BRDC wildflower walk.
April 17, 2011
Those attending were:
Lee and Smadar Chaffee,
Cathy and Ernie Wheeler, and Treton and Gabriel,
Scott and Debby Jackson-Ricketts.
Guides:
Cecelia Mathis and Carol Broderson.
The sunny Sunday after the raging storm of April 16 was high-season for spring wildflowers on Blue Ridge Discovery Center's first wildflower walk of the season. There were ten of us who shared our enthusiasm and curiosity in a free-flowing and lively exploration along a portion of the New River Trail State Park near Fries, Virginia.
As we walked the easy trail, we enjoyed a profusion of blooms and informally shared knowledge of edibility and medicinal uses, Latin names along with multiple common names, and other sites for some of the less common plants.
The first flowers observed were dandelions, whose uses are many. One of the participants talked about using the early leaves in salads and the golden heads to make wine. As we continued, we noted that the common blue violet, Viola sororia, is another plant with multiple food and medicinal uses. Other violets found along the trail were Viola canadensis, Canada violet, and a white violet, Viola blanda, or sweet white violet.
Dutchman's breeches and bloodroot were still blooming, and we were treated with early red fire pink and the first of the columbine flowers that often grew from crevices in the boulders that protruded from the hillside. There were also masses of early saxifrage, Saxifraga virginiencis, growing all along the rocks. We saw two species of chickweed and the two species of spring beauty, Claytonia virginica and the more distinctly petioled and colorful Claytonia caroliniana.
Two bright yellow blooms that one of the hikers scrambled down the hillside to photograph gave us the opportunity to discuss the plant's two common names, dogtooth violet and trout lily. We flipped through one of our wildflower books to discover that this speckled-leaf species, Erythronium americanum, a member of the Lily family, blooms near the beginning of trout season in many states. Consequently, trout lily is an apt name.
Cutleaf toothwort and yellow corydalis were common. The larger, purple-blooming form of the blue cohosh was standing tall on the side of the trail. The inconspicuous hooked buttercup was the only member of that varied family blooming on our walk. Ground ivy, garlic mustard, and pink to purple-blooming dead nettle were everywhere.
Even inconspicuous wildflowers did not escape us. For those willing to crawl on the ground, the bishop’s cap, Mitella diphylla, offered the sight of dainty, white blooms along its single stem. The fresh green leaves of wild ginger, Asarum canadense, hid the maroon flowers that peeped from the forest floor of dead leaves and moist soil.
A shady, damp hillside carpeted with the trillium known as wake robin led us into a discussion of this prominent, three-leafed, woodland wildflower. With the pollen intact, the blooms ranged from yellowish to mottled/stripped pink and the more numerous maroon burgundy. We debated whether these different hues of wake robins are different species. If you have thoughts or information on this issue, we invite you to leave comments below.
We examined the umbrella-shaped leaves of mayapples to find the buds that would soon open, and realized that blooms of Solomon’s seal, false Solomon's seal, and bellworts would also soon color the slopes above the old railroad bed.
If you enjoy wildflower explorations, please join our next walk on May 1 as we explore early spring in another part of the mountains. Write carol@ls.net for details.
Written by Carol Broderson and Cecelia Butler Mathis; photos by Scott Jackson-Ricketts
Exploring Grindstone
This forest chews lava, and exhales the whispers of glaciers...
Sipping from rock once fuming and flowing
Drawing from deep water pebble-pimpled silt,
Splitting muck-mired cobbles of glacial mowings
Benefacting cycles of rise and wilt...
This forest
chews
lava,
and
exha
les
the
whispers
of
gla
ciers...
-D. Floyd
On Sunday the 12th,
a mother, a father, and a son explored the forest at Grindstone Campground on the north side of Mount Rogers. We were there to 'see what we could see'. Our walk took us around the short Grindstone loop trail, the 'Whispering Waters nature trail'. As has been experienced in the past, the beauty is blinding and the diversity overwhelming. One passes through at least two distinct forest types and transitions from glacial lake deposits to lava flow remains.
