My Bit of Heaven - by Kristl Walek

[jomowi]

Maggie, just ask and I will give you such a site in Deeside.

[Maggi Young]

Maggie, just ask and I will give you such a site in Deeside.

 Brian, you know I need to get out more!!
 I just knew you and Maureen would know of any such places.... how exciting to see them in these numbers.... a very superior ground cover, don't you agree?
 Some time I must take up your offer. 

[Kristl Walek]

just ask and I will give you such a site in Deeside.

I love beautiful plants with a circumpolar distribution ---and Linnaea is found in almost all the continents

[Maggi Young]

Yes, I think these widely distributed plants have a charm all their own, showing their capacity to thrive in many lands..... I am excited to think that such a fine population might be found nearby..... I have only ever seen little patches in the wild in Scotland.

[Kristl Walek]

Today's goal was to collect Acer rubrum seed, which is ephemeral and must be quickly sown. It is not possible to moist pack it to preserve viability, as it is an immediate germinator. I also wanted to find Iris setosa without the 8km walk to the last spot I found them on the shore.

On my drive up the North Mountain, I had to look twice at the blue in the ditches, thinking at first it must be more lupins---but the wet ditch was actually full of Iris versicolor.

Along the road the Myrica pensylvanica was in (unexciting) bloom---but these will be followed by those interesting, perfumed, waxy blue berries.

Once in the forest, I walked in lush growth along water, eventually meeting many of my old friends: large drifts of Cornus canadensis, and again, those irresistable groundcover mixes that I have so come to cherish here. The Linnaea was much deeper in color here; am not sure if this was a light, moisture, or phase of bloom issue.

[Kristl Walek]

Coming out on the shore is always exciting, no matter how many times I experience it. Made more thrilling by the fact that 99.9% of the time I have the places all to myself---a rare thing these days, especially in a beautiful natural setting. More typical is this story: I recall being in utter wilderness in northern Alberta only to have two campers pull in next to me, full of an extended family of German tourists.

The shoreline rocks were full of the usual Empetrum nigrum, Vaccinium macrocarpon and flat Juniperus horizontalis-but as I continued to hike, I began to spot blue in the distance, and my heart jumped. I knew I was in exactly the right kind of setting for Iris setosa, and I was not wrong. With it, bloomed Lathyrus maritimus, making a wonderful pastel show on the rocks.

On my way back to the car, I even passed a waterfall--the perfect end to a wonderful, short excursion.

[cohan]

Coming out on the shore is always exciting, no matter how many times I experience it. Made more thrilling by the fact that 99.9% of the time I have the places all to myself---a rare thing these days, especially in a beautiful natural setting. More typical is this story: I recall being in utter wilderness in northern Alberta only to have two campers pull in next to me, full of an extended family of German tourists.

The shoreline rocks were full of the usual Empetrum nigrum, Vaccinium macrocarpon and flat Juniperus horizontalis-but as I continued to hike, I began to spot blue in the distance, and my heart jumped. I knew I was in exactly the right kind of setting for Iris setosa, and I was not wrong. With it, bloomed Lathyrus maritimus, making a wonderful pastel show on the rocks.

On my way back to the car, I even passed a waterfall--the perfect end to a wonderful, short excursion.

kristl--great to see the cornus and linnaea growing so cleanly--i have them growing over large areas like that--but they don't get such uninterrupted access to the soil here! always many other forbs amongst them, and usually grasses, saplings etc..

just today i noted seedlings on Iris setosa seed from you, and it seems very quickly they have big iris leaves already!

[Kristl Walek]

Locating plants in the wild (particularly herbaceous species) often requires they be in bloom, or else one doesn't see them.

I have driven this route on Highway #1, along the Annapolis River many times, but until today had no idea that the fields along the river were full of Iris versicolor. These are mostly fenced farms, cow grazing pastures (note the blue drift to the left of the cows) or barnyards; and the Iris is found in all of them for a number of kilometers.

Returning to the Sarracenia spot on the North Mountain, the yellow-blooming form (S. purpurea f. heterophylla) was finally in bloom. Unless one remembered the spot, these could not be seen anymore from the road, as tall vegetation has now pretty well enclosed the plants. Had they been receiving more sun, they would undoubtably have been more intensely yellow, rather than greenish-yellow.

There were a few of the red species, but the population is predominantly the variant.

[Kristl Walek]

The vigorous Dennstaedtia punctilobula (Hay-scented fern) forms aggressive colonies in this province; something I never saw in Ontario. One sees it here lining the sides of roads and forests, and some woods are entirely covered; so much so that one has to fight to locate other species at ground level below it; if they are able to compete at all. Sadly, it is not palatable to deer!!!!

