally, the leaves have 7 to 9 rather smaller leaflets. Thus, even though both the multiflora rose and the blackberry belong to the Rosaceae family (along with cherries, pears and apples), they are easily distinguishable.
This grape vine (
Vitis spp.), on the west side of the W&OD bike path just south of Sunset Hills Road, is now also in bloom, albeit very inconspicuously.
