Down by the River
September 4, 2019 by New Hampshire Garden Solutions

I know of only three places to find gentians and only one place to find bottle or closed gentians, and that place is along the Ashuelot River in Keene. Last year I got upset when I went looking for them and found that the Keene Parks and Recreation Department had sent someone out here with a weed wacker, and that person had cut down countless beautiful wildflowers all along the trail, including the gentians. I didn’t know what I would find this year but last Saturday down the trail I went.

One of the first things I noticed was how ripe the false Solomon’s seal fruit (Maianthemum racemosum) was getting. It goes from mottled to solid red and many of these were red. They’re very pretty berries that are said to taste like molasses.

Virginia bugleweed (Lycopus virginicus) bloomed all along the trail. This is a close relative of water horehound (Lycopus americanus) and looks much like it except for its purple tinged leaves.

It was a beautiful day for a walk in the woods and I petted dogs, talked to strangers, and was happy to be in a place I’ve known since I was about 10 years old. To think I was walking a trail which was, in high probability, a Native American fishing trail which has probably changed little in thousands of years. Remains of settlements dating back 12,000 years have been found very near here and it boggles the mind to think about all that might have gone on in this place.

I always seem to see something I haven’t seen before out here, even though I’ve walked this trail for over 50 years. On this day it was a nice colony of one of our prettiest native orchids, the pink lady’s slipper (Cypripedium acaule.) I wonder if I’ll remember where they are next June when they’re in bloom.

One of the lady’s slippers still had last year’s seed pod on it, and on that was a spider’s egg sac.

The branches of this fallen tree always make me think of the ribs of an ancient sunken ship. Indeed, at one time sections of this river were dredged so that river boats could navigate it, but the railroad coming to town put a stop to that.

Other trees might add to the hazards in the river; I could see right through this hollow red maple (Acer rubrum.)

There was lots of duckweed on the backwaters where the current is almost nonexistent.

Mad dog skullcap (Scutellaria laterifolia) grew on the sunny parts of the riverbank. The skullcap part of the common name comes from the calyx at the base of the flower, which is said to look like a medieval skull cap. The plant was once thought to cure rabies, and that is where the “mad dog” part of the common name comes from. There is powerful medicine in many skullcap species and when Native Americans wanted to go on a spirit walk or vision quest this was one of the plants they chose. The small blue and white flowers always grow in pairs in the leaf axils on mad dog skullcap but you have to look closely because sometimes one bloom will fall off before the other, which is what has happened with this example.

The seed pods of fringed loosestrife (Lysimachia ciliata) are unusual and hard to confuse with any other plant. I saw hundreds of seedpods but only one flower left, growing out of reach down the river bank.

Royal fern (Osmunda spectabilis) hasn’t changed into its fall yellow yet. When they are near a water source royal ferns can grow quite large and appear to be a shrub, but this one was young and on dry ground so it wasn’t very big. The royal fern is found on every continent except Australia, making it one of the most widespread of all living species. They are also thought to be one of the oldest living things, with fossil records of the Osmundaceae family dating back over 300 million years. Individual plants are believed to be able to live for over 100 years. Cinnamon and interrupted ferns are also in the Osmundaceae family and also grow here. It is thought that the genus might have been named after King Osmund, who ruled in the British Isles in the eighth century. Royal ferns are one of my favorites because they are so unlike any other fern.

I think, in the eight years I’ve been doing this blog, that I’ve only show beech nuts (Fagus grandifolia) one other time and that’s because I rarely see them. But on this day I stumbled onto hundreds of them that must have just fallen, because many of the kernels were still inside the prickly looking husks seen here. If you harvest beechnuts and then leave them alone for a day or two they will open and out will drop two kernels. Like many trees and other plants, beech trees will have a year of heavy production, known as a mast year, and then produce very few nuts for a few years afterwards.

