Take a ‘walk on the wildflower side’ now in Harrison Hills and Roaring Run

A bounty of wildflowers in April is a good reason to get out there and find those lush patches of spring beauties.

Now through May is the time to see wildflowers in the Alle-Kiski Valley.

“The show is spectacular with trillium and the bluebells when they are concentrated,” said Deborah Sillman, an assistant professor of biology at Penn State New Kensington who has recorded and photographed about 150 wildflower varieties in Harrison Hills Park.

Sillman will lead a wildflower walk from 10 a.m. to noon on May 18 at Harrison Hills. For details, visit the park’s website.

Sillman has devoted a website to the flowers at Harrison Hills to help the public to identify the park’s many gems.

The best displays are the mounds of Virginia bluebells near the soccer field and the pond, , according to Sillman. And there’s a blanket of snowy trillium at Rock Furnace Trail off of the Roaring Run Trail in Kiski Township.

“The big showy ones are great, but, man — the little, subtle ones are so beautiful as well,” said Sillman.

Don’t miss the “spring beauty” flower, small white-pink flowers that are in bloom now.

“People miss them because they are little,” Sillman said.

Also out now is Jack-in-the-pulpit.

Go slow when searching for wildflowers, she recommended.

Don’t forget to check the ditches alongside roadways. Sillman, who is married to the retired Penn State biology Professor Bill Hamilton, wants to work with her husband on a project someday about “ditch plants.” She is the photographer for his local nature blog, the Ecologist’s Notebook.

“You see amazing wildflowers right there in the ditches, and people drive right past them,” she said.

Wildflowers can be found throughout the region and Sillman recommends that residents visit their favorite spots frequently as many varieties might only bloom for one day.