[NorthPotter]

Up North, we had a solid warm up in March.
It created one of the nicest springs I have seen in many years for forbs, rhizomes, and various flowering species. I have a few photos/videos of these wild, native things.

Lets start early and simple. April 26th, #1. Flowering tree,...Genus and species?

same as above just different section with same flowering tree

May 2nd, #2. My spring bird with broad leaf herbaceous plants at the base of the log,...genus and species of the broad leafed plants? Deer eat 'em but people should NOT!

May 2, #3. Various forbs but how about the herbaceous plant up against the base of the big tree on the top left? They are also scattered throughout this photo. Sorry for the distance but it was a great photo op.

May 3, #4. Wildflower,...Genus and species?

More in next post...

 

[NorthPotter]

Re: Spring in the North Woods 2

May 5th, #5. Genus and species and anything else about the variegated 3 leaf?

#6. Desirable browse forb,...Genus and species and anything else?

same as above,...here by the thousands!:

#7. Highly desirable browse,...spectacular display,...genus and species?

same as above,...uncommon,...here by the thousands!:

Within your list, feel free to add anything you feel is noteworthy about the species.

More to come...

 

[ng270]

Re: Spring in the North Woods 2

I'm not up to speed on scientific names, so had to google the common names. Still not sure that I have many correct.

#1 - Amelanchier arborea?

#2 - Lots of Podophyllum peltatum. Looks like some type of viburnum in front of the wing? Tight to the log, next to the gun sling might be Erythronium, but water drops on the leaves may be playing a part in what I think I see there.

#3 - I can't see leaves well enough to hazard a good guess. On my Ky place, those might be young Aesculus glabra, but I highly doubt that's what it is, in your neck of the woods.

#4 - Calthus palustris

#5 - Don't know, but looks like something took a bite.

#6 - Trillium grandiflorum

#7 - Haven't seen that I recall.

Thanks for posting. I like this game!

 

[redrockhunter]

great post. love to learn new plant id. could you also do common names for us uneducated folks.

 

[NorthPotter]

great post. love to learn new plant id. could you also do common names for us uneducated folks.

thx red.

Yepper, I can surely add the common names but sometimes that creates confusion. For example, ng270 knows his stuff and has #1 correct. Amelanchier Arborea is the scientific name. But this tree also has the following common names: shadbush or downy shadbush, shadwood or shadblow, serviceberry or sarvisberry, or just sarvis, wild pear, juneberry, saskatoon, Saskatoon berry, sugarplum, wild cherry and chuckley pear,...and years ago I even heard a nursery worker call it a Princess Diana.

So I try to learn/utilize at least the genus scientific name when I can.

 

[NorthPotter]

Re: Spring in the North Woods 3

May 5th, #8. Easy one, Genus and species? This thicket had hundreds of insects pollinating these cream colored, very sweet smelling flowers. There was a pair of Redstarts in this thicket gorging themselves on the insects and singing. I can't seem to save the video properly but I could have sat for hours and listened to the Redstarts sing. Excellent wildlife habitat.

same as above up close

May 5th, #9. Easy one, genus and species. Very much enjoy eating these raw. This old sugarbush is always loaded with these.

What do you see here? Not any forb or tree. Look close,...

Mid/late spring to come..

 

[Old Slewfoot]

Re: Spring in the North Woods 3

1. Amelanchier. Looks like a bumper crop this year, too. Here in the elk woods, serviceberry bark is a preferred winter food source.

2. Mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum). I've heard that the fruit of mayapple is indeed edible, but only when it is dead ripe... and only the pulp. The seeds are still toxic. I'll pass and stick with the safer wild edibles.

3. Dutchman's breeches (Dicentra cucullaria), blue cohosh (Caulophyllum thalictroides), and garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata)

4. Marsh marigold (Caltha palustris)

5. Sharp-lobed hepatica or liverleaf (Anemone acutiloba)

6. Large-flower or white trillium (Trillium grandiflorum). Speaking from a local perspective, this seems to be our least abundant of the three common trillium species.

7. Purple trillium (Trillium erectum). Also appropriately named stinking benjamin and ill-scented trillium based on its foul smell, which is used to attract pollinators.

8. Is that a wild plum? Have never seen much, but wish there were more around.

9. Leeks (Allium tricoccum). Just dug some a few weeks ago. They weren't as pungent, but the bulbs were enormous.

Thanks for posting. Certainly enjoyed the pictures.

 

[NorthPotter]

Re: Spring in the North Woods 3

Great to hear from you OS. I should have known NG and OS would know these at just a glance.

