The Ice Meadows is an 8-mile stretch of Hudson River banks where huge heaps of ice collect each winter, creating a habitat uniquely suited for some of our rarest native plants. The section I visited last week is on the east bank of the river, where wide streams of molten marble appear to have spewed up from the earth and flowed into the water.
The calcium-rich environment created by that marble outcropping provides a perfect habitat for several plants that thrive here but which I rarely find elsewhere. The lacey-leaved, starry-flowered Rock Sandwort (Minuartia michauxii) was beautifully in bloom on the bare rocks when I visited last Friday.
Tall Cinquefoil (Potentilla arguta) may look like a weedy overgrown strawberry, but it's actually a plant that is considered rare in several surrounding states. Often an indicator of calcareous soils, lots of it grows on the Ice Meadows.
I do find Small Sundrops (Oenothera perennis) in many other locations, but its sunny yellow blooms always deserve another photograph. This is one of our Evening Primrose-family plants whose flowers open early in the day.
Frostweed (Helianthemum canadense) likes this dry sandy location, too. I don't know if it's always the case, but every photo I have of this flower shows its orange-anthered stamens mostly all pushed to one side.
Lots and lots of Carrion Flower (Smilax herbacea) was growing on the sandy shore, giving me the chance to get nice clear photos of its (very smelly!) male and female flowers. The tiny white-stamened, six-parted male flowers are all borne on the same plant.
While the stubbier pistillate flowers with their three-lobed stigmas occupy totally separate plants nearby.
One of the rarest plant on this section of the Ice Meadows is a grassy plant called Whip Nut Rush (Scleria triglomerata). It's pearly white seeds have not yet developed, but I recognized it by its distinctive triangular stem and yellow flower head. I also know exactly where to look for it, and I was glad to see it still thriving here.
On my way back to my car I took a short-cut through the pine woods, where I couldn't help but notice the super-saturated twin red berries of American Fly Honeysuckle.
That same piney woods was the happy home of an amazing array of Pink Lady's Slippers, which I was surprised to find still blooming, since they are long past in Saratoga County. I stood in one spot and counted 30 blooming plants surrounding me within a 20-foot circle.
