Butter and Eggs

This season in the Northeast is really unlike any Spring I have known. I usually see this flower in August and here it is the middle of May. It is not native. It originally came from the steppes of Europe and Asia during the  1700s with those who settled in the New World.  It is like the  Snap Dragon flower, you can pinch the base of the flower and the Dragons mouth will open. The flowers "mouth" is closed (if you aren't pinching it ) and it takes a strong bee to push into the flower to partake of the pollen and nectar. The orange part is what attracts the bees to this flower. I once heard that a scientist took the orange part off of this flower and placed it on a different kind of flower and the bees were attracted to the new flower where the orange parts were placed.

Where I found it : on the side of the road