We’re just getting through the dog days of summer, with hopefully only a few more weeks of days so hot and humid you feel like you’re swimming underwater and not just because you’re drenched! Down a few hours away from the city where I’ve been travelling to in Delaware to collect the fruit and berry season is starting to wind down. We’ve made a few huckleberry and black cherry collections, but after the beach plums ripen we’ll be mostly done with fleshy fruit. It’s getting a bit slow with many of the early grassy species being empty by now, especially since I’m collecting farther south than the other NY interns. Lately it’s been a lot of scouting to prepare and plan for what is shaping up to be a crazy fall season. It’s fascinating to watch what we’ll be collecting ripen as the weeks fly by! We won’t be collecting any nuts, but I’m really excited to see what ripe wild hazelnuts look like. I couldn’t help but take a picture of this ripening American hazelnut (Corylus americana) in Brandywine Creek State Park and tease my mom who’s a huge hazelnut coffee freak. Dunkin Donuts of course, we’re from Massachusetts after all!
Recently I went on a collection trip with my collection partner, Lucy, to northern Delaware. After weeks of spending time in southern Delaware on the ocean, we were beyond ready to explore some new territory in the shade of the forest in search of some freshwater wetland species, notably a few Carex (sedge) species that were ready and waiting. What a shock it was to us when we got there to find a landscape absolutely overrun with invasive species! We’re talking entire riverbanks that we were hoping to be covered in our freshwater list species instead covered in mats of Japanese hop vines. Not only that, but most areas were thick with stinging nettles! Sadly, there wasn’t much to see besides some interesting invasive species. One of my personal favorites were the osage orange trees (Maclura pomifera). Is it just me or do they look kind of like tree brains!
The trip was far from hopeless however, as we ended up making a fantastic Carex lurida collection as we fortuitously walked through what we later determined was the only wetland area when looking as USGS topo maps and vegetation survey maps. Like they say, hindsight is 20/20, so from now on topo maps and vegetation surveys are our best friends. Thirty minutes of extra research is much less painful than thirty minutes of waiting for the nettle stings on your hands to stop burning!
Scouting is always a great adventure, not just to see what native plants on our collection list are there, but also to see what surprises Mother Nature has in store for us! Lucy and I have found all sorts of natural marvels, from stunning Turk’s Cap Lilies (Lilium martagon) to dead Luna Moths to the exotic looking fruits of Skunk Cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus). Of course I’m not one to turn down a photo op of nature’s curiosities!
Turk’s Cap Lily
Skunk Cabbage Fruit
So here’s to enjoying the last summer has to offer in the unexpected beauty of the tiniest state in the Mid-Atlantic. Fall is just around the corner, as this field in Brandywine Creek State Park turns the familiar shades of yellow as goldenrods (Solidago juncea here) start to bloom and milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) pods start to ripen.
Paige Carncross
CLM Intern with SOS East at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Seed Bank (MASRB)