Fence Row Natives

Despite the mess of invasives, the old fence row has maintained a nice collection of native species.  This Wild Plum has put on a good display of blooms, but it’s been several years since any of the Blue Jay Barrens plums have produced ripe fruit.  Late freezes are rough on this tree, so early warm weather just sets it up for failure. 

It would be nice to see all of these lovely flowers turn into bright yellow-red fruit.  We’ve had a hard mid May freeze each of the last three years and Wild Plums have dropped their fruit after each freeze.  It’s hard to imagine that we’ll make it through to summer without at least one more freeze this spring.

A Brown Thrasher entertained me for an entire morning.  It produced quite a variety of mimicked songs.  Many of the songs were unfamiliar to me, so I’m guessing these were learned somewhere far from Blue Jay Barrens.

Despite the abundance of Japanese Honeysuckle, many native flowers are showing themselves in the old fence row.  Several colonies of Mayapple are present.  I’ll be sure to leave enough native trees and shrubs to give the Mayapples the shade they prefer.

Bluets are common in the areas that hadn’t been completely shade covered.  It’ll be interesting to see if these persist or if they become overwhelmed by other sun loving species.

Spring Beauties have covered large sections of the fence row.  These plants seem to compete well against many invasives.

Adder’s Tongue Fern has colonized the entire fence row.  I originally found this plant growing in limited colonies in the fence rows.  It has since spread across the old crop fields.  It’s definitely a species that’s on the increase.

I’m still finding Olive Hairstreaks everywhere I look.  This guy was using one of my marking flags as a perch from which to fly out to chase other butterflies crowding into its territory.  The abundance of these butterflies makes me optimistic about finding some of their larvae feeding on Eastern Red Cedars.  I see the adults each year, but I’ve never seen a larva and I would really like to enjoy all stages of the butterfly life cycle.

Spring Flowers

Blue Jay Barrens is not the place to be if you want to see masses of spring wildflowers carpeting the woodland floor.  A history of livestock in the woods reduced the wildflower population through trampling and consumption.  The soil was left eroded and compacted which made it hard for the wildflowers to become reestablished.  More recently, deer and turkey have been feeding on many of the wildflowers.  White Trout Lilies are currently the most widely spread species in the woods.  These are growing in an area that was pretty heavily worked over by the turkey flocks.

Spring Beauty is one species that is increasing in number.  It seems to do best along the woodland edges where sunlight is more readily available.

Rue Anemone is common on the lower slopes and floodplains.  This is always one of the earliest species to bloom each year.  The plant moves with the slightest breeze, making it a most frustrating flower to photograph.

Most of the Blue Jay Barrens woodland wildflowers appear later in the spring.  Even when the rest of the State is reporting early blooms, the plants here are slow to awaken.  I’m seeing signs of things to come.  Leaves of the American Columbo are pushing up through the leaves.  Columbo flowers won’t appear until early summer.

Large Flowered Trilliums are rapidly emerging.  The heavy rain that caused the severe flooding earlier in the month also cleared leaf litter from some of the steep hillsides.  These Trilliums are quite conspicuous growing from the bare ground.

It’s neat how this plant emerges as a spike and then unfurls its leaves after it has some height.  This growth pattern is common with many woodland plants that must push through a covering of leaves to reach the light.

One of the first bloomers of the year has already produced fruit.  Two weeks ago, Leavenworthia uniflora was just beginning to bloom.  Now it’s well on its way to producing ripe seed.  Cool weather usually slows the plant’s development so you have a couple of weeks in which to enjoy watching the flowers develop.  Temperatures in the 80’s caused the plants to flower together and push on to fruit development in just a matter of days.  I hope things aren’t going to proceed at such a rapid pace all season.

Spring Beauty

The simplest of flowers often display the greatest beauty. It’s not hard to see where the Spring Beauty, Claytonia virginica, came by its name. The pink stripes give a fine definition to the white petals and the pink anthers lend an unreal quality to the whole arrangement. Add a sweet scent and you may have the perfect flower.

The Spring Beauty is a woodland plant, but I seem to find it more often in overgrown fence rows and partially shaded open areas. It’s probably the most abused of the spring wildflowers and is regularly stepped on and mowed over with disdain. Many people view the Spring Beauty’s ruggedness as being a weedy quality and object to its appearance in the shady areas of the lawn.

Spring Beauty may keep company with some of the more undesirable characters, but I view that as a strength that I wish more of our native plants would demonstrate. The Spring Beauty refuses to give ground to the exotic invaders and bravely moves forward to engage the enemy. I welcome this plant wherever I find it.

The blooming season lasts for several weeks. New buds continually rotate upward to replace the waning blooms. The plant spreads easily by seed and the many flowers can result in dozens of viable seeds scattered around the area.

Each plant has a single pair of grass-like leaves located on the stem roughly half way between the ground and the flowers. It’s the job of these leaves to provide the energy needed to produce mature seed and to create enough stored energy to carry the plant through the winter. This energy is stored in a fat, underground stem called a corm. When the rest of the plant dies away, the corm remains to begin growth in the next year.