More Ohio Plants

 
Well, I thought this was going to be two WOWs! It turned out to be one big WOW and one new fact about a familiar plant.

All along the Little Miami Rail Trail, and again at Glen Helen this huge plant was filling the space beside the trail. It's 3-5 feet high, so it sure makes quite a fence. It was so dense I assumed it was some sort of invasive plant. It's completely new to me- never saw it before. My best guess was one of the wild lettuces.



I didn't have any luck finding it in my books or searching on line. Huh. Not a lettuce (Lactuca). Look at the leaves on this baby! Some are 10 inches long.



So I emailed the ranger at Glen Helen. She answered me promptly (nice!) and said it's a native plant called Small-flowered leafcup, Polymnia canadensis. It prefers calcareous soil- think limestone. That's why I sure don't see it here.

It has hairy stems and funky round stipules.



The flowers aren't much of anything. Thus "small-flowered." The large-flowered species doesn't have much bigger flowers, but they have more white daisy-like rays than this one.

It always amazes me when I have so much trouble identifying such a distinctive plant. The drawings in the guidebooks aren't always the most helpful.



So, just in case the trip wasn't perfect enough already, I've now met the superb criterion of learning a new plant.

But I thought I was going to learn a new fern as well. Nope. But I did learn a new fact about Intermediate Wood Fern, Dryopteris intermedia. It will happily grow on rock faces. And I got a picture of the sori.

	See Glen Helen
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Glen Helen

 
Yesterday on the way home from Cincinnati, Ester and I stopped at one of the real beauty spots of Ohio, the Glen Helen Natural Area at Yellow Springs.



Ester has a bad knee (so long walks are out of the question for her), but we took a short walk and stretched our legs and gave Jade a bit of exercise.

The area was donated to Antioch College in 1929 to be preserved in perpetuity. There are 1000 acres within the rocky glen, with 20 miles of hiking trails. I've only ever sampled the very western edge in the three times I've been there.



There are lots of rocks and a waterfall (that I've never seen).



It's supposed to be spectacular when the spring wildflowers are in bloom. I need to actually plan to be there at the right time some year.



It's a really neat place at any time of year, but I sure would like the wildflower season. The Buckeye/North Country Trail goes right by it, on the paved Rail Trail, which is how I found it in the first place.

Home safe and sound, and I'll be back at work tomorrow morning, but you know where my mind will be.

	See Buckeye Trail- Cincinnati Spur
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