Acadia National Park - Wildflowers

If you are in a wooded area of Acadia National Park, you are likely to find common, native woodland flowers, such as wild lily-of-the-valley (Maianthemum canadense), bunchberry (Cornus canadensis), goldthread (Coptis trifolia formerly C. groenlandica), bluebead lily (Clintonia borealis), and starflower (Trientalis borealis). Bunchberry is a member of the dogwood family and has dogwood-like white flowers in spring and red "bunchberries" later in the season. Notice the arcuate venation (arching veins) on its leaves, a hallmark of the dogwood family (Cornaceae).

Bluebead lily has a pale yellow flower in spring and later a striking blue, bead-like fruit that is poisonous. Goldthread gets its common name from its golden thread-like roots. You can take a peak at the gold threads without harm to the plant by carefully pulling the soil or moss away from the roots and then pushing it back. In August and September Acadia"s native wildflowers, the asters and goldenrods, both in the aster family (Asteraceae formerly named Compositae), are in full bloom. Their European relatives, daisies and black-eyed susans, are also in this family. Each "flower" is a composite made up of many disk and ray flowers.

Disk flowers are in the middle surrounded by ray flowers. Each "she loves me, she loves me not" petal is actually a complete flower (take a look with a hand lens). So what appears to be one aster or daisy flower is made up of many disk and ray flowers densely packed together. If you look very carefully at goldenrods you will see that they too are made up of tiny daisy-like "flowers".