Hey Ma! Here's the plant I was telling you about. I found it growing submerged in a pool under a fallen tree. Thanks to Dr. Robert Capers of UConn, I'm able to tell you it's a Sium suave, quite different than its summer form which flowers 2-6' above the water.
You can see why its called "hispidus."
Navigating the mounds of sphagnum, clumps of tussock sedge, fallen trees and half-frozen water can be tedious. I lost my balance and grabbed a nearby tree which snapped off in my hand. As I steadied myself, I almost grabbed the closest tree to my right but glanced up in time to see it was a poison sumac, Toxicodendron vernix, a pretty tall one too. Lucky I noticed the whitish berries up there.
I found this shot of berries from last year at a quaking bog in Natchaug State Forest.
Walking home on the old woods road, I have to wonder if the barred owl is watching me today. I got this blurry, faraway capture this past September. Do they stick around all winter?
This area is just crawling with goldthread, Coptis trifolia. Its leaves are sort of thick and glossy.
When I tried to pull out a strand of rhizome,
I found it tightly clinging to rotting wood beneath the thick padding of sphagnum moss.
Here's a picture of the flower taken near the end of May. The tiny buttery-yellow appendages are nectar-bearing petals, the white petal-like ones the sepals. Isn't that cool?
In the drier areas of this woodswamp,
I saw lots of bristly or swamp dewberry, Rubus hispidus. At a glance it resembles the Coptis leaf.
Navigating the mounds of sphagnum, clumps of tussock sedge, fallen trees and half-frozen water can be tedious. I lost my balance and grabbed a nearby tree which snapped off in my hand. As I steadied myself, I almost grabbed the closest tree to my right but glanced up in time to see it was a poison sumac, Toxicodendron vernix, a pretty tall one too. Lucky I noticed the whitish berries up there.
This is its trunk:
I found this shot of berries from last year at a quaking bog in Natchaug State Forest.
There's pleny of yellow birch, Betula alleghaniensis, dead and alive.
You can start a fire with the bark from dead trees, it will catch even when damp.
The treetop is loaded with slowly disarticulating cones full of seeds and scales.
I love to see them scattered across the snow but this indoor picture will have to do for now. The scales look like bird's feet!
I know this is getting a little long but I want to show you a coupla fungi seen on the way out.
and where the woodswamp meets the wet meadow, lives this beauty, Ilex verticillata, winterberry.
Walking home on the old woods road, I have to wonder if the barred owl is watching me today. I got this blurry, faraway capture this past September. Do they stick around all winter?
