Hot Day, Cool River, More Mermaids

As predicted, a thick heavy heat slammed down on us today.  Lucky for me, my beautiful Hudson, with its clear cool water, green hills, blue shadows, was there to provide relief.

I slipped into quiet coves where the sun didn't reach, except for a few stray rays that lit up the brilliant colors of Cardinal Flowers and  Helenium.

I drifted around the little islands, where some of the maples had already started to turn the color of fire.

I had the river mostly all to myself, except for a few other boaters quietly moving across the water.

Red Osier Dogwood lined the shore of one of the trio of islands that lie a short distance from the boat launch site.

I pulled my canoe up onto an island's shore, to explore the wet shallows where many riverside plants can thrive despite daily inundation.

This patch of Marsh St. Johnswort was even more colorful gone to seed than it had been in summer bloom.

Swamp Candles (also known as Yellow Loosestrife) had traded its yellow flowers for bright-red bulbils growing in every axil.  The bulbils will eventually fall into the mud, there to start new plants.

Oh, look what  else I found today!  More Mermaid Weed!  And this was upstream from the patch of Mermaid Weed I had found last week.   As this photo reveals, this plant is so small it's not easy to spot, especially when it's hiding among other green plants like Northern Bugleweed and Dwarf St. Johnswort.  But now that I know what to look for, I wonder how often I will discover it growing along this river in the future.

Although there were many tiny plants of Mermaid Weed, only a few had matured enough to bear flowers, which by now had turned into the little fruits clinging to the stems.