Corson's Brook Woods 07

Last year was my first time at Corson's Brook Woods, and it made a big impression on me - such a mecca of spring wildflowers! So, I visited again this year and it did not disappoint.

Blue cohosh (Caulophyllum thalictroides). A striking spring ephemeral, with its unusual flower color and greyish blue glaucous stem. Rare in NYC.

American beech (Fagus grandifolia). I don't know why, but beech trees hold onto their leaves all winter. They are a welcome splash of color in a winter woodland - and even in spring. Rich forest soils.


Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis). Pure white. Lovely and fleeting. Rare in NYC.

Trout lily (Erythronium americanum). An impressive amount, it just went on and on. These types of shade tolerant species are slow growing, and so such large colonies are very old - the population could've been many decades old.


Virginia waterleaf (Hydrophyllum virginianum). Decorative foliage - the silvery spots that look like water stains. I'm surprised this isn't used more in the hort trade. It's a great groundcover. Found in rich forest soils and floodplains. Rare in NYC.

Plant Blindness

An excellent overview of the phenomenon - how people don't see plants - from Tuesday's Science Times.

We barely notice plants, can rarely identify them and find them incomparably inert. “Animals are much more vivid to the average person than plants are,” Dr. Raven said, “and some people aren’t even sure that plants are alive.”

*sigh* sadly, it's true. Although, in my experience, people do notice trees, and care a heck of a lot about garden flora.

Destruction at Split Rock Golf Course

Parks does it again. Now the issue is natural areas within golf courses (that were originally carved out of...natural areas). Split Rock Golf Course in Pelham Bay Park in the Bronx is now under new management. It seems there was nothing in the contract about leaving things as is . These folks want every blessed inch within the fence to be golf turf. Arck! And we had just gotten the other company to stop mowing the rare purple milkweed!
Surveying the damage...


Persimmons - a state listed rare tree. Now you see them...



Now you don't! Chipped into a woody pulp. It goes on...I just don't have the stomach for this anymore.

Magnolias face perilous future

The spectacular bloom of a magnolia may be a very common sight in gardens, but in the wild it is a different story.

A new report has found that over half the world's magnolia species are
facing extinction in their forest habitats. To wit, the sweetbay magnolia pictured here

Blue wood sedge in flower

This is my northfacing windowbox. It contains maidenhair fern, wild columbine, wood poppy, common blue violet, and blue wood sedge (Carex flaccosperma). It's bluish-green leaves overwintered (evergreen), but are tender, so they do get brown.

This plant shouldn't be in flower until the end of April, but I guess no one told it that. You can clearly see the male flowers - the lemon yellow anthers - at the top of the inflorescence. The female flowers - clear stigmas - have yet to emerge below.

Laurel wilt disease

Boy, we keep rolling out the good news here.

Laurel wilt disease is the newest problem that may soon reach our area. It is a rapidly spreading non-native fungus spread by the Asian ambrosia beetle that is killing sassafras, laurel, and spicebush (members of the laurel family) in the Southeast. The outlook is not encouraging. This would also be bad news for various swallowtail butterflies adapted to them. This is a very good example of why we need to regulate the provenance of plant material. Tree nurseries have spread many diseases in the past, and it seems, will continue to do so.

Asian Longhorn Beetle infestation

The Asian Longhorn Beetle has found its way to a natural area on Staten Island. ALB was first discovered in the US in street trees in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. The insect is thought to have arrived here from woody packing materials from China. ALB has proved to be persistent and able to spread from infestations when eradication has not been completed.

Now it looks like half the trees on the island will need to be cut down and chipped (which is how USDA treats this infestation). It should be interesting to see what comes back - on the Brunswick shale dreg island that is Pralls. Let's just hope this is the first and last natural area where we find these beetles.

Update:
Video of ALB on Pralls Island from the Staten Island Advance.