Two Plants from the South

 I saw several new-to-me plants on this hike, and I don't have them all identified yet. One of the two I'll share today I've seen before, but not very often. This is a fern- American Climbing Fern- Lygodium palmatum The last time I saw it was in January of 2024 in southern Ohio. This trip, I saw a lot of it in both Kentucky and Tennessee. This is native. There are a bunch of other climbing ferns that are not.

Next up is a vine. I saw a lot of this climbing up trees, and didn't know what it was at all. It's Crossvine, Bignonia capreolata. It turns out that this has a very distinctive and pretty tubular flower in the spring. I guess I'll just have to go back! If you cut across the stem, it has the shape of a cross.

In other news: I took care of some more things, did some errands, and read some more. I need to get myself out of the books soon and really get busy. But this is what happens when I become reading-time deprived. My brain insists on making that up.

See NiKki and Bill