It makes me appreciate even more the beautiful and well-behaved Christmas fern, Polystichum acrostichoides, which continues to remain one of my favorite fern species.

As I was primarily here today to check on the ripeness of Epigaea repens seed, my wandering around the woods was fairly limited; although I did run into a small colony of the tiny Moneses uniflora and further along, patches of the wood sorrel, Oxalis acetosella, some of which had begun to bloom. The plants were oddly growing in a rather isolated fashion on top of mossy rocks at ground level; which made me wonder if these areas are flooded in spring up to the high level of the rock.

[TheOnionMan]

Kristl, I have to admit that I've been lurking on this thread, but constantly marking it as "Unread" so that I can easily return to it, without a doubt one of my favorite threads on SRGC.  There's much that I want to respond to or comment on, but I've been "saving it up for a rainy day" so to speak...(wish we'd get more rainy days... so many splendiferous days in a row ).

Your latest entry caught my attention, where you show a native Oxalis, identified as acetosella.  I did some research on the whole Oxalis montana, O. acetosella, and Oxalis acetosella ssp. montana thing when I was trying to determine what Oxalis I was growing... I never finished updating that thread, although the person who gave me the plant recently confirmed it as Oxalis acetosella, albeit, a very showy deep pink form versus the regular form that is white or light pink and striped darker pink.  That thread can be found here:
http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=4839.0

So, since your plant is North American, then it seems it must be O. montana per current taxonomy, and not O. acetosella.
http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=OXMO
http://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=29090

[Kristl Walek]

I spent the past two days away from home exploring in a new area---and all the
spots I visited were either conservation lands or provincial parks.

My first visit was to Smiley's Provincial Park, between Halifax and Wolfville. Here I saw my first Nova Scotia examples of Sanguinaria canadensis, Viola pubescens, Caulophyllum thalictroides, Arisaema triphyllum and the rare Lilium canadense. Trillium cernuum was here as well, which I had never seen in the wild in the largish populations that existed here.

Unfortunately the Cypripedium reginae, which only grows in this province in a few isolated populations was only beginning to bud; and I will have to return to see it in full bloom. The plants here astounded me with their size; I cannot recall Ontario plants being this large, although there they were in boggier, wetter conditions than here. These plants were easily up to my waist.

[Kristl Walek]

Right across the street from the park was a small 19 acre conservation area donated privately to Nova Scotia nature trust. The significance of the land was outlined on the nature trust web site as:

"These beautiful lands lie on the Meander River, very close to Smiley's Provincial Park. The property contains outstanding hardwood and mixed floodplain forest, and provincially uncommon plants and insects. Gypsum outcrops occur sporadically on the site. Several small brooks, some only seasonally wet, pass through the property. The property lies within the Shubenacadie Rolling Hill natural landscape, which is poorly represented in provincial system of protected areas."

I did not walk the entire 19 acres, but the understory was a mix of Trillium cernuum, Arisaema triphyllum and large drifts of ferns. I was not clear what the "provincially uncommon" plants were mentioned in on the Nature Trust site.

[Kristl Walek]

The Blomidon Provincial Park website says:

Rising majestically from the shores of the Minas Basin, Blomidon Provincial Park is renowned for its spectacular views. Blomidon's 759 ha (1,875 acres) include 180 m (600 ft.) high cliffs, a variety of habitats, striking natural features, abundant wildlife -- and the world's highest tides wash its shores.

The first batch of local strawberries were available roadside, and as I munched on my second quart, I began my approach to the park, which was quite stunning, even at a distance.

Once in the park, I enjoyed more of the views and decided to do an exploratory hike up the most difficult of the 4 official trails. This leads almost straight up, along the (fenced) cliffs at first, through meadows and later into the forest. The views continued to be quite wonderful.

[Kristl Walek]

Many of the open areas on my climb were brightly colored with a Ranunculus species and oceans of the invasive, introduced Hieracium aurantiacum and H. caespitosum, both of which are problematic throughout North America.

In the woods I ran into a small colony of Pyrola rotundifolia, not quite in bloom, and finally got to see reasonable colonies of Trillium erectum, at the seed stage, as well as a few Actaea rubra (first sighting in Nova Scotia) and a fair drifts of Allium tricoccum at the pre-flower stage (quite rare in this province). Claytonia caroliniana apparently exists in this park as well, but it had already gone summer dormant. Near a stream, there was a single specimen of Geum rivale.

[Afloden]

Kristl,

 Your above Uvularia looks like sessilifolium,  but I cannot see fruit anywhere, nor branches to confirm it.