To add:
1. We have a bumper crop of Amelanchier this year too. Great wildlife tree. Folks who are new to managing their habitat should try not to cut them while doing your TSI. I think Timberdoodle explained this very well.

2. I have also heard you can eat the pulp of the fruit but there is NO WAY I am going to attempt it. Don't know how the deer handle it..?

3. Yep. I sometimes confuse the Caulophyllum with the thalictrum but it does not usually grow in the same habitat for me. Turkeys like the fruit/seed of the cohosh.

4. One of the earliest bloomers I have and I always enjoy it.

8. yes, a plum thicket. I am going to TRY to gather some fruit from these. NG & OS, let me know if you want a few.

last one is a hen nest. She hung around and hung around and I had a suspicion why. After she went down into the fields I started looking. Took me more than an hour but I found it.

OS, do you know Lisa Banasik by chance? She shot a big bull down your way...almost right in SR there. Around 2008. My uncle was with her when she shot it. John helped her carry it across the creek with his tractor.

I have some more North woods native photos and will eventually get it posted.

 

[ng270]

Re: Spring in the North Woods 3

Prunus americana? Sure, plums are one of my favorites to plant and they do really well just about everywhere I've tried them so far. Always room for a few more!

I have not yet been able to time it right to get fruit from my place. I found one ripe "drop" in early Sept one year, and it tasted great, but I go from loaded up trees in early summer to not-a-plum-to-be-found in late summer without catching them when they are ripe, or finding any on the ground. I've been assuming that the critters wipe them out as quickly as they ripen (just like they do with our hazelnuts), but can't say for sure what gets most of them.

Haven't noticed any service berry at my Ky place, but see it when I get to NC PA. I should put it on my next nursery order and get some started down south.

 

[ng270]

Re: Spring in the North Woods 3

BTW, did nature put that plum thicket there, or is it one you planted? If you planted it, how did you go about starting it? (i.e., planting a group of bareroot seedlings? From seed? etc)

 

[NorthPotter]

Re: Spring in the North Woods 3

BTW, did nature put that plum thicket there, or is it one you planted? If you planted it, how did you go about starting it? (i.e., planting a group of bareroot seedlings? From seed? etc)

Sorry for delay NG, i have not had my health. I did not plant that Prunus Americana. It is wild and I found it in a new area i was scouting.
I went back to that Americana thicket to look for the progress of fruit. There is not a single fruit developing. All blossoms are gone. All I can figure is that it was frosted. We get alot of late frosts and it was in full bloom by early may and at a higher elevation than me.
So I can't get either of us any seeds

 

[Old Slewfoot]

Re: Spring in the North Woods 3

NP,

I think I remember a lady hunter shooting a bull some years back around here. It was down by the train tracks if I remember correctly.

How cold did you have it earlier this week? I heard some areas in McKean county got down to 32.

 

[NorthPotter]

Re: Spring in the North Woods 3

OS, yes it was down by the train tracks. It was a big bull that they were seeing over the mountain down in the park.

My uncle tells the story about them starting near the park and tracking it all the way over the top and down into SR there by you and finally getting a shot before it went up again. It was dry that year and John Mason was able to drive across the driftwood branch and load it onto his tractor. Then a PennDot road crew happened to be working in that area and they offered their backhoe to somehow lift it onto the back of the pickup someone was driving.

On Wednesday night we hit 39 by midnight and it kept dropping from there. We stopped at 33 and held it from about 5:15 to 6:30am. My sensor is under some trees near the cabin at 1652ft. I suspect that the fields at higher elevation were 31-32. Thursday night we dropped to 34. LOl.

Last year on May 23rd we bottomed out at 25. I had ZERO hard or soft mass last year. Even the new oak leaves on trees froze and died.

This year the Apples/crabs trees have set some fruit and and my Chinkapin were not blooming early like last year. So hoping that things make it.

 

[ng270]

Re: Spring in the North Woods 3

Sorry for delay NG, i have not had my health. I did not plant that Prunus Americana. It is wild and I found it in a new area i was scouting.
I went back to that Americana thicket to look for the progress of fruit. There is not a single fruit developing. All blossoms are gone. All I can figure is that it was frosted. We get alot of late frosts and it was in full bloom by early may and at a higher elevation than me.
So I can't get either of us any seeds

Sorry to hear of the health issue NP! Hope you are back on your feet again. No worries on the plum seeds; truth be told, I keep finding more and more young native plums on my place each year, so it's not like there is a shortage. If I manage to catch them fruiting this year, I can try to get you some seeds if you like.