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| Adiantum pedatum |
Perhaps a maidenhair fern will strike your fancy? I am always amazed on social media when I post a fern or conifer there are significantly fewer views and "likes" (and do we not live for "likes"?). Green is apparently an inferior color in Cyberspace. But in the parched West, a sweep of maidenhair fern is a tonic! I spent two wonderful days [bracketing the Perennial Plant Association conference] exploring the woods around Lancaster and Mohnton where my friends Mike and Jan Slater live. Don't get me wrong: I LOVED the conference--but time with friends and woodland wonders--well that's the ticket!
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| Melange of Polystichum acrostichoides and Dryopteris sp. |
In this same patch of woods-
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| Dryopteris marginalis |
I've grown this wonderful shield fern most of my life. Can't imagine living without it--and seeing it in the wild was a treat.
More ferny melanges: finding three large ferns like this close together in Colorado would be a feat!
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| Polystichum acrostichoides |
I gained a new love for the Christmas fern in this patch of woods--they were everywhere and magnificent!I
A towering hickory (I believe): Mike told me these woods had probably been logged three or four times--but they felt like virgin forest to me.
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| Polystichum acrostichoides |
Here is our friend growing in a rock crevice: not a fern I'd hitherto planned for my crevice garden!
More maidenhair: you can never have enough of this.
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| Polypodium virginianum |
And the obligatory polypody on a rock...
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| Lots of them actually! |
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| Symplocarpus foetidus |
Not the most imposing specimen of skunk cabbage--but still fun to find. Last time I saw one was in a Chicago wildland blooming on my birthday (late March).
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| Hepatica americana |
As with maidenhairs--one cannot have too many hepaticas.
Mike was thrilled to see that the sole Cypripedium pubescens (I know they've changed the name, btw) has set seed. He'd personally pollinated this flower with pollen from a friend's ladyslipper from nearby.
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| Asarum canadense |
I'm not alone in loving the wild gingers...I suspect anyway!
A trunk of an ash tree felled by the Ash borer. We saw tremendous germination of ashes in the woods here and elsewhere: will the borer return after they've killed all the big ones?
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| Mike Slater |
Mike is an outstanding naturalist: not only does he know the vascular plants, but mosses lichens and let's not even talk about birds, invertebrates and more! You couldn't have had a better guide hereabouts--and his garden is stunning as well!
This was one of Mike's favorite spots: I heartily concurred!
I have been in love with the eastern woodlands even before I first walked in them: the sublime diversity of trees, the lush undergrowth, and the ferns, ephemerals and other gems lurking beneath them. This patch of woods is one I shall long remember!
