Wednesday the focus was on ferns. These ancient plants don't have flowers, but reproduce with spores, similar to fungi. We generally are able to find 8 - 9 species at Mariton. Virginia did a great job of showing the kids how to tell the different species apart. It seemed especially poignant to be searching for ferns when the atmosphere was so tropical. The humidity was so high, that the rocks sweated with condensation. Glasses steamed up when we stopped to look at little treasures.
One of the wierdest finds was this fiddlehead. Normally, I only find fiddleheads in the spring, and have no idea what caused this fern to send up a new shoot now. The fiddlehead is the unfurled blade. (Much like a leaf bud is an unopened leaf.) It definitely provided a great teaching opportunity, because the kids would never get to see a fiddlehead at this time of year.
Photos by Carole Mebus.
