Native groundcovers

The Virginia native ground covers are starting to fill in under the mountain laurels.

From TTH20100531

The big round leaves are wild ginger, Asarum canadense. The mounds of pointy leaved plants (word of the day: acuminate = pointy leaved) are Virginia snakeroot, Aristolochia serpentaria. It is the larval host plant for the Pipevine swallowtail butterfly. I have only been found by Pipevine swallowtails once, two years ago. My little neighbor girls discovered the caterpillars and were thrilled. I sent one of them off to school with the cat in a jar and the butterfly book to show her class. She told me the caterpillar spun a cocoon while in her care. I never heard its ultimate fate.