Tag Archives: Bear Island

Blue May

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A year ago my friend B texted that she’d found another stand of Baptisia australis (wild blue indigo; Fabaceae; S2/threatened) along the Potomac near Great Falls. I tried searching for it but a broken wrist prevented me from doing the necessary rock scrambling. This year, though, I was able to go out and find the plants on a sunny, breezy afternoon. They were a bit past peak bloom but still magnificent.

Blue false indigo is a prairie species with just a few populations in Maryland. Search for them on the rocky scour bars of the Potomac River.

 

 

The baptisia aren’t the only blue flowers showing now. Along the towpath in ditches at Bear Island, blue flag irises are starting to bloom.  These are probably Iris versicolor, though they could be I. virginica. Wondering why I can’t say for sure which species?  Check out my iris obsession of 2017 in a series of 8 posts, starting with this one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Scattered about in drier areas are clumps of blue-eyed grass (Sisyrinchium angustifolium; Iridaceae).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And in just a few scattered locations are small stands of Scutellaria saxatilis (smooth rock skullcap; Lamiaceae), which is S1 (highly state rare) and endangered in Maryland.

New (to Me)

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Though by no means an expert, I have a pretty good handle on what’s to be found in the area of the Billy Goat B and C trails. So I haven’t been out there as often this year, which means I haven’t found much that’s new and exciting.

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So the other day I walked upstream from Old Angler’s Inn, past Widewater, and went just a little ways up one of the Billy Goat A access trails, and partway along Billy Goat A itself.

Billy Goat A is “the” Billy Goat Trail, as popular ’round here as Old Rag Mountain is in Shenandoah National Park. On a Wednesday afternoon in August, there was no escaping the sound of people talking.  Or the sight of people (and their dogs, prohibited on BGA) walking.

The problem (other than I hike for solitude in nature, not for listening to other people prattling on) is that the Billy Goat Trail and Bear Island are being loved to death.  Have been loved to death, really, over many years. So believe it or not, I was actually pleased to see this sign

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along with many signs telling people not to leave the trail. Which is a bit of a bummer for me, but if that’s what it takes, I’ll comply.

Wish everyone else would, too.  Wish people would treat the area with a little respect while using it as their playground.

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At any rate, in one of the side pools along the canal at Widewater something caught my eye.

small water plantain
Alisma subcordatum
Alismataceae

 

Conditions were sub-optimal for close-up photography.  It was shady, breezy, and I didn’t have the tripod along, which meant in order to get a reasonably not-blurry picture I had to increase the shutter speed, which meant I had to bump the ISO way up (the above picture was shot at ISO 1600), which means noise and not-too-clear pictures…

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…and no good close-ups of the flowers, which are itty-bitty. No more than 1/8″ across. Perhaps I’ll go back soon and try again.

Small water plantain is an emergent aquatic plant that can be found across most the the US and Canada, except for a few western and northwestern states and provinces.  And there’s really not much else to say about it, except that I found something new (to me).

20150812-20150812-_DSC0017stay still, darn it!