Across Spier Falls Road, even the parking area for one of Moreau Lake State Park's most popular trails was empty on this cool rainy day. Instead of taking the trail, however, I pushed through the dripping trailside shrubs to follow the sound of rushing water as it tumbled down the mountainside over lichen-covered rocks.
A large patch of Foamflower was lifting bud-clustered flower stalks at the foot of a mossy boulder.
I found these new growths on a Witch Hazel twig as pretty as any flower, but I believe they are instead the early stage of the shrub's seed capsules, emerging from the bracts of last fall's flowers.
Continuing downstream along Spier Falls Road, I noticed these flowering branches protruding from a steep rocky bank. Even from a distance, these flowers were noticeably different from those of the many Shadblow trees now blooming in the mountainside woods. With considerable difficulty, I hauled myself up the steep bank to take a closer look.
How pretty these flowers were, the buds and even the open blooms touched with pink! Could they be apple blossoms? It seemed a bit early for apple blossoms, though.
A much closer look revealed that they couldn't be apple blossoms. I could detect but a single pale-green pistil at the center of the ring of yellow-tipped stamens, and apple blossoms have multiple pistils, just as the fruits have multiple seeds. That single pistil indicated that this was a stone-fruit blossom, a member of the Prunus genus. But which stone fruit would these blossoms yield? Cherries, plums, peaches, or apricots?
Lucky for me, I know who to turn to when I have a plant ID question. Steve Young, chief botanist with the NewYork Natural Heritage Program, suggested that this is Armenian Apricot (Prunus armeniaca), noting the sessile flowers. He informed me that among the Prunus species, only peaches and apricots have sessile flowers, and peach blossoms are much pinker. Well, what do you know? An APRICOT growing wild out of a stony bank! Obviously, not a native tree. I wonder how it got here. Did some passer-by toss an apricot pit up on this bank? Amazing that this little tree has survived our frigid winters!
Steve also informed me that, since the state has no official record of Prunus armeniaca, perhaps I might collect a specimen of the flowers now, then return to obtain specimens of both leaves and fruits later as they occur. Yes, I could do that. So I returned to the site on Saturday and obtained a flowering branch, which I will now press and dry. And while I was there, I decided to look around to see if any more of these apricot trees were growing in the surrounding area. Now that the tree is in bloom, it should be very easy to find it among the surrounding vegetation.
And so it was! All I had to do was lift my eyes, and there I saw several more small trees bearing pinkish-white blooms scattered about the mountainside. My problem was how to reach them in order to closely examine the blooms. The cliffs are quite steep at this site. But those cliffs were quarried way back in the early 1900s to obtain rock for building the Spier Falls Dam just across the road. Perhaps I could find a way to ascend the cliffs from within the quarry.
I pushed through a tangle of bittersweet vines to make my way to the quarry, and as soon as I entered this space of massive jumbled boulders, I spied this small white-flowered tree close to one of the spring-dampened quarry walls.
This tree also held its blossoms sessile to the twigs.
A closer look revealed the presence of a single pale-green pistil. I sent these photos to Steve again, and he answered that this looks like another Armenian Apricot.
After scaling the quarry walls, I found three more similar flowering trees in the woods above the quarry. I hope now to return when the trees bear fruit, not just to (possibly) enjoy a tree-ripened apricot, but also to confirm our botanical suspicions that these really are the species we think they are. But how such a number of Armenian Apricot trees came to inhabit this site will probably remain an unsolvable mystery.
UPDATE: My botanical-expert friends are still pondering this Prunus, now considering the possibility that this is a Nanking Cherry (P. tomentosa) and not an Armenian Apricot, after observing the hairiness of the twigs and other distinguishing factors. One thing is sure, I will be eager to see these trees in fruit, whether apricot or cherry. And I've read that Nanking cherries are particularly delicious!
The sheer rock walls of the quarry are constantly dampened by dripping springs, creating a remarkable habitat for many different mosses and other plants.
Spring-dampened rocky ledges like this are a favored habitat for Early Saxifrage, which was just beginning to open its crowded clusters of small white blooms.
Remnants of the human history of this site can also be found here. Exactly what these concrete and iron-piped structures were used for back in the early 1900s I cannot say. But I have seen photos of the dam being built, and these photos show enormous derricks from which cables were strung to convey the quarried rock to the dam site. Perhaps these structures formed part of the foundation for those derricks.
But what purpose could this cubical solid-stone structure have served? I confess I have no idea. It's just fun to come upon these old structures off in the woods and wonder what they were used for. They certainly add a note of mystery to such a place.
2 comments:
You just never know what odd plants can be found in unusual places. I can remember finding a white flowered columbine (the domestic variety) in bloom on Cat Mountain near Cranberry Lake about 40 years ago. Apparently it had been planted near the fire tower observer's cabin.
I think of you whenever we take one of our favorite drives up near Lyker's Pond and find all sorts of shrubs blooming pink and white in the hedgerows. Always wish I knew what was what. Your apricot/cherry find is awesome. Can't wait to see what they are.
Post a Comment