We had a small workday at our Fulshaw Craeg Preserve yesterday. Botanists studying the wildflowers there discovered a small population of mile-a-minute (Persicaria perfoliata) growing in a patch of stinging nettle and we wanted to remove it before it spread or set seed. Mile-a-minute is really kicking us in the teeth at Crow's Nest—we spend more time controlling it than all other invasives—so we were happy to help with an "early detection-rapid response" effort to keep it from spreading into this Montgomery County preserve.
But I also brought my camera and spent a few minutes taking pictures at this beautiful preserve. I have been there many times to do prescribed burns in the small meadows there but never had I been back during the growing season to see the result. Fulshaw Craeg is more than 200 acres and in addition to the wildflower meadows it has ravines in deep woods and a "devil's potato patch" of diabase boulders.
virginicum). I have some planted in my garden but I had never seen it in the wild.
A wood fern in dappled light...
Blue cohosh (Caulophyllum thalictroides) was in fruit in the woods. Interestingly, black cohosh (Cimicifuga racemosa, now Actaea racemosa)—which we have at Crow's Nest—is no close relation despite the similar common name. Blue cohosh is in the barberry family; black cohosh is in the buttercup family.
There are lots of large boulders and seeps too. The lesson learned is to get out to see other preserves since they have a slightly different mix of plants than Crow's Nest.
