May 18 Wildflower Walk

The weather was nice,  the Wild Geraniums were in bloom; there were five people and one dog. We picked up the red trail at the parking lot (Ranunculus, Solomon Seal), hen  took Yellow Trails #12, #11, and #10 to see the Island (False Solomon Seal, Trillium, and May Apple), Pebble Run (Lesser Celandine is gone now) and the stepping stones down to the Dock.  The we went up the road (Money Plant) to the red trail (Wild Geraniums), back on the road behind Karen's house (Sweet Pea, Wild Azalea),  The labelled, commented photographic record of this walk, located on a  Picasa Album called  2013May18WildflowerWalk,  shows the other wildflowers seen on this walk.  I think I like this new system.  One or two photos for the blog, and the photographic record elsewhere.

Bill Brown, Judy Kruger, Mary Sharp, Karen Sannwald and Taco.
photo by Maggie Heineman, link to bigger photo

Wild Geraniums

Spring Creek Cleanup at Lumberton

-- email from Judy Norcross:

with rick, and a scout leader in a canoe and my friend karen and i in 2 kayaks, we inspected the local waterways and marshes for any trouble spots and were amazed at how well last year's cleanup has lasted.  i think i will need to revisit this in the fall to keep the waterways open. beavers are very happy in the rancocas and we saw about 6 lodges in a 2 mile area.  we also saw a beaver swimming into the marsh. the damage is quite minimal and should not cause worry. we are so fortunate to have this lovely resource.

Finally Spring.  

After two postponements the first wildflower walk of the season was April 6.
 In 2012 we saw  Bloodroot and Skunk Cabbage  a month earlier
http://medfordleasarboretum.blogspot.com/2012/03/march-17-wildflower-walk.html

This  year March was a  bust.  Only the Lesser Celendine came early.    There were five of us:  Anita Solomon, Karin Sanwald, Barbara Trought, Mary Chisholm-Zook and me (Maggie Heineman).    We started down the ramp near the theater, passed by the bridge to the "Island"  -- which wasn't an island - quite dry in fact.   Skunk Cabbage was starting, but not as abundant as it will become. It was young.  Later in the walk we did see some with the emerging dark red spathes which surround  the spherical flower heads, the spadix.   As expected we saw plenty of Lesser Celendine which are especially attractive in the stream bed of Pebble Run.  Bloodroot was in bloom.  Anita identified the bushes coming into bloom as Spice Bush, Lindera benzoin. It seems that we saw quite a bit of Trout Lily coming up-- not in bloom. Karin said it was Trout Lily and  I was skeptical because it was so abundant.  However,  looking at photos of Trout Lily leaves, Karin was  right.   Barbara spotted some Trillium - not in bloom. Mayflower was coming up, only about 4 inches high today. We saw a lot of something  with chrysanthemum-like leaves.  Not mugwort, I'm guessing that it was  Herb Robert (Geranium robertianum) which is another early invasive.  See photos in that March 17, 2012 post that is linked above. Not sure because there were no flowers.

 I didn't  take photos of the plants which we all could recognize.  Instead what follows are  the photos of plants-  not yet in bloom - which we were curious about,  These pictures are for Jane Bourquin and for anyone else who can tell us what we saw.  We followed the Red Trail and then took  the cut-off that leads to Meditation Garden where the Hellebore is in bloom (it's also in bloom at the Atrium.
Two lovely Magnolia Trees were in bloom in Court 2.  Neither Anita nor Mary had seen Court 7, so we stopped by there, and then again at Court 4 where Betsy Snope took the photo of our group.

With Spring Beauty coming into bloom soon, and maybe Trout Lilies, plus our various mystery plants, we decided we really must have another Wildflower walk this month.   It's not on the monthly calendar  but it will be on the weekly calendar.   Tuesday,  April 23 at 9:00.  Dog show at 11:00.

Barbara, Maggie, Anita, Mary, Karin and Taco

Internet photo of the  Skunk Cabbage's spherical spadix  with flowers, inside the leaf-like bract called a spathe
this is my favorite page about skunk cabbage:
http://natureinstitute.org/pub/ic/ic4/skunkcabbage.htm

Lots of Trout Lilies?  Note the mottled leaves 

Internet photo of Trout Lily - mottled leaves 

Mystery bulbs - leaves flat like Iris, snowdrops leaves are different. 

Red mystery plant

Spice Bush starting to bloom.  A nice page about spicebush
http://www.radfordpl.org/wildwood/today/Plant_Spp_pp/Spicebush.htm

Scouring Rush -- see the comment below this post.

Persimmons and More

This post, and the three that follow, describe the September 15  Rushmore Wildflowers Walk, which started with at Persimmon Grove and ended at the Pawpaw Patch.  In between we looked at the Sandy Run Ditch, which has volunteer wildflowers, and then Ro's garden, which has planted wildflowers.  Jane Bourquin and Ro Wilson led the walk and identified the plants.

