Last Saturday was a beautiful cool, sunny day perfect for a walk in the woods, so I chose one of my favorite rail trails in Swanzey. It crosses the Ashuelot river and I thought I’d see how low the water was.
Cinnamon ferns (Osmundastrum cinnamomeum) often turn a beautiful pumpkin orange in the fall and it looked like they were well on their way.
There was nothing strange about finding Indian cucumber root plants (Medeola virginiana) out here but what was very odd about this particular plant was the bright red splotch on its upper tier of leaves. I’ve never seen this before. It looks like someone has dripped paint on it but no, it was part of the leaf color. I’ve never seen this plant turn red in the fall so I can’t explain it.
What may have been a Virginia ctenucha moth caterpillar crawled up a grass stem. According to the I naturalist website this caterpillar inhabits wet meadows and open spaces with bushes from North Carolina to Canada east of the Rocky Mountains. It was quite small.
A woodpecker of some sort made a hole right below the stitched holes made by a sapsucker, which is another woodpecker. Not something you see every day.
I saw a young fly agaric (Amanita muscaria v. formosa) just up out of the soil and pushing up the leaf litter.
There were many fly agarics all along the trail. They often grow in large colonies.
Maple dust lichens (Lecanora thysanophora) grew on many species of tree along this trail. I like this lichen’s simplicity; what you see is what you get with this one. The white fringe around the outside is called the prothallus and using it is a great way to identify it, because from what I’ve read there isn’t another that has it.
This trail is level, wide and shaded and a lot of bike riders use it. I saw one with a flat tire on this day, so they had to turn from rider to hiker. I hoped they didn’t have too far to go.
Big red stem moss (Pleurozium schreberi) is a common moss that I often see growing in very large mats, sometimes even overrunning other mosses. In fact I’ve never seen a moss grow as fast as this one. It’s everywhere I go now and just a few years ago I hardly saw it. I put my hand in this moss on this day and found it soft and thick like a cushion, and also quite damp.
I’ve wondered if the dampness that the moss seems to retain is why so many other plants come up through it. This pink lady’s slipper certainly seemed happy surrounded by it. Many mosses soak up water like a sponge and release it slowly over time and I have a feeling that this is one of them.
New England asters bloomed in only one spot on this day but it was a beautiful plant, loaded with blossoms.
What I think were common earth ball (Scleroderma citrinum) puffballs grew all along the trail. I was surprised because I usually only see maybe one or two each year. Another name for it is the pigskin poison puffball because it is toxic. It likes to grow on compacted soil like that found on forest trails. They often have a yellow color on their surface and are also called citrine earth balls because of it. I’ve seen them with a beautiful lemon yellow color.
Someone had shot off a bottle rocket from somewhere and it landed out here on the trail. It’s a wonder it didn’t start a fire. Dry white pine needles are excellent material for starting a campfire.
Indian pipes (Monotropa uniflora) are white and ghostly at first but this is how they end up. The odd thing about this example is how the flower didn’t stand up straight after it was pollinated, or maybe it wasn’t pollinated. Usually once pollinated the flowers will stand perfectly vertical and look directly up at the sky, and that’s how the current phase of their lives will end.
I was very surprised to see shining sumac (Rhus copallinum) here. I’ve only seen this plant in two other places so it seems to be on the rare side in this area. It is also called flame leaf sumac, dwarf sumac, or winged sumac. These shrubs were about chest high but I’ve read that they can reach about 8-10 feet. The foliage turns a beautiful, brilliant orange-red in fall.
I was also surprised to see a red trillium (Trillium erectum) still hanging on to its leaves. Once the plant is done flowering in late April to mid-May the leaves don’t usually last long. They like cool, damp weather but they certainly haven’t had any of that this year.
I was finally at the old Boston and Maine Railroad trestle where I could see what the water level of the river was out here in the middle of nowhere. In Keene the river is so low that for the first time in my memory Ashuelot falls on West street have gone dry.
It’s hard to tell from photos but the river in this spot was about as low as I’ve ever seen it. If you walked across it here under the old trestle I doubt you’d even get your knees wet.
Some trees looked appropriately fall-like but they were also in bright sunshine. I’ve noticed that some trees are changing early and they say it’s due to stress from lack of rain.
Though I would have loved to have stayed in the woods for days of course I couldn’t, so I turned and followed the trail back. And, I should add, I saw all kinds of things that I missed the first time. And that’s why John Burroughs said To find new things, take the path you took yesterday.
I would have plenty of company on my walk back. Chipmunks are having a good year and they’ll have good times in the future, because we have a good crop of acorns and the pine trees are loaded with cones. It looks like a mast year.
