Cliffside Garden

As the Hudson River tumbles all the way from the high peaks of the Adirondacks until it levels off to a less turbulent tidal flow from Troy to the Atlantic, various upstream communities along its course harvest the river's  energy with hydroelectric dams.  I have visited several dams from Corinth to Wilton to South Glens Falls, and it was to the Boralex Hydroelectric facility that spans Baker's Falls in the village of Hudson Falls that I came to visit this past week. Despite significant rainfall this month, little water was plunging over the natural waterfall here.  Perhaps much of the Hudson's flow was being diverted to produce electric power?

There seemed to be plenty of water flowing below Baker's Falls anyway, as the Hudson continued its journey south. With steep forested cliffs lining the river on both banks, the view from here was truly lovely on this picture-perfect summer day.

The geology of this site has been rendered quite apparent as the cliffs were cut through to create the road leading down to the Boralex facility. I have read that these cliffs are primarily constituted of dark-colored fissured rock belonging to Ordovician-Age calcareous shale.

I would love to visit this site with a geologist who could educate me further about the history of these impressive rocks.

Standing beneath these cliffs, we felt awed by their high steep walls.  My friends Tom and Dana accompanied me on this visit.

The rock walls are constantly wetted by dripping springs, delivering high-pH nutrients to the wildflowers growing on the face of the rocks and at the base of the cliffs.  We came here today especially to find the masses of Grass of Parnassus (Parnassia glauca) that abounds here in impressive numbers. And we were certainly not disappointed!

Grass of Parnassus is not a rare flower in New York State, but its need for a wet calcareous habitat make it an unusual wildflower find, if you don't know where to seek it out. I feel lucky to know of two abundant populations of Grass of Parnassus in Saratoga County, both (including this one) on spring-watered shale cliffs along the Hudson River.

Grass of Parnassus has a rather interesting flower.  In addition to the 5 brown-tipped stamens that circle the bulbous green ovary, there are 5 sterile stamens (called staminodes) that each have three prongs (giving the appearance of 15 sterile stamens). At the tip of each prong is a small, glossy-yellow spherical structure that resembles a drop of nectar. These false nectaries, along with the green veins on the petals that act as guides to insects, serve to attract pollinators to visit the flowers.

These spring-dampened cliffs are also home to several other species of native wildflowers, including an abundance of pretty purple flowers called Slender Agalinis (Agalinis tenuifolia).

The flowers of Slender Agalinis are held on long slender pedicels, a feature that distinguishes this species from the very similar-looking but much less common Small-flowered Agalinis,  the flowers of which have very short pedicels.

A third abundant wildflower on these cliffs is Kalm's Lobelia (Lobelia kalmii),  a pretty little native wildflower known to prefer damp calcareous rock.

Although I planned my visit to this site in particular to visit the above-mentioned three wildflower species, I was also delighted to find a patch of Upright Spurge (Euphorbia nutans) growing in the rubble along the road.  I believe most spurges with their weedy habit and sticky sap are among the least-appreciated wildflowers, but this species is among our native wildflowers in New York State and somewhat less common than the abundant creeping sidewalk weed called Spotted Spurge. I love its wee little flowers that are uniquely shaped.  A small cup, 1/8 inch across, holds the male and female flowers in the center. The rim of the cup has 4 white, rounded petal-like appendages, each a thickened gland at the base that is green to red. The male flower anthers are yellow and nearly indistinct. The clump of styles of the single female flower in the center sit atop a round, 3-parted ovary on a short stalk that extends out from the flower center. Both the floral cup and the developing ovary are often blushed with red. The structure of this flower is called a “cyathium” and is common to all the Euphorbias.

Thanks go to a  Minnesota Wildflowers site for that detailed description of the structure of spurge flowers.  I have long felt curious about this structure and never knew how to describe it.  Nor to know it was called a "cyathium."  I learned something new composing this blog!