As the days get longer and the ground and air warm up, our native plants begin to unfold. These first woodland flowers of spring are called “spring ephemerals,” and the Nature Center at Shaker Lakes is awash in them. In the early spring, our native trees have not leafed out, so ample sunlight reaches the forest floor. Spring ephemerals take full advantage of that sunlight to grow, flower, produce seeds, and go dormant all in the few short weeks before the trees shade them out.