I put a kernel on a penny so you could get a sense of scale. A penny is 3/4 of an inch in diameter. Chipmunks and squirrels and even bears love the kernels, so you usually find more empty husks than anything else.

As I’ve said so many times, spring and fall really begin on the forest floor, much earlier than many of us realize. This wild sarsaparilla (Aralia nudicaulis) is a good example of that. It might be leafless before many of the trees it grows under have even started to turn color. The roots of the plant were once used to make root beer but the drink that was called sarsaparilla contained no part of the plant. It was made from birch oil and sassafras root.

There was a single blossom on what looked like an all but dead St. John’s wort plant (Hypericum perforatum.) I haven’t seen these blossoms for a few weeks now so I’m going to say this may be the last one I see this year. It’s a beautiful thing. This plant has been used medicinally for thousands of years. It likes to grow in open meadows in full sun but will stand some shade as it did here.

Wild cucumber (Echinocystis lobata) climbed up over the shrubs along the trail. It likes to grow in sandy soil and prefers a bit of shade over full sun. The flower spikes (Racemes) grow to 6 inches or more all along the main stem.

When those maples on the other side of the river turn scarlet in the fall this is an awesome view, but it isn’t really so bad in green either.

I saw a single New England aster blossom (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae.) As I’ve said in previous posts, they are our biggest, most showy aster. Some tower up over my head but this one had bent down to about knee level.

I was very surprised to see turtleheads (Chelone glabra linifolia) blooming out here. I’ve never seen them here before this day.

And there they were; one of my favorite shades of blue is found on bottle gentians (Gentiana andrewsii) but I don’t see many because they are quite rare here. This is the only place I can find them so you can imagine my delight when I found that they hadn’t been cut down again. When they start to go by theses flowers become even more beautiful by turning very dark blue and then a kind of purple. They closely resemble narrow leaved gentian (Gentiana linearis) but that plant has much narrower leaves. Why anyone would cut such a rare and beautiful thing is beyond me.

