The jewel of the New England woodlands is the delicate lady slipper, a member of the orchid family that grows in wetland areas and gets its name from down-curving flowers that resemble women’s shoes. The translucent flower, found in pink, white, and yellow varieties, is notoriously difficult to transplant or grow, since it relies on companionable fungi in the soil for its nutrients. If you are lucky enough to see one in the wild, take care not to disturb it, since some species are endangered, and some are even illegal to pick in Massachusetts.

Much more common, if no less beloved by naturalists, is trillium, so called because of its distinctive three-petal flowers. The flower grows in many colors throughout the New England woods, including bright white, deep red, and the particularly beautiful painted trillium, which sports a magenta center tapering off to white edges. One of the first flowers to bloom in April is the bloodroot, which carpets the ground with clusters of white flowers.

As the season progresses, other wildflowers visible in the fields and meadows include the fuchsia-colored, anemone-like New England aster; orange clusters of wood poppy; wild bleeding heart; bright-red wild columbine with its distinctive tube-like flowers; and the ghostly sharp-lobed hepatica, which grows in deep woods and swamps and features eight blue-purple petals arranged around an explosion of fine white stamens.