The Swampy Stretch of Bog Meadow Brook Nature Trail

Yes, my last post also featured a walk along Bog Meadow Brook Nature Trail.  But that was just the first stretch of this two-mile trail, a section I think of as wet meadows.  Except for the trailside trees and shrubs, the trail mostly passes through open sunlit meadows that stretch for miles in each direction.  What grows there? Mostly Phragmites, Tussock Sedge, Poison Sumac, and non-native honeysuckles that line the trail and provide the shade for Nodding Trilliums to shelter beneath.  Coming in from the other end of the trail, the habitat consists of quite a bit of open marsh, where waterfowl paddle about in open ponds, cattails and willows flourish along the watery shores, and beavers do their bit every year to try and flood the trail.  That leaves the middle stretch of Bog Meadow Trail, which consists of wooded wetland, a part of the trail that is damp underfoot and densely shaded by trees. In other words, this is swamp.  And it's my favorite part. I hope by this post I can demonstrate why.

I usually enter this middle part of the trail by following a spur trail that starts in a posh neighborhood of stately homes off Meadowbrook Road. A quick stroll through upland forest brings me directly into the middle section of the Bog Meadow Trail, after crossing a boardwalk crowded on either side by masses of Skunk Cabbage, Cinnamon Ferns, and Horsetail Reeds.  Later in summer, this swamp is beautified by many towering plants of Swamp Thistle topped by their big bright fuchsia-colored flowers. Today, it was a mass of many shades and shapes of green

I love the frothy texture the Horsetails (Equisetum spp.) provide along the boardwalk.

Three different species of Equisetum flourish here, the solo-branching Field Horsetail pictured below in the center (E. arvense), the multi-branching Wood Horsetail (E. sylvaticum) just to the left, and the tiny wiry-branching Dwarf Horsetail (E. scirpoides), which today was well hidden beneath all the other greenery, including the broad leaves of Skunk Cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus).

Just where this spur trail connects with the main trail, I always look for a solo plant of Water Avens (Geum rivale), which comes into bloom about this time in late May.  In all the more than 16 years I've been finding it, a solitary plant is all that persists.  And I did find it today. It's not a very showy flower, unless you look at it closely. That's when you notice the yellow petals nestled within the reddish-purple calyces. And the flower never opens wider than this, so you have to peer inside to notice the crowded mass of stamens, which will continue to lengthen as the summer proceeds.

Probably the most numerous flower blooming today was the Hooked Crowfoot (Ranunculus recurvatus), a common wetland denizen. If not for its bright shiny star-shaped flowers, this plant might be easy to overlook, the flowers are so small. If you peer very close, you could see the tiny hooks that cover its developing seed pod, a feature that suggested both its scientific and vernacular names.

The most numerous fern along this boardwalk was Cinnamon Fern (Osmundastrum cinnamomeum), an easy fern to identify, thanks to its cinnamon-colored spore stalks. I have found Lady Fern and Marsh Fern here in past years, but I did not take the time to look for them. I did find Maidenhair Fern as well, just beginning to open its delicate fronds.

When the boardwalk ended, I stepped onto the main avenue of Bog Meadow Trail, which now resembled a tunnel of spring greenery.

A number of lovely native wildflowers were blooming now along the trail. Here was a pretty patch of Canada Mayflower (Maianthemum canadense).

It would take a long time to pick a bowl of the fruits of Dwarf Raspberry (Rubus pubescens), since it usually bears but a single ripe berry at a time.

The flowers of Wild Sarsaparilla (Aralia nudicaulis) grow on a separate stalk from the stalk that supports its overtopping leaves.

Aha, here were some Maidenhair Ferns (Adiantum pedatum) adding their delicate beauty to this scene along a trailside brook, enhanced by a few Foamflower blooms (Tiarella stolonifera).

I'm so glad I found a few specimens of the Star-flowered False Solomon's Seal (Maianthemum stellatum) still in perfect bloom. They are blooming earlier than usual this spring, and many in this abundant patch already had fading flowers.

I believe these are the flowers of a species of Chokeberry, probably Black Chokeberry (Aronia melanocarpa), since that's the species I've found along this section of trail in past years. My Newcomb's Wildflower Guide would have helped me with the ID, but I neglected to bring it with me. Very pretty, whatever its name!

The evidence of a solitary Golden Ragwort (Packera aurea) close to the edge of the trail alerted me to enter the woods at this point and seek out this abundant patch of it some distance from the trailside. This plant is happiest in swampy spots.

I was hoping I'd find some Early Azalea (Rhododendron prinophyllum) in bloom, but I could not remember exactly where I'd find it along the trail.  I trusted my nose would alert me to it, and I was right. Some time before I espied its gorgeous vivid-pink blooms some distance away in the woods, I detected its fragrance on the air, looked around, and there it was! 

It cost me some difficulty to approach it, teetering on tussocks and tripping over downed branches and stepping in mud, but I just had to fill my nose with that exquisite scent and my eyes with a closer look at the beauty of its blossoms.

Back there, near the azalea, I noticed a few stalks of Water Horsetail (Equisetum fluviatile) nearby.  This was my signal to continue along the trail to one of the only actual boggy pools along the Bog Meadow Brook Trail.

Just a few yards further along, I spotted this pool, so thick with Water Horsetails I could hardly make out the water.

I also spotted this thick patch of Sphagnum Moss, definitely a clue about this being a boggy, acidic habitat.

And here were the final plants I had hoped to find on my walk today.  But alas, the showy white flower clusters of Bog Buckbean (Menyanthes trifoliata) had faded by now, yielding  clusters of seedpods but not the masses of blooms I have found in other years. But at least it was reassuring that this flower HAD bloomed this spring.  Next year, I will have to look for it earlier in May.  My knee should be well-healed by then, the pain that kept me from seeking these many lovely plants earlier this spring only a memory by then.

One last treasure awaited me.  What a splendid dragonfly, and the cool, damp day had chilled it to the point where it would not fly away, even as I moved my camera close.  My "Snopes Beginner's Guide to Dragonflies" offered no ID, aside from suggesting this might be a spiketail.  Then my friend Sue Pierce checked iNaturalist, which offered the name Delta-spotted Spiketail. Except for the brown (not blue) eyes of this dragonfly, the images matched completely. Close enough, at least for now.