Paddling With Ed

Ugh! That "heat dome" tormenting most of the country has covered Saratoga County with air so oppressive it's almost impossible to breath. But I didn't know that until mid-afternoon when I returned from a Hudson River paddle with my good friend Ed. On the river, the breeze was brisk and cooled by the water, so we hardly felt the heat out there, even while paddling hard in Ed's tandem canoe.

I'd invited Ed to join me today on a quest to find Purple Fringed Orchis and Great St. Johnswort, but of course we had to take note of other plants along the way. Here, Ed is examining an aquatic plant that he thinks might be a quillwort.

We'd found a number of them floating in a little bay, so it was easy to pick one up to examine it closely. (I see another aquatic plant called Water Starwort down there, too.)

The distinctive hollow translucent leaves that widen at the base into a bulb-like cluster convinced Ed that this was indeed a quillwort, a "fern ally" that is one of the planet's oldest vascular plants. Different species of quillwort can be told apart by microscopic examination, but we didn't have a microscope with us.

Passing through a quiet marsh, we were delighted by the profusion of Pickerelweed.

When we came to the island where Great St. Johnswort grows, we beached the canoe and came ashore to hunt for it. My plan was to collect a specimen for the state herbarium, but since the ones we found were only in bud, I will come back in several days to obtain a plant in full flower. To date, there is no record of this flower growing in Saratoga County, and it's also a plant that is threatened or endangered in many surrounding states.

The Purple Fringed Orchis we were seeking had started to bloom, although many of the buds on its stalk were yet to open.

We have two species of Purple Fringed Orchis, and this is the Smaller PFO. If you had the two species side-by-side, the difference in size of the blossoms would be evident, but another diagnostic feature is the shape of the hollow opening at the throat of the blossom. In the Larger PFO, this opening is perfectly round, but in the one we found today, the opening is slightly flattened, occluded by a ridge on the lower lip.

Our flower hunt successfully completed, Ed and I next headed for the little island just off the boat launch. After struggling back upstream against a white-cap-whipping wind, we were eager to ditch our sweaty clothing and dive into the clear cold water for a swim.

Doesn't this look inviting? Wish I could spend the rest of this heatwave out here.

Bog Wandering with Nan and Ed

I'd follow them anywhere, Nan and Ed. These two botanizing buddies have explored just about every botanical treasure trove in the northeast, and lucky for me, they've shared some of their favorite places with me, during the last year or two that we've become friends. So just imagine how pleased I was to have introduced Ed last summer to an amazing bog near Lake George, a bog you can just drive up to and walk right into, no pushing through thickets or wading through waist-deep moats or hauling boats through brambles, just park the car nearby and amble in.

Ed had been eager to share this bog with Nan, and today was the perfect day to do so: pleasantly warm, thin clouds to veil the sun, and not raining for a change. When Ed asked me to join them, I paused for a moment, thinking there might not be very much in bloom just yet. But then I regained my senses. It's ALWAYS a good time to visit a bog, especially with such expert botanizers as Nan and Ed. We'll certainly find SOMEthing of interest, I thought. And boy, did we ever! As soon as we slipped through the hedge that surrounds the bog and came into an open clearing, here's what met our eyes: Calopogons by the dozen!

Calopogon tuberosum, also called Grass Pink, may not be one of our rarest orchids, but it sure is one of our most beautiful. Large and showy, with bright magenta blooms that stand out from the surrounding greenery, it was very easy to see as wandered the bog, exclaiming with delight as we discovered more at every turn.

There was a limit to their abundance, though, we discovered as we wandered further afield into areas so overwhelmed by Leatherleaf and laurels, there was no sunlit space beneath for orchids of any kind. We were able to follow deer paths through the shrubbery, but still, my knees and shins began to complain of pain from all the scratchy twigs. How dumb of me to visit a bog in shorts! Ed out there was smart to wear his jeans.

Much of the bog was much more comfortable for walking, with deep, soft mounds of sphagnum moss cushioning every step. It seems that this is an "anchored" rather than a floating bog, with generations upon generations of sphagnum having grown so deep it hit bottom, so to speak.

The sphagnum was so pillowy, it was tempting to think about lying down in it, except that it was also soaking wet like a sponge. If I stood still for more than a moment, cold water would seep up and bathe my feet. Very refreshing, since the sun was starting to burn through and heat up our backs.

