are these all the same plant? or 3 different plants
May 2, 2020
Walking along a short section of the Bay Circuit trail I noticed lots of small green plants coming up at the trail's edge. I focused on the most abundant sorts. There were alot of simple, oval and green leaves with a point at the end of a simple round stem coming up. I saw some leaves that were unrolling as they came up out of the ground, other plants had full leaves at the end of a stalk with the leaf folded back. I also saw small plants with 2 leaves facing each other and in the middle was a short stalk with a tiny green fluorescence/flower. As I passed these I wondered if they were different stages of growth of the same plant or all different species of plants. I periodically stopped to take a closer look. The almost unrolled leaves and leaves which were full and bending backwards were at the end of simple smooth stems with no other leaves or buds. The flowering plants had 2 leaves. One leaf was terminal (at the end of the stem) with the flower at it's base and the second leaf started lower on the stem. I was pretty sure the first 2 types of plants were different stages of the same plant, but not as sure about the flowering plant. Then I found a small plant with an unfurled leaf, thickened at the base of the leaf and close to the ground on the opposite side of the stem I noticed a small triangular shape that seemed like the start of a leaf. This seemed to be the missing link and I have concluded these particular small plants are the same plant at different stages of growth. They are all Canada Mayflower (Maianthemum canadense), a native flower.
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I've noticed this spring that plants I thought were different plants were actually just different stages of the same plant, and I love that you have come to the same conclusion. Your description of the leaves and stem are great, you can tell you were really looking closely and taking in the details as you did your detective work!
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