Fall Ramble-Sandstone Falls

Spent a wet, cool Saturday morning with my dad at Sandstone Falls, which are the largest waterfalls on the New River within the New River Gorge National River. There is a boardwalk crossing to two of the islands with terrific views of the river. Even though winter is at hand, there is much to explore and see, even on a grey day. I found an Aster still in bloom and many colorful sights.

West Virginia has beauty in every season if you are willing to get out into some less than idea weather .

I wanted to get there last month because I had heard there are native persimmons there, a native fruit. It was a little late in the season but I was able to find them and even though they were mostly mush, they had a great taste and I was able to take a few seeds home. I also found one that was still too hard to eat, but I tried and got a full taste of the astringent property that causes severe puckering. Which I can now say is the truth. 

Frosty Wildflowers

Snow on Wild Geranium and Periwinkle

We usually get a few frosts beginning in September but this week (3rd week in October), we had out first frost, snow and a freeze. But I did get to see a couple of new wildflowers on a trip to Morgantown.
   

#306- Heart Leaved Aster

 The first morning, I went to one of my favorite Morgantown, WV wildflower hot-spots. The Core Arboretum  is beside the WVU Basketball coliseum and has several trails and great wildflowers, especially in the spring. On a frosty morning I found an Aster that was relatively easy to identify. I have been using a great web resource called Asters and Goldenrods of New England. This one is Heart Leaved Aster, blooming through November according to some references. The heart shaped leaves  on the ones scattered throughout the Arboretum had begun to deteriorate as well as the blooms.





On the way home, I stopped at the New River Gorge: Canyon Rim Visitor Center for a rest and short walk to the Bridge Overlook. On the trails there I found several flowers, but only one was new for the year.


I think I have been seeing Old-Field Aster along the roads around home but had not looked at it closely and this was my first opportunity. It is also called Frost Aster for two reasons, one, it lasts until frost time and the other is the fine and heavier white hairs that the entire plant is covered with have the appearance of frost. The description also describes the yellow center of the blooms that turn red after pollination.

#307- Old-Field Aster

Grandson on a cold day hike, checking out the wet field where the Ladies Tresses have gone for the year.
(iPhone Panoramic Photo)

Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.
John Ruskin 

River, Ridge and ...Roadside??

I spent this past Sunday after church hiking along the Little Bluestone River near Camp Creek State Park and Brush Creek Nature Preserve. I was hoping to find a few more wild flowers that would get me to the 300+ mark for wild flowers photographed and identified in one calendar year. I had long thought that along the river, there would be several different flowers that I had not found at home. At first it was all Asters and Goldenrod just like everywhere else. But then I found several flowers that are fairly common but I had not seen yet. They had just about finished blooming.

#298- Wingstem

The first was Wingstem, a plant very similar to Yellow Crown Beard,
which I had found close to home. I started seeing the distinct winged stems but no flowers but also noticed the leaves were alternate rather than opposite, so I began to search in earnest. I finally found a bloom or two that were almost gone.

#299- Mild Water Pepper

The next flower was one of the Smartweeds, but the wide open flowers made it hard to pin down, but I believe that it is Mild Water Pepper.



I found these two box turtles and the back one had gotten himself in to trouble with his lady friend and needed to be rolled off his back. I'm not sure if she smacked him over backwards or he was just awkward.

                                                      Little Bluestone River

A wildflower that I believe is an Aster, but I can not nail down the identity. It has a periwinkle blue center and petals. 

#300- Zigzag Goldenrod

After the river, I swung by Camp Creek State Park  and hiked up the Mash Creek Falls Trail. There I found a Broad Leaved or Zigzag Goldenrod, which makes number 300 for the year. This one is an easy ID, but before this year it was just another one of those yellow fall flowers. So the "Big Year"  has forced me to learn much more about many of the wildflowers that I have always enjoyed.

#301- American Bell Flower

I then ran across American Bell Flower along the road to Mash Fork Falls. I have found many, many flowers just cruising slowly along forest and back roads in my region.

#302- Tick Trefoil (non-native)

Fungi from Camp Creek

September Orchids

September is Ladies Tresses month. I found Ladies Tresses on the farm here several years ago when the fields were allowed to grow longer than normal and were not cut in the fall. Slender Ladies Tresses are first and then Nodding Ladies Tresses. I am posting pictures now of the Slender Ladies Tresses that bloomed the first week in September and now are about gone. And Nodding Ladies Tresses that are just at peak now. They are in the swampy field where I found many other wildflowers that love wet feet. I will continue to post additional photos as they mature.

#294- Slender Ladies Tresses

          I just recently read the excellent article by Doug Jolley in the September 2013, Wonderful West Virginia magazine called Autumns Orchids, Ladies' Tresses. His article highlight several of the Ladies Tresses, but it was his description of Yellow Ladies Tresses that caught my attention. I have dry field behind my house that I thought was an unusual place for Nodding Ladies Tresses and now wonder if they could be Yellow Ladies Tresses. I went to look today and they are well over a week behind the Nodding Ladies Tresses, which are at peak bloom. I found only two plants with only one open bloom. So far this fits Yellow Ladies Tresses to a tee; dry feet, later blooming. For now, I will post pictures and wait to pass judgement as they mature.

Slender Ladies Tresses

     

#295- Nodding Ladies Tresses

These Nodding Ladies Tresses were found in a wet field and there seemed to be hundreds of them. This picture shows the small stream with the orchids growing right to the edge. You can see dozens back in the weeds, every white spot is an orchid. I will post more pictures of them soon.


























These next pictures are of the Ladies Tresses found in the dry field behind my house. I suspect maybe they are Yellow Ladies Tresses, but will wait till they mature further before I decide. I will take your thoughts as well. So far the evidence is: Dry field, blooming over 1- 1 1/2 weeks later than Nodding Ladies Tresses, unopened blooms do look yellower and they are supposed to be very common in my area.

    Possible Yellow Ladies    Tresses

Possible Yellow Ladies Tresses Habitat

Close up of flowers 

#296- Jerulsalem Artichoke

I see this flower each year behind my school along the edge of the woods where a drainage ditch runs. I knew that it had blooms similar to Black Eyed Susan but there are a dozen or more blooms floating on hairy, small stems above the plant. It also is just beginning to bloom near the end of September while Black Eyed Susan is about bloomed out. It is not in the popular references despite being a Eastern US native wildflower. This is Brown Eyed Susan and a great looking flower as Fall begins in earnest. 

#297- Brown Eyed Susan

      

Here is  another Aster that is different from the others. It has the traits of Showy Aster, but it is not listed as found in West Virginia, so I need to do more research.


300 wildflowers in one year is just in reach but also seems tough to reach this late in the year; so far I have resisted the urge to label many of the similar plants unless I can ID them without question in my mind. There are so many Goldenrods, but I am only comfortable with five yellow ones and a white one. Same with the Asters; New York Aster, Old Field Aster, Small Flowered Aster, Smooth Aster and others are probally among my pictures but I just can't comfortably ID them.
          And I think of the missed opportunities; I know where to find White Clintonia and Indian Cucumber Root  plants, but could not find them in bloom, but have found both with fruit, one after chasing the grandbabies ball into the edge of a pine thicket. I find a Red Sessile Trillium and Dwarf Larkspur in Morgantown, but was not there this year. And there were others. But the constant searching here late in the year has shown me many wildflowers that I had not seen before. Its been a great year what ever the end count is.