Great Lakes region, USA. April 2026.

This may be cheating the system a bit. This is a wildflower, but non-native to my area. Crocus can be found wild in Africa and Eurasia. I only include it here because the birds must have eaten the seeds and spread it wide because I found it sprouting everywhere. I saw nothing I would consider planted by humans. Anyway, this flower is among the first to bloom. It’s exciting to see any color other than dull green, brown, and gray this early in the season. The early pollinators were all over it.