Tag Archive | Nature

The Hairy Fern

The Hairy Fern

One of the earliest ferns to poke through the ground in freshwater wetlands in the eastern U.S. and Canada is the Cinnamon Fern. As is true of many ferns when this plant first appears, it looks like the top of a fiddle thus it is called a fiddle head. This “fiddle” will unfurl into a […]

The Robin of the Butterfly World

It is early April and even though the weather is still chilly, today is a warm spring day. As I walk into the pine barren woodlands in a park on Long Island in New York, I see nothing but a gray landscape made of leafless oak trees and various heaths. Slate colored juncos (sparrow sized […]

How Can You Tell a Forest is Old?

How Can You Tell a Forest is Old?

If you find extensive tracts of the Wood Anemone, a small wildflower of shady deciduous woodlands, you are probably in an older, established forest. It takes about five years for anemones to flower and longer to spread through underground rhizomes. This plant prefers moist, mucky soils and in New York, I have seen it growing […]

A Wetland Violet

A Wetland Violet

Walking through the red maple/black gum freshwater wetlands along the Connetquot River in New York, I see small blue-violet plants on moss hummocks, on the exposed root balls from blown over trees and along the edges of creeks and small streams. As I bend down to get a closer look, I see hairless heart-shaped leaves […]

The Most Beautiful Violet in the World

The Most Beautiful Violet in the World

In the last few blogs. I focused on several species in the violet family. One of the showiest violets is the birdfoot violet. So called due to its leaves resembling a bird’s foot, it grows in drier areas than the other species I featured and at Connetquot River State Park Preserve in New York, I […]