Completing Crystal Valley

 Cathy and I went out and hiked the rest of the trails at Crystal Valley today. Not surprisingly, it looked a lot different with everything green. The first part is flat, but not most of it!

I found Frangrant Bedstraw, Galium triflorum. This time you can tell why it has the triflorum name. The flowers are in little clusters of three. You can just barely see a couple of sets.

This is fairly common, but it's still a fun find. Squawroot, Conopholis americana. It's parasitic on oak and beech, both of which grow at Crystal Valley

But the best find is two more fruiting chestnut trees. One had LOTS of seed pods on the ground.

We hunted around for the trees. I think we found one of them. The leaves are w...a...y up there, and this was the best picture I got even with the zoom on my camera. Not definitive. They should be a little narrower for American, but they are definitely not pure Chinese.

The bark is, well..., not very helpful. I did find pictures on line that look like this, but it usually breaks into more separated vertical straps by the time it gets this size. However, this does look consistent with some of the pictures.

So here's the eternal question. Are these American Chestnut, Chinese Chestnut, or a hybrid. They are not Chinese, but they could be a hybrid. This issue for me on this question is that this tree is big and old. It's probably at least 75 years old. The fact that it's tall and straight says American.

Although there were experiments being done with hybrids as early as 1925, one has to wonder why there would be 3 hybrid chestnuts randomly growing out there. But... it is Forest Service property, so I suppose there could have been some kind of experiment going on.

I think it's quite a mystery, and I don't understand why the FS doesn't seem more excited about my reports. Maybe they already know about these and know they are hybrids? If so, I don't know why they wouldn't just tell me that.

We hiked 5.2 miles. Anyway. I didn't sleep well last night, so I'm passing out early tonight.

Miles hiked so far in 2024: 264.5.

Crystal Valley, MI. Parts of loops, 1, 3, 4. 5.3 miles

See Bedstraw Bonanza See