I’ve been here enough times to know that the only thing beyond this bridge is a highway, so this is where I turn and go back. As I chose what photos to use for this post I was amazed that I saw so much on what is a relatively short walk of only an hour or so, and once again I was thankful that it hadn’t all been cut down again, because it’s a beautiful walk.
To find the universal elements enough; to find the air and the water exhilarating; to be refreshed by a morning walk or an evening saunter; to be thrilled by the stars at night; to be elated over a bird’s nest or a wildflower in spring- these are some of the rewards of the simple life. ~ John Burroughs
Thanks for coming by.
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Posted in Nature, Scenery / Landscapes, Wildflowers | Tagged Ashuelot River, Beech Nuts, Bottle Gentian, Cheshire Railroad, Closed Gentian, Duckweed, False Solomon's Seal Fruit, Fringed Loosestrife Seed Pod, Keene, Mad Dog Skullcap, Native Plants, Nature, New England Aster, New Hampshire, NH, Olympus Stylus TG-870, Pink Lady's Slipper, Red Maple, Royal Fern, St. John's Wort, Summer Wildflowers, Virginia Bugle Weed, White Turtlehead, Wild Cucumber, Wild Sarsaparilla | 29 Comments
Last October I spread some meadow seeds on the pond bank in my yard after we cleared a tangle of invasive plants; and I was not sure if anything would come up from the seed mix. So a few days ago I was delighted to find a single blue gentian growing amongst the smartweeds and goldenrods and evening primroses that found a foothold on the bank, which was previously choked by oriental bittersweet and multiflora rose. I am so happy that the Gentian liked it there; I hope it comes back multiplied next year. BTW the seed mix was Short Sedge Meadow Mix by Prairie Moon and Gentiana andrewsii was one of the species.
Thank you Vesna, that’s interesting. I hope the gentians will be happy there and will multiply!
Thanks for sharing your walk, the river and the blue sky, beautiful! The gentian is one of my favorite flowers.. I know of a few places here to find them, so I will be on the look out for them.
You’re welcome Chris. I hope you find plenty!
Love Bottle Gentians! Also love watching the Bumblebees pushing their way in and out of the flowers.
There weren’t any bees on these blossoms but I’ve seen the doing the same thing to narrow leaf gentians.
I have several closed gentians in my yard and would be happy to share them with you if you want to spread them around the countryside or in your own garden. They seem to spread by rhizomes and by seed which is why I have plenty. These are the offspring of one plant which I “fostered” for a year for a friend who was moving. When I gave her back her gentian, little did I know that I’d inherited a bunch of ’em.
Thank you very much Elaine but I should be able to get seeds off the plants I know of.
For the last month or so another reader has been trying to send me swamp milkweed seeds and it has been a nightmare for both of us with lost mail, mailmen throwing mail away into dumpsters, and a lot of other problems you probably wouldn’t believe, so I don’t want to do that to you!
I do have one seedling in a pot and since my son lives in Keene, I can give it to him to give to you, if you like.
There are a number of Gentian linearis plants on the margins down the center of the access road under the power lines on South Bow Rd in Bow. I have never seen such a brilliant blue.
Thank you Elizabeth. That sounds like quite a sight! You’re lucky to have found them. I’m always looking for fringed gentians too, but I’ve only seen one of those in my life.
I am so pleased the gentians weren’t cut down again this year. I can imagine your feelings of apprehension as you walked along. The gentian is such a beauty! I cannot understand people who destroy such lovely things.
Thank you Clare. I think it was chiefly ignorance that cut down the gentians. When they cut our native wildflowers and leave the “pretty” purple loosestrife it couldn’t be anything else.
Crass stupidity and ignorance. Sad.
Yes, but hopefully this blog (and your own blog) is correcting some of it.
Yes, I hope so.
Where you see the ribs of a ship, I see defensive spikes ready to repel invaders. That was a good picture of the St John’s Wort.
I always think that it was a pity that the European incomers to your country couldn’t find a better way to live with the native inhabitants. So much was lost.
Those spikes might have repelled Europeans but I think the Natives would have had a good laugh.
Yes, not just in this country but all over the world much knowledge of nature was lost. It’s a shame.
I thoroughly enjoyed this latest walk, and as usual, learned something. Birch oil and sassafras made sarsaparilla? My great aunt brewed both root beer and sarsaparilla. Her root beer was especially tasty on a hot day, but would leave us with a stomach ache for an hour. One summer as her root beer was “setting” it got a little over active and several bottles blew up dripping down through the ceilng below. She also made a sassafras candy that my father loved. I wonder if anyone does those things anymore.
Thanks very much. Yes, real sarsaparilla comes from the root a vine called Smilax ornata that grows in Mexico and Central and South America. Since it contains a toxic substance it has been banned here, I think for quite a while.
I’d love to know what was in your great aunt’s recipe! I’ve heard of beer doing the same thing her root beer did. What a mess!
You can still buy sassafrass candy. Just Google it. There are lots of different ones.
It’s kind of an in-between season, isn’t it? The glorious blooms of summer are pretty much gone but have not yet been replaced by the blaze of fall.
Yes it is. I’ve had people tell me they’ve seen trees changing but I haven’t yet. And that’s okay-no hurry at all!
Retired now, had time to read most of this post.?Love the way you integrate your writing to the pictures. Eight years of vast improvement!
Thanks Bob, I hope you’re finding more time to write now.
I am, but not yet disciplined to it. Still in my do nothing stage, and reading
Glad you found enjoyment walking such an historic trail despite the weed wacker!
Thank you Susan. I hope the weed whacker won’t be back.
Also, I’ve been reading and commenting on your blog over the last few weeks but my comments have been disappearing. They haven’t been anything special but I thought you should know.
Thank you, I wonder what has happened to them, WordPress can be unreliable.
Yes, they can. I don’t know where comments go when they disappear but it has happened to a lot of us.