The forest along the upper portion of the trail is truly unique, as it is dominated by linden, ash, and cucumber magnolia. The great number of seeps along the trail provide for excellent exploration and the make-up of the forest shifts around every corner!
Here's a small bit of what we saw:
Geology:
Rock type #1, near the beginning of the trail, is :
Konnarock Formation
;
Maroon diamictite, rhythmite, and arkose.
These are rocks that were deposited in habitats that included deep icy lakes and glacial activity. They are the silicified (fancy word for 'turned into rock') remains of muds, silts, pebbles and cobbles carried by glaciers. Interestingly, the stones seen in the silicified mud were dropped into that muck and consist of materials from formations nearby...ryholites, greenstones, and granites. This makes sense because the glaciers would have been eroding these materials from the land during that time...and, it was a landscape devoid of plants and animals!...mountains and valleys of pure rock, silt, and sand!
Rock type #2, as one heads up the trail the rocks change to:
Mount Rogers Formation;
Phenocryst-poor rhyolite.
These rocks are a dark purple, and are the results of lava flows! Mount Rogers, White Top, and Pond Mtn. (NC) form the core of what was a massive and explosive volcanic complex. These once towering volcanoes have seen a lot of erosion, and have even found themselves buried beneath miles of sediment at different points in the geologic past. But today, we are afforded a view of these ancient volcanoes. It is worth noting here that this rock known as "Rhyolite" is high in silica, and breaks kind of like glass (chonchoidal fracture). This made it a choice material for use in making spears, knives, and other tools during prehistoric times. Somewhere on these mountains hides ancient quarries used by Native Americans!
Primary source:
Virginia Division of Mineral Resources, 1993, Geologic Map of Virginia.
Trees and shrubs:
chestnut oak,
Quercus prinus
northern red oak
,
Quercus rubra
red maple,
Acer rubrum
sugar maple,
Acer saccharum
striped m
aple,
Acer pensylvanicum
black cherry,
Prunus serotina
yellow birch,
Betula alleghaniensis
black birch,
Betula lenta
American beech,
Fagus grandifolia
Fraser magnolia,
Magnolia fraseri
cucumber magnolia
,
Magnolia acuminata
witchhazel
,
Hamamelis virginiana
viburnum
sp.
yellow buckeye,
Aesculus flava
green ash,
Fraxinus pennsylvanica
white ash
,
Fraxinus americana
American linden,
Tilia americana
rhododendron
sp.
yellow poplar
,
Liriodendron tulipifera
eastern hemlock,
Tsuga canadensis
...and, maybe
Carolina Hemlock
,
Tsuga caroliniana
(need to revisit the site to verify)
Scientific name reference:
Two unidentified species of the Lycopodiaceae family.
Smaller plants:
ramps,
Allium tricoccum
white baneberry,
Actaea pachypoda
Solomon's seal,
Polygonatum sp.
false Solomon's seal,
Smilacina racemosa
Pipsissewa
,
Chimaphila maculata
Dutchmans pipe,
Aristolochia macrophylla
ground cedar,
Lycopodium sp.
clubmoss
,
Huperzia sp.
partridge Berry,
Mitchella repens
white snakeroot
,
Ageratina altissima
black cohosh,
Actaea racemosa (syn. Cimicifuga r.)
blue cohosh,
Caulophyllum thalictroides
yellow mandarin,
Disporum lanuginosum
jack in the pulpit
,
Arisaema triphyllum
Curtis's goldenrod
,
Solidago curtisii
**
Two aster species remain unidentified, see images below.
**Two Lycopodiaceae species remain unidentified. see image above.
My identification sources:
Newcomb's Wildflower Guide, by Lawrence Newcomb
On the way home
we could not resist stopping to take in a phenomenal meadow. Willows, hawthorns, alders, cinnamon ferns, golden rods, ironweeds, ladies' tresses and butterflies galore. This little boggy area is very close to Grindstone Campground and can be thoroughly enjoyed from the road. I suspect there are many locations in the Grayson highlands area that are similar to this one, as it is maintained as pasture.
