Jaye Marie and Anita Dawes

While the quality of these photos are not my best due to low light conditions and the camera being handheld, I wanted to share the unusual flowering in our woods of Striped Wintergreen (Chimaphila maculata), also known as Pipissewa or Spotted Wintergreen.

The flowers have interesting double stamens, are sticky and fragrant, attracting insects and the above spider, which is probably looking for ants.

From the web: “Striped Wintergreen a native, evergreen, rhizomatous wildflower in the shinleaf family and is found in dry woods in the eastern US. The white midrib stripe on the dark green leaf is an identifying characteristic. During the summer fragrant white to pinkish flowers appear in small nodding clusters. It is considered endangered in some states.”