Tag Archives: Carderock

Quick Carderock Update

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I had a quick look around the Carderock area on Friday (March 29), and saw the following plants blooming or budding. Also had fun taking closeup shots.

Arabidopsis lyrata (lyre-leaved rockcress): a few flowers  –>

 

Boechera laevigata (smooth rockcress): buds
Cardamine angustifolia (slender toothwort): buds

<–Cardamine concatenata (cut-leaf toothwort): flowers

Claytonia virginica (spring beauty): lots of flowers
Dicentra cucullaria (Dutchman’s breeches): a lot of buds, a few flowers

 

 

Dirca palustris (leatherwood): full bloom –>

 

 

 

<–Erythronium americanum (trout lily): gobs of leaves; 5 flowers

Lindera benzoin (spicebush): flowers

 

 

 

Mertensia virginica (Virginia bluebells): lots of buds, just a few open flowers    –>

 

 

 

<–Micranthes virginiensis (early saxifrage): full bloom

The next few weeks should be spectacular.

Please Rain; More Spring Ephemerals

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River levels have been pretty high, and the vernal ponds are more full than I’ve seen them in several years, but I suspect the groundwater level is still pretty low. We need rain.

Or it may be that I need rain. With this compressed season, I’ve been out almost every day shooting, which means I have a backlog of several hundred photos to process and many ideas for blog posts to write. But those things won’t happen until the weather forces me to stay inside.

Micranthes virginiana (early saxifrage)

The initial tide of spring ephemerals is ebbing: while early saxifrage, golden ragwort, and toadshade are near their peak, Virginia bluebells, toothworts, Dutchman’s breeches and squirrel corn are all past theirs, and it looks like bloodroot, trout lily, and harbinger of spring are done. Round-lobe hepatica seems to be done near the Potomac, but is still going strong up at Rachel Carson Conservation Park.

Obolaria virginica (pennywort)

And speaking of RCCP, pennywort is blooming there now, and the pinxter azaleas are well in bud.

 

 

The second wave of spring flowers is well under way in the greater Carderock area.

Houstonia caerulea (azure bluets)

Recently I’ve spotted blue, yellow, and white violet species, sessile bellwort, yellow corydalis, azure bluets, and wild pinks.

 

 

Phlox divaricata (wild blue phlox)

 

 

Wild blue phlox is close to peak, and so is rue anemone.

 

 

 

 

Geranium maculatum (wild geranium)

Dwarf cinquefoil, plantain-leaved pussytoes, wild geranium, and jack-in-the-pulpit are blooming.

 

 

 

 

Cercis canadensis (redbud)

Trees are blooming, too. Redbud flowers are open, pawpaw buds are swelling.

 

 

Dogwood is just getting started.

 

Cornus florida (flowering dogwood)

Other species to watch for: early meadow rue, star chickweed, lyre-leaved rockcress, smooth rockcress…

 

 

 

…and always spring beauties.

Claytonia virginica (spring beauty) growing in an exposed tree root

No, Really, It’s Still June: Knock it Off!

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What is going on with the asters and sunflowers this year? It’s really too early for them to be blooming. First there was Ionactis linariifolia, then the Solidago species, and now this.

I’ve been visiting this same spot near Carderock for five years now. The earliest I’ve ever seen woodland sunflower (Helianthus divaricatus) blooming was late July.

Of the seven or so Helianthus species found in the Maryland piedmont, this is the only one with sessile, entire, opposite leaves, making identification pretty easy.

Crowning Glory

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Wednesday, May 10. Headed to Sugarloaf Mountain with two goals: get good pictures of pink lady’s slipper and mountain laurel. Failed both. Too late for the former, too early for the latter.

 

 

Monday, May 15. Headed to Rachel Carson Conservation Park with three goals: locate and photograph large twayblade; get good pictures of spotted wintergreen and mountain laurel. Failed to find the twayblade, too early for the spotted wintergreen, and the mountain laurels were still in bud, with only a few individual flowers open.

 

Tuesday, May 16. Headed to Carderock with one goal: photograph mountain laurel. Success! Here they were actually a little past peak bloom, but still flowering profusely.

 

There’s something about the flowers of plants in the Ericaceae (heath family) that I find especially compelling, but I can’t quite put my finger on it. Actually it isn’t just the flowers, because I find the plants themselves intriguing and lovely.

 

Mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia) is a multi-stemmed shrub that grows to 15 feet tall, maybe taller in the right conditions, but it doesn’t grow straight. The stems twist and curve, and you can see that habit in the patterns of the bark. It has a tendency to drop all but the uppermost leaves. When in bloom it looks to me like the plant is crowned in flowers.

Like our garden azaleas and rhododendrons, mountain laurel flowers on old growth (which you can see in the first photo). New growth is pictured here (with spent oak catkins drooped on the petioles).

