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

A River Runs By It

I traveled some this week and found myself along the Kanawha River one day at a little city park with the grandbabies. While looking at geese and skipping rocks, I noticed  purple spots among the river side vegetation. It turned out to be a nice flower called  American Water-Willow, a new one for me. And when I got home at the end of a long week, it was raining. I started out early Saturday in a thunder storm, hoping for a break in the weather. I was headed for the Little Bluestone River near my home to search for Virginia Spirea, a shrub that I had never seen. From all of the reading I did this week, I know it is known on this river. And I knew this part of the river receives regular scours, which the spirea needs. I did not find it this time but did see many flowers and then was disappointed at how many were not natives. 
         I had recently found Purple Loosestrife in a drainage ditch and had read how invasive it is, but had no clue how bad until I saw this section of river and the solid purple sections of river bank. There are many pictures below and some will still need to be identified.

#215- Button Bush

Button Bush

#216- Rose Pink

#217- Oxeye Sunflower

#218- Allegheny Monkey Flower

#219- white wood aster

Purple Loosestrife along Little Bluestone River

#220- American Water Willow from Kanawha River  (cell phone picture)

#221- Garden Loosestrife (non-native)

#222- Bouncing Bet  (non-native)

Bouncing Bet  (non-native) 

#223- Asiatic dayflower  (non-native)

#224- Bull Thistle (non-native)