Nearness to nature keeps the spirit sensitive to impressions not commonly felt and in touch with the unseen powers. ~Charles Eastman
Thanks for stopping in.
I have really enjoy your blog and beautiful photos this past summer and I have been able to identify most wild flowers through it And have learned a lot about nature throughout the seasons in N.H.
I would appreciate knowing your name. Are you able to share it? With appreciation, Jan Holzman, Grantham, NH.
Thanks very much Jan, I’m glad you’re enjoying the blog! Since I’m just a nature lover and not a professional botanist I hope you’re confirming my plant identifications with another source.
My name is Allen Norcross and I live in the Keene area. Fall has started here and it looks like the trees will be beautiful again this year!
Such intriguing discoveries. And lovely photos! Some of my white Trillium still have green leaves this late in the season. That’s surprising.
Thank you Cynthia. You’re lucky to have white trilliums. I never see them here.
It is surprising that any trillium would still have leaves!
The rocket find was most dispiriting. You would think that even a grain of common sense would have stopped the owner from launching it just now.
I agree, but they say that fireworks sales are way up right now.
I always wonder how people can want to light off fireworks when they live in what is essentially the second largest forest in the entire country. Only Maine has more forested acres.
Good sense is in short supply at the moment.
Yes.
That’s a great picture of the chipmunk.
Thank you Susan!
Sounds as if it was a great walk! It’s still looking fairly lush and green. The chippy is so cute with his pouches all full (although I’ve seen totally stuffed pouches that were larger). It was ages before I realized their alarm call was not a bird! How do you know the trillium was a red one?? ‘Fess up, Allen! The white pines around here had a mast year last year and I’ve found seedlings in the weirdest places in my yard. But no surprise as there are about a dozen pines right across on the school campus. Have a good week ahead. We’ve got nights in the upper 30s for the next three days. I’m NOT ready!
Thanks Ginny, It was a great walk.
Chipmunks do sound like birds sometimes!
I knew that was a red trillium by the size of its leaves. They’re much bigger than those of painted or nodding trilliums, which are the only other two trilliums we have.
It was about 34 degrees here this morning and in the 20s in other areas. I’m not ready either!
I’ve caught up with your recent posts now, and thoroughly enjoyed this virtual walk through your woods, Allen. I see above you have an answer to the red leaves on the Indian Cucumber question.
I am both sorry and horrified you found a spent bottle rocket in your dry woods. Whoever did that should read the news about fires in the west. There has been loss of life, not just forests – people, pets, livestock and wildlife. Fire moves quickly, and generates its own weather. Whole towns can be wiped out.
Thank You Lavinia. I wasn’t happy about finding the bottle rocket. Some people just don’t think things through, I guess.
I hope you and your area have stayed safe from the fires. They’ve sounded horrible in the news.
Our area was in Level 1 evacuation status for a little over a week. We were packed and ready to go at Level 2. We were not going to wait for Level 3. Firefighters finally made some progress containing the Holiday Farm fire coming up on us from the south, and we are back to “normal” for now. Fires are still raging around the state and the west, and fire season is not over yet. I have learned this year that Oregon has its equivalent of California’s Santa Ana winds. These eastern winds stoked fires here.
https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-09-10/oregon-wildfires-santa-ana
I’m glad you didn’t lose anything.
It must be stressful to say the least to have fire so close. Stay safe!
I saw an Indian Cucumber with red splotched leaves on a walk last weekend. From what I’ve read, those splotches on the top tier of leaves appear around the time that the berries ripen, but I don’t know why they do so. (The one that I spotted did have one dark bluish purple berry.)
Thank you for that Karen. I wonder if the red splotch is there to attract certain birds, like turkeys, to the berries. I’ll to try to find the answer.
I have numerous times over the lat 10 years noticed the red splotch you showed on the Indian cucumber leaves here in CT. Always makes me marvel at the beauty. The idea of attracting certain birds, like Turkey’s in intriguing. I don’t remember berries being there with the red splotch (or at least in my memory), but it may be that the red splotch is effective and the berries don’t last long. I’ll be curious to learn if you find out more.
Thank you Lucy. I did look that up after I replied to Karen and scientists do suspect that the red is there to attract birds. But since the birds eat the berries as soon as they ripen anyway it seems like a waste of energy on the plant’s part.
Always exciting to see an open path calling one into the woods, so many discoveries waiting! I love to see the Indian Pipes, in any stage of their life cycle. Your find makes me think of a sad, defeated little “ET”, knowing the end is near, and there will be no going “home”. Or maybe he does go home to rest and renew, until returning next spring. Thank you.
You’re welcome Lynne. I’ve found that Indian pipes do come back in or very close to the same place they were the previous year, so I’ve wondered if they were perennial. If so this one will be back!