 

 

Identifying mountain laurel is easy, because little else has that open, gnarled habit. The leaves are evergreen. Flowers are borne in crowded corymbs, and each flower has five petals fused into a tube, with ten stamens that initially stick in little folds in the petals. The color ranges from nearly white to deep pink, with a red ring in the throat.

Like other ericaceous plants, mountain laurel loves moist but well-drained, acidic soils. When you see it, you’ll often see other plants in the same family nearby. In Rachel Carson Conservation Park, it grows on a bald knob with pinxter azaleas, blueberries and deerberries (Vaccinium species), and spotted wintergreen (Chimaphila maculata). It’s also abundant on Sugarloaf Mountain, and on a few of the ridges near Carderock. There’s a section of the Cabin John Trail that I call Erica Alley, a rocky area with plenty of ericaceous species (and other neat plants, like rock polypody, ground pine, and firmosses), including dozens and dozens of mountain laurels, too, but in all the years I’ve been hiking there, I’ve never seen them bloom. I’ve never even seen buds on them.

Mountain laurel ranges from Louisiana to Maine; it’s threatened in Florida, special concern in Maine, and exploitably vulnerable in New York. In Maryland it’s found in every county except Somerset.

 

Carderock – Marsden Tract Report

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skink posing on rockface

Plants seen on May 2; those that were flowering are probably close to done by today.

 

 

 

 

 

Antennaria plantaginifolia (plantain-leaved pussy toes): most in seed

 

 

 

Aplectrum hyemale (puttyroot orchid): one flower on one spike open
Arisaema triphyllum (jack-in-the-pulpit): flowering
Asimina triloba (pawpaw): done flowering
Boechera laevigata (smooth rock cress): in seed
Cerastium arvense (field chickweed): a few still flowering but past peak

Chionanthus virginicus (fringetree): glorious flowering; follow your nose, they’re fragrant

 

 

 

Claytonia virginica (spring beauty): only a handful left
Comandra umbellata (bastard toadflax):  no flowers, though there were buds 2 weeks ago; did I miss it?!
Erigeron pulchellus (Robin’s plantain): flowering
Geranium maculatum (wild geranium): done
Hesperis matronalis (dame’s rocket; alien): blooming
Heuchera americana (alumroot): flowering
Hieracium venosum (rattlesnake weed): flowering
Houstonia caerulea (azure bluets): still flowering but past peak
Hydrophyllum virginianum (Virginia waterleaf): flowering but in decline
Kalmia latifolia (mountain laurel): lots of buds just ready to burst open
Mertensia virginica (Virginia bluebells): all done
Micranthes virginiensis (early saxifrage): saw one plant blooming; effectively done
Mitchella repens (partridgeberry): budding up
Myosotis verna (spring forget-me-not): done
Osmorhiza claytonii (sweet cicely): done
Oxalis stricta (common yellow woodsorrel): going strong
Oxalis violacea (violet woodsorrel): still blooming
Packera aurea (golden ragwort): done

Penstemon hirsutus (hairy beardtongue): peak bloom

 

 

 
Phacelia covillei (Coville’s phacelia): done
Phlox divaricata (wild blue phlox): very few left; effectively done
Phlox subulata (moss phlox): only a few left; effectively done
Polygonatum biflorum (Solomon’s seal): blooming
Potentilla canadensis (dwarf cinquefoil): blooming
Potentilla simplex (common cinquefoil): blooming
Ranunculus repens (creeping buttercup; alien): blooming

Robinia pseudoacacia (black locust): blooming

 

 

 
Rosa multiflora (multiflora rose; alien): blooming
Rubus species (dewberry): blooming
Salvia lyrata (lyre-leaved sage): still blooming but past peak
Sanicula species (snakeroot): just starting to bloom
Silene caroliniana (wild pink): done
Sisyrinchium angustifolium (blue-eyed grass): blooming
Staphylea trifolia (bladdernut): mostly done
Stellaria pubera (star chickweed): just a few left, almost done
Thalictrum coriaceum (maid-of-the-mist): blooming but past peak
Thalictrum thalictroides (rue anemone): done
Toxicodendron radicans (poison ivy): full bloom
Tradsecantia virginiana (Virginia spiderwort): full bloom
Trifolium repens (white clover; alien): blooming
Trillium sessile (toadshade): almost done
Vaccinium stamineum (deerberry): blooming
Valeriana pauciflora (long-tube valerian): blooming, just past peak
Valerianella species (cornsalad): blooming
Veronica serpyllifolia var. serpyllifolia (thyme-leaved speedwell): blooming
Viola palmata (early blue violet): blooming
Viola sororia (common blue violet): done

and a black rat snake