My Bit of Heaven - by Kristl Walek

[johnw]

Kristl - Great pictures. I too have been looking at trees the last few days with Barry Starling who is giving talks to the rhododendron society. I had never seen Asimina here before and was surprised to see it with fruit and the mitten tree -  Sassafras - the first I have ever seen here. Also the first big Magnolia virginiana growing here and amazingly in a cold part of Nova Scotia. It was interesting to compare Cedrela sinensis with the exotic jungle-like Gymnocladus against the sky.

Maybe you can help me with the last photo  - I am drawing a total blank.

The weather here is abysmal - we have more than 3" of rain in the last 2 days and thunder and lightening as well.  In the last five weeks I can count of one hand the number of days the sun has peaked out. Despite the weather the Trumpet Vines are out in full force - I thought they wouldn't flower in this sort of weather. A chilly, damp, wet, soggy and foggy +15c.

johnw

[mark smyth]

Any Helianthus provided it is not a thug. There is one grown widely here in the UK that is a very fast spreader.

My books are
Tall Grass Prairie Wildflowers
Texas Wildflowers
Wildflowers of Texas Hill Country

The latter two are very far from your end of north America

[Kristl Walek]

Maybe you can help me with the last photo  - I am drawing a total blank.

Yes, John, the last picture is the bottlebrush buckeye- Aesculus parviflora - at it's seed formation stage.
Throw those seeds into a brown paper bag after they are ripe and within a couple weeks they will have sprouted inside the bag, like magic. Of course you can skip the paper bag  and plant them directly (I learned that lesson after a trip many years ago where I collected them in the wild-and all were sprouted long before I ever got home with the goods.)

I often say that if I were to do it all over again, I would specialize in woody species---I think, really, trees and shrubs are my true loves.

[Casalima]

Such a wonderful thread, Kristl  Can I put it forward for world heritage, national monument ...?? 

Chloë
(slowly, very slowly catching up with everything I missed over the holidays ...)

[Kristl Walek]

Any Helianthus provided it is not a thug. There is one grown widely here in the UK that is a very fast spreader.

Methinks that non-spreading and Helianthus cannot be found in the same sentence 
but I will continue to think about it.

[johnw]

Does anyone recognize this? The owner said it was a Thuja. The plant was about 1m high by 3-4 meters across. Startlingly white undersides.

johnw

[Kristl Walek]

I have been out in the wild almost constantly since my return, trying to catch up on all the collecting I missed while I was gone.

Today I decided to bring the camera, because the spots were so fascinating, although in the end, I wished I hadn't (more on that later).

The seed collecting goals were:
Sarracenia purpurea
Viburnum cassinoides
Andromeda glaucophylla
Betula populifolia
Aronia melanocarpa

And, as you might have guessed, these took me to boggy places (both new to this thread).

The first was a fen (a wet nutrient-rich site, with an almost constant supply of fresh water). The second was a bog (peat-based, soggy, nutrient-poor).

Approaching the fen from the street, one would never guess what lay behind the seeming ocean of cat-tails (which is all one can see from the road).

And anywhere there are cattails will surely be wet--and this year was worse than most--with the almost continuous rain all summer.

But once past the wall of Typha, the fen opens up into an extremely complex, very rich ecosystem of plants. There are hundreds of great species here---including oceans of Pogonia ophioglossoides at the right time---but for today I can only show you a few species in this very wet environment, interspersed with raised hummocks, the lower, wetter areas various grasses and sedges.

The primary woody species are Larix, Cedar, and Betula pumila.

[Kristl Walek]

The only thing remaining of the Pogonia ophioglossoides were the seed pods but Spiranthes cernua was still in flower.

Here too was Solidago uliginosa, which is confined to fens and bogs---the only goldenrod growing here.

Rhododendron groenlandicum was found on the hummocks, with some nice seed pods developing.
The Andromeda tended to be lower down in the wet areas near the hummocks.

Aster borealis is also confined to these sites. I saw both the white and the purple forms here.

Agalinis tenuifolia is a pretty annual of wet sites and a species one does not usually associate with wet, but which grows here in abundance is Potentilla fructicosa.

[Kristl Walek]

This is not my primary Sarracenia purpurea collection spot---but this was closer, and easier to access (the other spot with thousands of plants requires a 2 hour hike).

The plants grow down in the wet spots, fairly solid in spots, their flowering/seed heads peeking out of the grasses.

I believe the pictures will tell the story.

[Kristl Walek]

and some of the beautiful pitchers to end my trip to the fen.

[Kristl Walek]

My second site was a bog---not Alfred Bog, where the Rhododendon canadense grows---this one is much closer to home and a good thing too (more about this later).

I was not actually heading out onto the bog today, but to the peripheral woody areas leading into the bog to collect Aronia prunifolia, Betula populifolia and Viburnum cassinoides.

But just to give you an idea--this is what you see when the woody species open up to the main bog area---a sea of Larches and Eriophorum virginicum (Cotton Grass).

Ilex verticillata berries were already well-coloured too, but not quite ready for collecting.

The seed collecting behind me, I prepared to leave the bog.

And it was not really the Bidens species that I blame for what happened next, but the cursed ATV folks who think it fun to cruise around in bogs destroying plants AND THE DELICATE UNDERLYING STRUCTURE OF THE BOG and who had recently ripped up the entrance area to the bog.

The yellow of the Bidens caught my eye. I took one step forward to see it better and sunk many feet down- up to my waist (or more) in fact. One frightening moment (yes, mom always said never go to the bog alone), then quick thinking and a sturdy cat-tail clump and I had myself back out.

Second thought was for my camera- which did not sink with me, luckily. But it got badly bumped around in my frantic moment, and will not now allow me to take pictures (although it gave me this last picture of "Mud Woman" as a memory.)

Needless to say, I was happy not to have been pulled over by the police on my drive home and attempt to explain why I was driving barefoot and in my underwear  Luckily I did not go in up to my neck

[Lesley Cox]

So pleased you didn't leave us forever Kristl. I recall a not unsimilar event of a few years ago when I too was bogged and my friends stood around and laughed, until someone realized I really needed to be hauled out.

[Maggi Young]

Kristl, thank you so much for returning to post the photos... I don't  know what the problem is, I'm afraid, but it is great to get the pix online.
I must apologise for stopping to giggle over the poor mudwoman.........and indeed this might well have turned into no laughing matter at all... so pleased that you managed to extricate yourself... and show s the soggy results!

[Kristl Walek]

Thanks, Maggi.
The REALLY good news this morning is that my camera is working again!!!!
It seems that there was water in the battery case---that having dried out overnight I was able to take pictures again this morning. Good thing, too, because the next while will be an intensive picture taking time!!!!!!

[Maggi Young]

That is indeed good news, Kristl.......got to keep you snapping.......so many following your every move.... well, not quite, otherwise we'd all end up in the mud!