From October, 2014; getting antsy to find something blooming or otherwise interesting. I know nothing about identifying mushrooms, but I suspect that this is false turkey tail (Stereum ostrea). If you know otherwise, please leave a comment.
…just because it’s been awhile since I posted. C&O Canal, October.
Please have a look at the individual species pages I’ve been adding. Scroll to the top of this page and hover over Native Flowering Plant List (binomial).
Leaving soon for a new adventure, half a world away. Hopefully I’ll be able to get some decent flower pictures; check back in a week or so.
American bladdernut
In the Potomac Gorge, in January? The answer, of course, is nothing. But some plants are still displaying old seedheads or pods: wingstem, asters, goldenrods, a few grasses, American bladdernut (Staphylea trifolia). The wind rustles the beech tree leaves, which will stay on the trees for a few more months. A faint green blush signals the presence of invasive exotics.
partridgeberry, rock polypody, oak leaf; December 31, 2014
Looking ’round you can see green on a few native plants: wild ginger (Asarum canadense), round-lobed hepatica (Hepatica nobilis var obtusa), and the succulent leaves of wild stonecrop (Sedum ternatum) hanging on; a few broad-leaved waterleaf (Hydrophyllum canadense) and alumroot (Heuchera americana); evergreen leaves of partridgeberry (Mitchella repens); the new leaves of puttyroot (Aplectrum hyemale) and cranefly (Tipularia discolor); Christmas fern (Polystichum acrostichoides) and polypody (Polypodium virginianum). And of course the evergreen shrubs and trees: American holly (Ilex opaca), eastern redcedar (Juniperus virginiana), and mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia).
Depending on the weather, the first new blossoms of 2015 will be out in two or three months.
Virginia bluebells (Mertensia virginica) budding up
March 21, 2014
Here are three photos from the Potomac Gorge. For the next year, on or about the first of each month I’m going to re-visit these sites, stand in the same positions, and photograph the same views, in order to see the progression of the seasons.
December 31, 2014
38 degrees F, mostly clear
2:42 pm EST 18mm f/5.6 1/200sec ISO 200
The photo above was taken from the Billy Goat B trail, at the eastern end where the trail abruptly changes direction away from the river to head back toward the canal. We’re looking southeast across a narrow channel toward Vaso Island.
2:57pm EST 18mm f/10 1/125 sec ISO 100
This one was taken from the western end of the area I call the Rock Garden, the large rocky bluff that’s not quite at the mid-point of Billy Goat B. Here I’m looking upstream, more or less northwest, with Hermit Island on the left.
3:36pm EST 18mm f/5.0 1/250 sec ISO 100
And this one was taken from the boat launch ramp near Old Angers Inn, looking downstream and more or less south.
By December 2015 I should be able to make an interesting slide show with all these.
Coming soon, “What’s Blooming Now?”
Happy new year, everyone!
Elizabeth's Wildflower Blog 