A Riverside Walk on an Aching Knee

 No, I'm not dead.  Although there were times while recovering from knee replacement surgery that I envied a comparable relief from pain. This has been harder than I thought it would be.  And even now, three months since the surgery, if I'm on my feet for much more than an hour, I regret the dues I will pay in pain. But today I felt pretty good. Time to return to providing new posts to this blog.  And I knew of a place that would yield much botanical treasure, and all of it just a few yards from where I could park my car: the forested banks where Spier Falls Road wends close to the Hudson River.  So off I went to see what might be in bloom.

As I passed the hydro-electric dam that lends its name to this road, I was impressed by how it was roaring.  Not so surprising, after several days of rain.  And then I discovered, upstream from the dam, the water levels were being lowered, most likely to work on the dam, which had suffered considerable damage from a fire last year.  So all that upstream water was being drained through the dam, to add to that from the rainfall.

I drove on to reach the Spring Trailhead, where I could park in a lot nearly empty today, because of today's occasional rain.  When I stepped onto the trail, I was surprised to find this Large-flowered Bellwort (Uvularia grandiflora) blooming where I had never noticed it in years before.

I was delighted to find Foamflower (Tiarella stolonifera) in full bloom, lucky to see it before it faded.  It was blooming earlier than usual this year, and its florets would soon go to seed.  I loved how the fern frond appeared to be bowing before the Foamflower's beauty. 

As I walked a short distance up the trail, I hoped I would find the carpets of Bluets (Houstonia caerulea) that in other years carpeted a grassy hillside. Ah yes, I found them blooming abundantly once more, but higher up on that hillside than I felt my knee would happily carry me. So I used my camera's zoom function, yielding a photo not as clear as I wanted, but lovely enough.

These boughs of Red-berried Elder (Sambucus racemosa) were leaning gracefully over a tumbling creek. The creek indeed added to the beauty of this scene, but it also probably served as a nursery for the clouds of Black Flies that surrounded my head, gagging me each time I took a deep breath. I believe the flies must have been all males, since I never got bitten. (Only the females need our blood to provide the proteins to produce their eggs.) Such rushing water as filled this creek is exactly what the eggs of this super pest need to develop.

Hobblebush shrubs (Viburnum lantanoides) with their big white flower clusters were easy to spot throughout the woods that lined the banks along the road. The bigger white florets are actually sterile, serving only to draw pollinators' attention to the tiny fertile florets the big ones encircle.

Before I went back to my car, I crossed the road and followed a path leading down to the river.  My knee objected a bit about descending this trail, but my pains were promptly rewarded by the sight of this lovely cluster of Painted Trillium (Trillium undulatum).

Back in my car and driving downstream, I traveled past this white-water waterfall plunging down the mountain that rises abruptly from the side of Spier Falls Road. It's usually dry by this late in the spring, but as I mentioned before, we've had a few rainy days.

Just past the waterfall, I passed the quarry where rocks were blasted out of the mountain to build the dam across the road.  It was in this quarry I once found a small cherry tree that puzzled me greatly.  I eventually learned (thanks to help from some botanists) that this was a Nanking Cherry (Prunus tomentosa), not a native species but quite a lovely one. Its distinguishing features include the sessile flowers and downy twigs and leaves.  I did see from afar a few specimens of this pretty tree today, but all would have been too difficult for me to approach on my weakened knee, but I had photos of its flowers in my files.  This is one of them.

I did get out of my car to approach more closely the rocky cliffs that lined the road, with spring-watered, moss-covered ledges that serve as garden beds for masses of Early Saxifrage (Micranthes virginiensis).

A roadside rock garden of amazing beauty!

My last stop today was the Sherman Island Boat Launch Site, with a large parking area that allowed me a clear view of the Hudson River, with West Mountain rising beyond the bend of the river far downstream.

I recalled some large-sized Red Trillium (Trillium erectum) that grew in the woods just beyond the parking lot, and sure enough I found them today. The plants were quite impressive, even though the red flowers were definitely starting to fade.

I found no other blooming wildflowers at this site today, but these lovely Starflower leaves (Lysimachia borealis) with their tiny buds on thread-fine stalks held the promise that one of our prettiest spring wildflowers would soon be blooming here.

These equally attractive leaves of Indian Cucumber Root (Medeola virginiana) also held the buds of the flowers still to come. Before they produce their distinctive flowers, the leaves of these last two plants appear quite similar at first glance and are sometimes confused. But knowledgeable friends have taught me how to easily distinguish them. The veins of the Starflower leaves are pinnate (feather-like) with small veins protruding from a central mid-vein; the leaf-veins of the Indian Cucumber Root are parallel to the mid-vein.  Once you see this, the two plants are easy to identify, even when not yet in bloom.

Ah, but both will soon be in bloom.  Here's hoping my knee will be closer to full recovery by the time I come back to observe them.  I'm so glad there were so many other rewards today, and all of them accessed so easily. (Except for the Black Flies.)