Fabulous Habitat Close to Home

Twice in the last 11 years, I had to abandon plans to join expert botanists in exploring fabulous botanical habitats far from home. In 2015, a smashed kneecap shattered my plans to witness wild orchid abundance on Lake Huron's Bruce Peninsula in Canada.  And two years later, wildfires closed all access to Georgia's Okefenokee Swamp two days before I was to join a paddling party of botanists there.  So yeah, I truly missed out on a couple of remarkable outings. But ample compensation sure does surround me here in Saratoga County, New York. We are blessed with a marvelous abundance of lakes, ponds, rivers, swamps, forests, fens, and even mountains, all home to a wonderful variety of native plants. And we also have what might seem unlikely habitats for fascinating (even rare) plants: the low-nutrient, sandy-soiled, sunbaked (and sometimes herbicided) lanes that lie beneath powerlines. My friends and I went to explore a favorite one in the northern part of the county this past week.  Here are photos of some of what delighted us there. (Friends Sue and Tom precede my friend Dana and me along the lane.)

Our entrance to the powerline lane was guarded by a tall thicket of American Pokeweed plants (Phytolacca americana), the reddish stems dangling long fruit clusters of green to deep-purple berries on vivid hot-pink pedicels. While home gardeners might not wish to welcome these giant native plants to their tidy home gardens, I am always impressed by their magnificence of stature and color.  And many birds do feast on the fruits, even though they are not palatable for humans.

The trailside plants grew tall and varied,  a mix of colorful native wildflowers and introduced plants that seem to have found a place among the native species without supplanting them.

Our native Common Boneset (Eupatorium perfoliatum) certainly held its place amid the crowds of purple-flowered spikes of invasive Purple Loosestrife.

Our native Slender Agalinis (Agalinis tenuifolia) was abundant all along the lane, competing with that loosestrife for being the prettiest purple flowers in bloom.

Tall plants of the appropriately named Tall Goldenrod were displaying their yellow blooms some distance back from the edge of the trail, while this Grass-leaved Goldenrod (Euthania graminifolia) was much easier to photograph, blooming right next to the trail's edge.  I could enjoy this close-up view of it without wading through hip-high grasses where ticks could be lying in wait.

Pale-leaved Sunflowers (Helianthus strumosus) carried their large yellow flowers atop purplish stems that were covered with a whitish bloom.  Their thick rough leaves help to distinguish this species from many other similar-looking native wild sunflowers.

The red-speckled yellow flowers of Spotted Horsemint (Monarda punctata) are borne between tiers of large pink bracts, which vie with the flowers for showiness. Dry sandy soil (typical beneath many Saratoga County powerlines) seems to be this native mint's favorite habitat.

This Tall Canada Lettuce (Lactuca canadensis) was already producing its fluffy seed puffs, although it was still bearing small orange florets and unopened buds. A native biennial plant in the Aster Family, Tall Canada Lettuce can grow up to 10 feet tall, although this plant was barely chest-high on me.

Ever since discovering large patches of this Short-toothed Mountain Mint (Pycnanthemum muticum) at several places along this trail, I have returned each year to check on the so-far abundant population of this rare plant, naturally occurring populations rated as Threatened species in New York State. The bracts that surround each flower cluster have a distinctive silvery appearance, and the stem leaves are broader than the leaves found on other species of mountain mint we also found along the lane. I am happy to report that P. muticum continues to thrive in abundant numbers under this powerline.

We found a few plants of a second species of mountain mint, called Virginia Mountain Mint (Pycnanthemum virginianum), also along the trail.  These flower clusters do not bear the broad silvery bracts surrounding the flower clusters that distinguish P. muticum, and its stalkless stem leaves are narrower than those of P. muticum.

We also found along this trail a THIRD species of Mountain Mint.  This one, called Narrow-leaved Mountain Mint (P. tenuifolium), is the most commonly occurring mountain mint in our state.  From the look of these very narrow leaves, I believe it is obvious how it acquired its name.

I was not surprised to find the large pale-purple flowers of Purple-stemmed Aster (Symphyotrichum puniceum) blooming now, since this native aster is probably our earliest to bloom.

I WAS surprised, though, to find New England Aster (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae) already in flower.  I associate this vivid-purple aster so closely with autumn, perhaps I was just not ready to think that summer is shortly coming to a close.

One of the reasons my friends and I love to visit this powerline is because we find there a small wetland, permanently wetted (by groundwater, I believe) to provide habitat for native plants that thrive in just these conditions.

From previous visits this time of year, we always expect to find Sphinx Ladies' Tresses (Spiranthes incurva) here in this dampish soil.  But we WERE surprised to find SO MANY this year!  There were several patches containing even more specimens than this patch does.

I am calling the Spiranthes species that grows here the S. incurva species, but that's only because an expert botanist has identified them as this in the past. Ever since the former species called Nodding Ladies' Tresses was split up into three newly named ones, I have lost all confidence in being able to ID them, no matter how carefully I study the taxonomical differences among those newly described. Here's a closer look at the flowers of those we find here on this site.  If I am mistaken about this being S. incurva, I am hoping someone will inform me.

If these wee little flowers of Dwarf St. John's Wort (Hypericum mutilum) were not so brightly colored, I would probably never notice them. But I am not surprised to find them here, since sunlit damp soil is their favorite place to grow.

That same sunlit damp soil is also exactly the habitat preferred by Alleghany Monkeyflower (Mimulus ringens), although we found only a couple blooming here this year.

The elliptical basal leaves of this next wetland plant, Northern Water Plantain (Alisma  triviale), were so shriveled as to be unrecognizable.  And the many-branching inflorescence bore seedpods instead of florets by now. But it must have been a Water Plantain, the combination of its structure and habitat being so distinctive.

And behold!  I DID find a single little three-parted white flower that certainly clinched the ID:  "Flower over 1/4" inch wide, petals much longer than the sepals,"  according to Newcomb's Wildflower Guide.

We did see a number of different colorful butterflies among the vast array of wildflowers thriving along this powerline, but none would sit still for its portrait.  I am grateful that this White-banded Crab Spider refused to budge from its perch on the floret of a Joe-Pye Weed plant.  Perhaps it was occupied with the effort of changing its vivid yellow coloration to the paler white that would help to camouflage it while it lurked to seize its insect prey.

Before we left this powerline today, we knew we would be back within a couple of weeks. To judge from the numbers of multiple-bud-bearing plants of Fringed Gentian (Gentianopsis crinita) we found, we are in for a spectacular display of this beautiful native wildflower this year.