2 Mystery Plants...Do you know?
1) Is this some kind of clubmoss? You said YES.
You have chimed in unanimously with:
Shining Clubmoss
(Huperzia lucidula)
2) Could this be a type of Aster?? : ???
Four very knowledgable individuals have chimed in on this one, and consensus was not reached. The two ID's offered were:
Oxeye Daisy (Chrysanthemum leucanthemum)
Robin’s Plantain (Erigeron pulchellus)
Do you have a guess? Or, is there not enough information in the photograph to allow for an accurate ID?
Detail:
Help with this ID!!!
What do you think these plants are?
***Please provide your best guess in the comments section below.
Snake plant flowers
It is hard to believe that anyone has not at some time had snake plants (Sansevieria) in their family households. The ability of this interesting but strange plant to survive almost any treatment made it popular around the world as a house plant. Unfortunately in warmer areas such as Florida they ended up planted outside and have caused considerable problems since they are highly invasive, especially in shaded forest locations where native plants are crowded out by the snake plant. Removing them is problematic since the roots break into small pieces and generate many new plants.
I have fought a running battle with snake plants in our Florida yard since a former owner got them started. So I always considered them a big pest with no redeeming qualities. However I have now recognized that the regular Winter-time blooms of these plants are actually quite interesting from an ecological perspective (see photo). A spike of white tubular flowers emits a powerful fragrance and is actually quite beautiful, if you can get past the bad-boy image of this species. I am always interested in predicting what might pollinate specific flowers, based on flower color, shape and smell. I found out that this plant originated most likely from Western Africa but have not yet found out what pollinates it in its native habitat. However the white tubular flowers with a strong odor indicate pollination by a night-flying moth with a long tongue, possibly a sphinx/hawk moth whose larvae are often called horn worms.
I did find one article that determined that the primary sugar in the nectar of the common snake plant is sucrose, and predicted that this in conjunction with the flower structure would attract mainly sphinx moths. Note also that the authors found extra-floral sources of nectar and surmised these might satisfy creatures such as ants that might otherwise steal the flower nectar and limit the plant's ability to reproduce:
http://aob.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/58/4/541
So look around you with a renewed interest in plants and animals that you might have dismissed as unworthy of notice, and you may find unsuspected beauty and interest among the "bad boys" of the natural world.
Bill DunsonEnglewood,
FL & Galax, VA
Black-and-White Warbler, Wildwood Park
For the past four Sunday mornings (including early yesterday), I have walked through Wildwood Park in Radford. I have been conducting an informal census of birds just to see how several woodland species are faring there.
Yesterday I enjoyed hearing a Black-and-White Warbler singing near the creek. It is one of the few warblers I have heard in Wildwood since the end of spring migration. The others are one Louisiana Waterthrush offering a few chip notes near the south bridge, and a Common Yellowthroat singing. The yellowthroat may have been a migrant.
I hope the Black-and-White Warbler has a family in the woods.
Other birds in the park yesterday: Acadian Flycatchers (two holding territories along the creek), four phoebes (at least three nests, one of the phoebes took a moth to a nest under the north bridge), two Great Crested Flycatchers, several Red-eyed Vireos, two Wood Thrushes, two Indigo Buntings, some towhees.
I watched for several minutes to see if any birds would feast on the ripe serviceberries on several trees in the park. I saw none eating the berries. So I gathered a few berries that were super sweet and delicious.
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When you post, be sure to put a few search words in the "labels for this post" section at the bottom of the post creation page. For example, in the prior mushroom post, I typed in "mushrooms"...so now you can enter mushrooms in the search box on the blog home page and quickly find all pictures of mushrooms.
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Best to all.