So for years now I’ve been scouring the Billy Goat B and C trails in C&O Canal NHP for wildflowers, while hardly ever bothering with the trail that’s about 100 yards from my house.  I had hiked parts of the Cabin John Trail a few times not long after moving here.  The trail is in bad condition, overused, and there are a lot of invasive plants along it.  I figured it would be a showcase of English ivy and lesser celandine, so I hadn’t hiked it in more than a year.

I wasn’t wrong, but boy was I stupid.  I’ve been a few times in the last two weeks and was shocked at the diversity of native plants in this one and a half mile stretch, which includes three I’ve never seen at C&O.

dwarf ginseng (Panax trifolius; Araliaceae): 

wood poppy (Stylophorum diphyllum; Papaveraceae):

wood anemone (Anemone quinquefolia; Ranunculaceae):