Except for the Calopogon, a couple of Pitcher Plants, and these Large Cranberry flowers pictured below, there was little else in bloom in the bog today, although we saw many White Fringed Orchids in swelling buds, abundant as Dandelions. We'll certainly have to come back to witness their show. They and the Cottongrass should be well in bloom within two weeks.

But as I said before, there's always SOMEthing of interest in a bog, even when nothing's blooming. These pink-flocked fruits of Bog Rosemary, for example, are just as pretty as the pale pink flowers were a month ago.

I was fascinated to find these golden baby cones on some Tamaracks.

Other Tamaracks close by had rose-colored cones, like these that I photographed in another bog two weeks ago. Very curious! Why are some rose and others gold? They will all turn brown, eventually, as they harden.

The day was still young as we left the bog and headed to Dunham's Bay for a paddle in Ed's tandem canoe. That was fun, too, although the plant community along the stream we paddled was rather monotonous, much less interesting than the bog. Anyway, I was too busy paddling to take any photos of the stream. But I did get a shot of these Yellow Swallowtails puddling about in the mud near the parking lot.

Hiking to Wildflower Heaven

For wildflower lovers, there are certain places on this planet that deserve a big star on the map. It was one of those very special places that Ed and Nan took the Thursday Naturalists to visit today: an old marble quarry high on a mountainside near Dorset, Vermont. Ed and Nan have been hiking this mountain for ten years or more, and so they knew what was in store for the rest of us on this splendid spring day. Aside from the spectacular view.

Lucky for those of us getting on in years, we were able to drive most of the way up the mountain, so our hike was probably less than a mile to reach the abandoned quarry. Our trail passed through a beautiful sunlit woods . . .

. . . and around some impressive cliffs.

The woods and cliffs were adorned with many species of lime-loving ferns, including this pretty clump of Slender Cliff Brake that had found a home in a seam of the rock. The short chubby fronds are sterile, and the long slender ones are the fertile fronds.

Canada Violets are a sure sign of a woods rich with lime, and the plants here had grown to a very healthy size.

Miterwort joined with those violets to grace the rocks with their beauty.

Showy Orchis was very happy here, too. These plants were growing high on a bank, so that we could see right into their beautiful throats.

Nan found this healthy clump of Yellow Lady's Slippers, the first of many we would see in the woods today.

The most abundant lady's slippers we found were these Smaller Yellow Lady's Slippers, which carpeted an area of the woods with their dainty blooms capped with dark purple petals. In one place, they were so thick on the ground, we had to walk very carefully to avoid trampling them.

Well, those lady's slippers were kind of small, but they sure were large in comparison with this really minute little orchid, Early Coral Root. I do not know how Nan ever managed to see it, especially since its green flowers blend in with the rest of the greenery.

We have almost reached our destination now, as we make our way around the walls of the long-abandoned quarry, being careful where we put our feet among the jumble of fallen rocks.

Just breathtaking! The quarry walls were corrugated by the drills used to break up the marble, and the tiers and striations are occupied now by a rich array of mosses and ferns. We felt like we were sitting in some ancient temple, with the flutes and trills of a Winter Wren echoing off the stone walls.

Click on this photo to see the bright red accents of Columbine growing out of the rock.

Near the edge of the quarry we found the dainty pink flowers of Rosybells (also called Rose Twisted Stalk or Rose Mandarin).

Here's more of that Columbine, glowing like little Japanese lanterns against the rich green moss.

We met some other botanists on the trail, who were very excited to have found these baby Moonworts of a very rare species, growing in an open area near the top of the mountain. They had marked the location with little flags, so we were able to find them when we arrived at the spot -- and avoid trampling them unknowing. This was one of the larger ones; some were barely in inch above the ground. How on earth did they find them? That's plant people for you: passionately single-sighted in pursuit of the rare. And these Moonworts are really rare: the botanists told us that is the only known site for them in the eastern United States.

A wonderful day to a wonderful place with wonderful folks, including Ruth Schottman, seen standing here looking over the landscape below.

Thanks, Nan and Ed, for sharing this remarkable place with us.

