Le Fer Hall
Back

From the Saint Mary-of-the-Woods Archives: Happy Spring! Wildflowers at The Woods

Blog | 03.20.2023

Happy Spring! One sign that spring is really here is the arrival of woodland wildflowers that grace Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College (SMWC). Many are as small as an inch or two tall, and it may take brushing away some winter leaves to find them. Some are blooming now, while others will appear in the next month. Often the blooms last only a week or two. We wanted to share their beauty via photographs from the Saint Mary-of-the-Woods Archives collections.

The photographs were taken by Reverend James Fanale, CSV, who was Director of Campus Ministry and Assistant Professor of English at SMWC from 1986 to 1990. Father Jim’s hobbies included photography. Over several years, he captured the variety and beauty of spring wildflowers on the campus. When he was reassigned in 1990, he gave his slides to the College library. He served as pastor of St. Anne Catholic Church in St. Anne, Illinois, and died there in 2020.

Enjoy his beautiful images of wildflowers at The Woods! If you’re on campus, look around and see what you can find: on North Campus, near the entrance to the Sisters’ Cemetery, the west ground entrance to Le Fer Hall, the Equine Center or other places not yet mowed.  And if you live in the northern United States, look for wildflowers that may be growing in your area. Those small flowers are nature’s beauty telling us that we’ve made it through another winter.

Bloodroot
Dutchman’s breeches
Mayapple
Golden ragwort
Jack in the pulpit
Spring beauty
Prairie trillium
Squirrel corn
Sweet William
Toothwort
Violet, white
Violet, Yellow
Spring cress
Trout lily, white
Trout lily, yellow
Waterleaf
Wild geranium
Wild ginger
Wild strawberry
Winter cress
Wood anemone

1 Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Nancy Kremer | 03.29.2023 at 8:13pm
The sight, sounds and smells of the Woods are magical! Because of the southern locale, the warmer days come earlier than you would expect and the wildflowers, as beautifully depicted by Fr Jim's photography, along with the wildlife's return are welcomed rites of Spring! I especially anticipated the fragrant lilacs, magnolias and the cherry blossoms, pink and white. Happy Spring!!