Back Bay Beauty

Rainy, windy, and cold today. Brrrrr! The weather was much more pleasant on Monday, when I walked around the back bay of Moreau Lake. The Shadblow trees (Amelanchier sp.) overhanging the lake were not quite in bloom, but the dusty-pink buds were quite lovely in their own right.

 I was lucky to find a patch of Trailing Arbutus (Epigaea repens) that still had some fresh white blooms, although others in the patch were already fading. 

Probably my prettiest find of the day was a patch of a very small species of Haircap Moss (Polytrichum piliferum), its sperm cups crowded together in a colorful mass. This species has the common name of Bristly Haircap, suggested by the presence of fine white hairs at the end of each inrolled leaf.  When Haircap sperm cups mass together like this, they remind me of a carpet of tiny roses, sprinkled with the starry shapes of the leaves.