Exploring a Great Site with Grand Companions

Thursday, May 12:

What would make for a perfect day for a wildflower fanatic like me? Beautiful spring weather, a whole bunch of folks both amiable and expert, and a trip to explore one of the richest native plant sites in New York State. That's what. Too bad I can't say exactly where that site is, since some of its most interesting plants are among the most endangered, and I would not want to tempt unscrupulous collectors. I can say, though, that it was Ed Miller who led our group of Thursday Naturalists through a woods whose limestone substrate supported abundant growths of such rarities as Ginseng and Goldenseal, which were growing there like weeds. And we sure had a lot of expert eyes searching the ground to find them. Among lots of other plants. (Can you find the Columbine and the Miterwort in this photo?)

I was very interested in noting the difference between this limey woods, which lies south of Albany, and the Skidmore Woods here in Saratoga, which has a similar geology, although it lies about 50 miles to the north. One plant I found down there, but I don't in Saratoga, is Virginia Waterleaf, shown here in bud. (Its leaves have not yet developed the pale patches resembling waterspots that give the plant its name.)

Here's a closer look at that remarkably hairy bud, which will soon erupt in a cluster of pretty pale lavender flowers.

We have lots of Toothwort up north, but here the common variety was the species called Cutleaf Toothwort. The flowers were spent, but the leaves were still very pretty.

I have never found American Bladdernut in the Skidmore Woods, but that doesn't mean it's not there. There is some at Yaddo in Saratoga, but its buds were still tightly closed on Thursday, while down south of Albany, the buds had opened into dangling greenish clusters. This will be my first year of observing this interesting native shrub. I wonder how many of those flowers will develop into the inflated seed-filled bladders that give this plant its name. Stay tuned!

Here's that Goldenseal, a plant that has been nearly extirpated across its natural range, because it is so sought after by herbalists. Here in this woods, however, it appeared as common as Mayapple, with which it shared its territory. That spiky little flower is all stamens surrounding a pistillate center; it has no petals.

Well, this was an unexpected surprise! This Yellow Lady's Slipper (only one!) was blooming earlier than usual. Unlike the Pink Lady's Slipper, which prefers more acidic soil, the yellow variety loves limey woods like this.

Not all our surprises were botanical. This spectacularly colored millipede kept scurrying away faster than my camera could follow, so I grabbed it and placed it on my palm, where it promptly curled into a disk, exuding some brown goo in the process.

A strong smell like almond extract met my nostrils as the creature released minute quantities of cyanide gas, a defensive measure. This almond scent, similar to that found in peach pits, is what gives this millipede its common name, Peach Pit Millipede (Apheloria virginiensis corrugata). Thanks go to naturalist Nancy Slack for this information.

Here's our group taking a lunch break on cliffs overlooking a pond. Ed (red shirt) is searching the ground for some of the rare mosses and fern allies that grow on these boulders.

We didn't have to search to find this Creeping Shadblow, an uncommon Amelanchier species that never grows very tall. Lucky for us, it was still in flower where it clung to the limestone boulders. (Another uncommon shrub, Fragrant Sumac, was just coming into bloom nearby, but my photos did not turn out.)

Isn't it fun to say the name of Fringed Polygala? Almost as fun as the flowers are pretty. Another common name is Gaywings. Very descriptive!

Starflower. What else could it be called? It often grows intermixed with Gaywings, and I can't think of any lovelier sight.

All in all, it was a wonderful day for lovers of native plants, both common and rare. We wandered the woods for several hours, so wouldn't you think I'd had enough botanizing for one day? Well, not quite. I had to stop off at Yaddo on my way home to check the progress of MY American Bladdernut (as I mentioned above, still in bud), and while I was there I also went to search for Cream Violet where it used to grow in a Lily-of-the-Valley patch. I couldn't find it last week, but voila! It had bloomed at last. This is the only place I have ever found this species of stemmed violet.

Also at Yaddo I found this fertile stalk of Woodland Horsetail, its spore-bearing cone surmounting a stalk ringed with whorls of multi-branched leaves. Other, more common species of horsetail have fertile stalks that grow separately from the green leafy sterile stalks.

I looked at the USDA plant distribution map and discovered that this horsetail is not included in the listings for Saratoga County. But I know that it grows at Bog Meadow as well as at Yaddo.