August 26, 2020

Spotted Touch-me-not

Notes and Changes since last report

• It was 75°F, mostly clear and windy at 4:00 PM on August 26, 2020.
• Cool air and warm sun was a nice change.
• Birds and butterflies were both pretty quiet this afternoon.
• This week's trail report covers the Cary Pines Trail side of the trail system.

The Trails

• The late afternoon light was low on the Wappinger Creek at trail marker 10.
• A jewelbox spider web was illuminated by half a sunbeam.
• Still, from a distance, it was invisible between its two anchoring trees.
• Out on the Cary Pines Trail, a colony of Indian pipe was showing its age.
• A sunny patch where the trail lets out above the Fern Glen was a typical place to find...
• ... a Zabulon skipper.
• Pearly everlasting seems to like the loose, dry soils there.
• In the 'Glen, tall bellflower was still blooming.
• In the sunny limestone cobble, wood nettle was easier to examine than in the dark woods earlier.
• The terminal female flowers would develop little black beebee seeds in the spikey, green cups.
• And the male flowers would remain below under the leaves.
• Usually blue, great lobelia occasionally occurs in pure white.
• A surprise was a green dragon flower right behind the pond. We'd seen leaves before, but in a completely different area.
• Little Herb-Robert has been going non-stop since early spring. Here is also a bundle of green seeds and the empty base of an earlier set.
• Spotted touch-me-not was blooming now - not profusely, but widely scattered.
• Such an innocent little flower is tearthumb. Its stalk is another matter.
• Rough-leaved goldenrod, with its large basal leaves and fondness of wetlands, is an easy goldenrod to ID.
• Oh, and the flower is certainly that of a goldenrod.
• Lower to the ground, Jack-in-the-pulpit fruit was forming.
• Climbing hemp weed didn't seem to be doing so well this year, but was looking better than it was earlier on.
• Its always nice to see whorled aster, and not just because it is so distinct among the bewildering asters.
• We had to get in a mushroom today; the size alone was enough for this one to make the roster.
• Green-headed coneflower is interesting to watch as its petals develop from little green horns to great yellow paddles.
• Great lobelia had not been doing so well this year, but by the deck was a nice stand.
• Out along the trail through the Old Gravel Pit, White snakeroot was getting ready to bloom.
• And out in the Little Bluestem Meadow, spreading dogbane was still going strong.
• Next week: The Wappinger Creek Trail side of the trail system.

Sightings