A cluster of Cherry Birch (Betula lenta) seeds, like flat, little, open cone scales. Snow, branches, shadows, pines in the background.

Dried milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) seed pods, open on straight stalls, with wispy, wilted, dry grasses in a snowy meadow in the Helderberg Hilltowns of NY

Skunk Cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus) shoots which had melted their way through the snow in the woods, by a stream. They are deep under the snow that followed, ready to grow when it melts.

Red and Scarlett Oak (Quercus rubra and Q. coccinea) leaves lining a shallow woodland snowmelt stream in MA

Winter life in waiting (Cherry Birch seeds),
waiting underground (Common Milkweed),
bursting forth from the snow (Skunk Cabbage),
Breaking down and flowing back into the soil (Red and Scarlett Oak leaves, water)

#winter #nature #forest #meadow #nativeplants #ecoregion59 #ecoregion58