Dick Webster, Ro Wilson, Karen Sannwald (with Taco her Chijuajua),  BJ Tetlow, and Peg Scott pose for photographer Maggie Heineman.  Jane Bourquin, wildflower and mushroom expert,  arrived a few moments later and the walk began.

Dick Webster with persimmons. The ones that had fallen to the ground were ripe and sweet.

Boneset

Goldenrod was in bloom.   Ragweed is bad. Goldenrod is good , but has a bad reputation because it blooms at the same time as Ragweed.

 

Wild Primrose has yellow flowers

 

Sandy Run Ditch

 A small swampy area near the Persimmon Grove provides the headwaters for Sandy Run.  First the water goes into a ditch that runs  parallel to the Rushmore road. The ditch then disappears where the water is channeled down to a culvert that runs under Medford Leas Way and then emerges as as a small creek, Sandy Run, which flows through the woods and eventually empties into the Rancocas Creek (between the Tulip Poplar Grove and Yellow Trail #7).   As the map shows, Sandy Run goes through two culverts and under three bridges between the Rushmore ditch and the Rancocas Creek. 

To some the ditch is full of weeds.  Others see it as an excellent habitat for wildflowers, birds, butterflies and insects.  

Mostly boneset and goldenrod

Jane's cane becomes a seat.

Ro and Jane with tricycle, car, and seat-cane. Wild cherry in the foreground.. 

Grasshopper

Mystery bush with pretty flowers and invaded by grape vine.
BJ and Herry Tetlow have since removed the vine from this lovely bush. 

Knotweed

Where the mower won't go
There the trees will grow

Wild Cherry

Lots of Ageratum

The bees don't have far to fly to reach a ditch of full of wildflowers. 

After filling one bag with ragweed, Maggie gave up.  About 80% of the ragweed is still there.

Ro's Garden

Ro doesn't like lawn.  
Ro doesn't approve of lawn. 
Ro doesn't have lawn.  
Ro has a wildflower garden that attracts bird, butterflies, visitors and rubber snakes. 

Ro's lawnless garden is wild and  full of good things.    It is a  wildflower garden for birds, butterflies and hummingbirds  in a postage stamp.   To be added: photos of the goldenrod and black coshoh-cincomfuga. (spelling? -- circumfuga?)

Fennel - a host plant for black swallowtail butterflies

(non-native) Lemongrass - with rubber snake

Night-blooming Jasmine
non-native, with a wonderful fragrance

A monarch chrysalis dangling from a leaf.

When caterpillars hatch, Ro saves them from predators by placing them in a terrariam with this screen top.  

She feeds them and eventually each one attaches to the screen and forms a chrysallis.  

Next to Ro's thumb is a catepillar (green and black) which has not yet formed its chrysallis. 

Paw Paw Patch

At Ro's instigation there will be a paw paw patch between Kriebel Trail and Ro's house.   There are several plants with this name, but undoubtedly the one Ro had planted is Asimina triloba, which is native to this area.  That Wikipedia page tells all about paw-paws, including this rhyme 

Pickin' up pawpaws, puttin' 'em in your pocketPickin' up pawpaws, puttin' 'em in your pocketPickin' up pawpaws, puttin' 'em in your pocketWay down yonder in the pawpaw patch

Wikipedia explains that  "picking up pawpaws" refers to gathering the ripe, fallen fruit from beneath the trees, and that the "pocket" in the song is that of an apron or similar tie-on pocket, not a modern pants or blue jeans pocket, into which pawpaws would hardly fit.A "pawpaw patch" refers to the plant's characteristic patch-forming clonal growth habit.

The six trees that Ro had planted are a few feet apart, but hey seem healthy and with the clonal growth habit, we can look forward to a real patch in the future. 

Ro with one of the paw paw trees

Large Canna grow along the back of Ro's home

Elevating the Birch - Thank you Davis

Around 1999 or 2000 seven River Birch were planted at the lower end of the Lumberton Meadow. they have grown large.  Four of them are planted in the lawn and have mulch at the base.  In this picture the tree in the distance, 2nd from the right , is one of those in-lawn-and-mulched trees.  those four in-lawn trees have been elevated over the years.  The  other three,  that were planted in the meadow,  are now surrounded by mugwort and they were never elevated. Each of them had dozens of small branches hanging down.  After the first round of spraying we received a request to cut the small branches of those 3 birch because they were keeping the sprayers from  getting at the mugwort.  This morning Davis Henderson lopped off those dozens of small branches.     The photo below shows the three birches that Davisy trimmed and the  piles of small branches.  The distant tree in the center of photo shows a dark area behind it -- that's another pile of cut branches.

 The photo above shows the three birches that Davisy rimmed and the  piles of small branches.  The distant tree in the center of photo shows a dark area behind it -- that's another pile of cut branches.

Clearing the Lumberton Canoe Dock

Judy Norcross, along with Judy and Conant Atwood have cleared the path to the Lumberton Dock.   It's always necessary to be mindful of tides here.

Cub Scout Visit