The seventh year of Bleeding Heartland’s wildflower series is kicking off later than planned. Early spring wildflowers typically would have come and gone in central Iowa by the beginning of May, but an extended cold spell in March and April pushed everything about a month behind schedule.

Follow me after the jump for a sampling of wildflowers you might see during the coming week along Iowa trails or in woodlands. I took all of the enclosed pictures within the past few days near my Windsor Heights home, except for the last photograph, taken last May in Dolliver Memorial State Park (Webster County).

Bloodroot often starts blooming by mid-March. Most years, its flowers would be long gone in central Iowa by now. But this past weekend, I found a plant still blooming (admittedly, past its prime).

Rue anemone is also one of the earliest wildflowers to appear in the spring. I saw the first blossoms about a week ago. Note the unusual foliage on these plants; the leaves are initially brown and will turn green before the flowering period ends.

On April 28, none of the Virginia bluebells were flowering near my home, but most plants had buds:

By May 1, many plants had open flowers. Here you can see the transition from pink buds to blue flowers.

Here the bluebells are living up to their name:

On April 28, I couldn’t find a single common blue violet blooming. A few days later, many were out, including the ones pictured here.

Near the top of the frame, you can see foliage for Virginia waterleaf, which will bloom in a few weeks. In the middle, the lighter green leaves of either sweet Cicely or aniseroot, which also will flower later this month.

On May 2 I finally found the first downy yellow violets blooming. Most years those would be plentiful in April.

I still have not seen any striped white violets.

The small yellow flower is a littleleaf or kidney-leaved buttercup, the first one I’ve seen blooming this year.

Toothwort plants are near the peak of their flowering period. You can see the buds here:

Some toothwort flowers are pink; others are pure white.

On April 28 I could not find any spring beauty plants blooming, just some with buds:

Three days later, many plants were in bloom, including these:

On April 28, I didn’t find any dogtooth violets (white trout lilies) blooming, but a few flowers were on the verge of opening.

Three days later, quite a few dogtooth violets were open. Note the stand of umbrella plants (May apples) in the background.

Most years, May apples (umbrella plants) start blooming well before May, but buds are only starting to be visible now. The plants with one leaf will not flower.

Buds are emerging between the two leaves on umbrella plants that will flower in a few weeks (click here to see what those will look like):

I haven’t seen wild ginger blooming yet, but my son noticed a few plants with buds below the leaves. (Crawling insects, not flying ones, pollinate wild ginger.) The dark red bud is inside the “V” formed by sticks.

The last photo for this week features swamp buttercup, also known as hispid buttercup. I took this picture last May in Dolliver Park. I haven’t been there yet this year, but I would bet swamp buttercup is now blooming there and in many wooded areas around Iowa.

MAY 3 UPDATE: Things are changing every day, thanks to warm temperatures and some recent rain. This morning a half-dozen bellwort plants were blooming. None of these flowers were out yesterday.