July 14th. When I visited Fort Yargo State Park in mid-February,
there were few signs of Spring. The only wildflower plants that were obvious
were the leaves of Cranefly Orchids (Tipularia
discolor) that I found in many places.
The route… I’ve described it here, here, here, and here This walk doesn’t have the variety of wildflowers as my other
walk from the Group A Shelter to the Old Fort but it does have some gems. One
of the Smallflower (Asimina parviflora)
had developed fruit that, unfortunately, it had lost; the Pink Lady’s Slipper (Cypripedium acaule) Orchids had bloomed,
and some Green Adder’s-mouth (Malaxis
unifolia) Orchids had bloomed and two were setting seeds. The occurrence of
slime mold fruiting bodies added a new focus of interest for this walk.
The Witch’s Butter (Tremella
mesenterica), growing after recent rains, had dried up again.
I was surprised to find a single Atlantic Pigeonwings (Clitoria mariana) blooming by the trail along the lake shore. It was
just a tiny plant, but was supporting two sets of flowers.
The Starry Rosinweed (Silphium
astericus) was still blooming in the shade.
The Bicolor Lespedeza (Lespedeza
bicolor) bushes nearby were putting on more blooms, still in the bud stage.
I made my way over to the first log where I’d been finding
slime mold fruiting bodies. The only slime mold I found were…
Chocolate Tube (Stemonitis sp.) fruiting bodies, but there
were more than enough of these to make up for the lack of variety – a small
forest. These included…
fruiting bodies that were relatively undisturbed, and others
that looked as if they had been…
'wind blown.'
I left the first log and walked up ‘The Hill’ to the second
log.
At the second log near the top of the hill, I was in for another surprise. I found a
few…
Arcyria
cinerea
fruiting bodies, and just a…
few Chocolate Tube (Stemonitis
sp.) fruiting bodies.
The surprise on this log, though, was a small
patch of…
short, stalked fruiting bodies. They looked like miniature…
Chocolate Tube fruiting bodies. They were only about 3 to 4
mm tall compared with the approximately 1-cm height of the Chocolate Tube
fruiting bodies. I've been calling them 'stubbies' in the absence of a proper identification.
I walked around to the Tulip Poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera) where the
developing fruit was thriving.
On my way up the trail, I had an unexpected encounter with
a…
Black-shouldered Spinyleg (Dromogomphus spinosus) dragonfly. This was the first time I had seen one of these dragonflies.
I walked up through the…
young pine woods to the Outer Loop Trail and on down to the
dam.
(To be continued)
Related posts:
- Spring Is In The
Air: Fort Yargo State Park, Section B To The Dam, May 1st (Part 2)
No comments:
Post a Comment