One of the stranger wildflowers of the eastern forests is Conopholis americana, also known as squawroot, American cancer-root, and bearcorn. It looks like a fungus popping up out of the ground. But it’s a plant, and a good reminder that not all wildflowers are, well, wildflowery. This particular flower doesn’t photosynthesize; it lives by parasitizing the roots of trees, sucking the necessary nutrients out. (To the botanists, it’s an “achlorophylous obligate root parasite of Quercus spp.”) The picture above was taken in May in the Native Flora Garden of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. The picture below, in the Catskills a couple of weeks ago, after the flowers had bloomed and the seeds set. Click on images for larger views.
Two of the common names suggest the plant has been used for medicinal purposes, going back to indigenous peoples; “bearcorn” that bears like to eat it. The plant is listed as “exploitably vulnerable” in New York State, meaning “likely to become threatened in the near future throughout all or a significant portion of their range within the state if causal factors continue unchecked.”
Posts Tagged 'Catskills'
An Unusual Wildflower
Published July 3, 2011 Fieldnotes 3 CommentsTags: Brooklyn, Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Catskills, flowers, trees
Harriman State Park
Published June 18, 2011 Fieldnotes Leave a CommentTags: birding, birds, Catskills, flowers
(Or, Catskills Day 2, Part II) On the way back we stopped off at Silvermine Lake in Harriman State Park. The mountain laurel, Kalmia latifolia, was in bloom. 
Barn swallows were swooshing all around, and nesting on one of the park structures.
We walked along a trail on the south side of the lake. A snake had the ladies in an uproar. It was a garter snake about 16 inches long.
This snail (operculum firmly shut) was found at the end of a mushroom-ridden bushwack we took to get a bead on the common loon we thought we heard. We were too far south, and on too busy a body of water, for the loon’s breeding likes, but stranger things have happened; I heard one moaning just outside Lewis Bay on Cape Cod about a month ago. It turned out to be one of three guys on a boat. Duck hunters, judging from their enormous pick-up truck. The great spirit, Manitou, took vengeance by sending a park’s policeman to ticket their illegally parked pickup. 
In the woods, we saw a beautifully spotted fawn, born just recently, bolting towards its mother. Out of the woods, three older deer (they lose their spots their first summer) paid little attention to us. Here’s one of them ambling by.
The Catskills ~ Day 2
Published June 16, 2011 Fieldnotes Leave a CommentTags: birds, Catskills, flowers, insects, spiders, wasps
We started the morning in the thickest fog any of us had ever seen. It lifted as we descended down towards Hunter, NY.
We couldn’t resist stopping in this former drive-in on Route 296 south of Windham, now claimed by a meadow. The gate proudly claims “we will be back,” but that seems unlikely. Meanwhile, this used to be a parking lot, now it’s all covered in flowers (to misquote the Talking Heads), including: 
Deptford or grass pink, Dianthus armeria. Wouldn’t you know it? Like the flower below, it’s a native of Europe.
Hieracium aurantiacum, also known as Pilosella aurantiaca, or orange hawkweed, devil’s paintbrush, etc.
An eastern phoebe nest, nestled into louvers of a window in the projection booth. Note the use of moss here. The meadow was also playing host to a troupe of cedar waxwings, a chipping sparrow, and an American goldfinch.
The fog returned at the village of Haines Falls. It was wonderfully eerie. We started to walk around the yellow-blazed path at North-South Lakes campground. 
The lakes are above Kaaterskill Falls and on the edge of the Escarpment, or Great Wall of Manitou, the sudden rise out the valley of the Hudson (from around 540′ above sea level to 2250′). Grand hotels of the mid-19th century were located in the area (all are gone now) to take advantage of the view. There was so much fog we didn’t even bother attempting to look out. Fog clearing over the water: 
The forest floor was full of moss and sprouting acorns.
The saturation of moisture made the many, many spider webs stick out.
This large ant was on the same tree as the web above.
On one of the camp ground buildings, I noticed this. It’s about 1.5″ in diameter, and I think it’s the start of a bald-faced wasp nest. The same structure was hosting another eastern phoebe nest, this one on top of the light above the men’s room.
Checking out of our fog-bound Catskills hotel, we were greeted with a luna moth on the veranda. One of the giant silk moths, Actias luna is large, startling, and spectacular. (See the comments for the status of these show-stoppers here in the city.) 
Wingspan ranges from 3-4″ in length. Each of the four wings has an eyespot; the hindwings spots here are just visible through the forewings. The streamer-like tails of the hindwings are like curling silk.
Note the loops of the feathery antennae, above, and the white underline in the eyespots, below (click on image to open to bigger view). 
Later in the day, when we took shelter from a downpour, we found another luna hanging onto the wall of a campground restroom. Like the first, it had been attracted to the structure’s light. 
The Catskills ~ Day I
Published June 14, 2011 Fieldnotes 2 CommentsTags: birding, birds, Catskills, moths
Four of us journeyed up to the Catskills this past weekend, daring the iffy, drippy weather. (Considering it was close to 100 degrees in NYC last week, we enjoyed a 50-degree drop going up there.) On the way up, we stopped at the RamsHorn-Livingstone Sanctuary in the town of Catskill. 
At this Scienic Hudson/NYAudubon administered tidal swamp, we listened to red-winged blackbirds, common yellowthroats, yellow warblers (juveniles were demanding to be fed), Baltimore orioles, and a pileated woodpecker, among other species. An eastern kingbird, its white-rimmed tail cocked upright from the tight confines of its nest, was the first of several nesting species noted.
Then we drove up into the Catskills Mountains themselves, through the Kaaterskill Clove on route 23A. Clouds hung heavily over the tops of the mountains. The short hike up to Kaaterskill Falls (photo at the top), that most famous of Hudson River School sights, was wonderfully mossy, fungal, and ferny. Here’s what the surrounds looked like:
Gold in them thar hills? A Gold-backed snipe fly, Chrysopilus thoracicus, along the Kaaterskill Falls trail:
We saw our first raven of the weekend flying overhead when we came down from the Falls. Our boots were stained with reddish slate, reminding us of the color of “brownstone.”
Our lodging for the evening was in East Windham, where five states can be seen. On a clear day. We, however, were fogged in and barely saw New York below us. The hotel’s lights, meanwhile, sucked moths from the dark:
Paonias exaecatus, the blinded sphinx moth.
Lophocampa caryae, hickory tussock moth.
One of the Nemoria species of moths, known as the emeralds.
During the trip, we saw the usual slaughter of road kill. (In fact, unfortunately, we couldn’t avoid killing a chipmunk.) One of side-of-the-road bodies we saw was a coyote. Noted alive from the windows were deer, turkey, woodchuck, and rabbit. Higher up: turkey vultures, a great blue heron, and a couple of red-tails, one perched on a bank building above a street festival in one of those cute Hudson Valley towns I didn’t catch the name of.
