Mud Pond Meander

Here are some photos from a walk at Mud Pond, Moreau Lake State Park, on Sunday.  Trying to get ready for a trip to Maine, I don't have time to write the story right now, but I just want to put the photos up before I go.

See how low the water is at Mud Pond.  It's more like a puddle!  Note the beaver trails through the thick aquatic vegetation.

I'd hoped to walk around the pond next to the water, but the shoreline vegetation was so thick, I couldn't push through.

Especially since much of that vegetation was Arrow-leaved Tearthumb (Persicaria sagittata) with its sharp-prickled stems.  Some of its flowers were a pretty pink color, though.

So I opted instead to walk the powerline that runs across the top of the pond, a dry sandy area, with lots of sandplain plants, including the Little Bluestem Grass that colors the receding hills a tawny hue.

Dozens and dozens of Blue Curls plants (Trichostema dichotomum) grow right on the sandy trail.

The Blue Curls flowers -- aptly named! -- are very small and radiantly blue.

There's a thicket of Shining Sumac (Rhus copallinum) along the trail, and I was struck by how colorful its stems were.

Lots of Frostweed (Crocanthemum canadense) grows here, and I thought its little seedpods were rather pretty.

I even found one Frostweed plant with an open flower!

There's an area here, abutting the surrounding pine woods, that is carpeted with many mosses, clubmosses, and lichens.

Tiny White Pine seedlings emerge from a patch of Haircap moss (Polytrichum sp.).

The sporestalks of Running Clubmosss (Lycopodium clavatum) stand straight up from the spiky green plants.

On a nearby fallen log, I found numerous patches of this red-capped Cladonia lichen with the delightful common name of Lipstick Powderhorn.

Numerous plants of Rough Hawkweed (Hieracium scabrum) held these tawny puffs of seeds.

Here are two kinds of white berries with hot-pink pedicels:  this one is Panicled Dogwood (Cornus racemosa).  This is a woody shrub.

The white berries of White Baneberry (Actea pachypoda), an herbaceous wildflower,  are sometimes called "doll's eyes" because they resemble the porcelain eyes of old-fashioned dolls.