Orange Trail

Bill, Gil, and I walked around the Orange trail with clippers and loppers getting rid of the catbrier that was on or nearly on the trail.  Catbrier has done very well in the rainy spring.     The first photo is of Jewel Weed which I learned is a naturalist treatment for rash -- especially poison ivy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impatiens#Medicinal_uses_and_phytochemistry  uses the word "alleged" goes into some detail with reports of studies, pro and con.

On the Yellow Trail #  we saw a patch of ground pine (Lycopodium dendroideum). 

We saw  some of the "black stuff" which results from the fungi that grows on the "honeydew" of the beech blight aphid -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beech_blight_aphid -- We'll be watching for dancing aphids this fall.

A few yards upriver from the Spanish oak that fell across the creek during Hurricane Irene there was new fallen tree blocking the waterway.

CLICK HERE -- excellent photo of the fallen Spanish Oak -- right after Hurricane Irene

There are other Irene posts in August 2011

Jewel Weed

Dragon Fly

Ground Pine

The Spanish Oak that was taken down by Hurricane Irene is at the left -- the top half of that tree was removed so that canoes and kayaks can pass, but a branch extends down into the creek and holds therest of the trunk in place.  Center bottom is the horizontal  trunk of another fallen tree I'd not seen before. The foliage filling the right third of the picture is from a branch that sticks up vertically.   Are the leaves green because the tree is alive or because it recently fell?  In either case, the creek seems to be blocked.