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 Shenk's
Ferry II
Lancaster County, PA
5/14/08
Mark Burchick
5/14/08
Shenk's Ferry II
Holtwood Environmental Preserve on the
Susquehanna River
Lancaster County, PA
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I've always grabbed on to sweet cicely seed
pods when walking by them. When you
crush them in your hand they release a
strong licorice odor, with all parts of the
plant containing anise oil. You can
even lick your fingers and think
Good-and-Plenty. |
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Along with the wild geranium, the wild
blue phlox were common within the woods
and ran a range of colors from nearly
white to a rich light blue. |
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Virginia waterleaf has leaves that can
be mottled with light green patches and
are interesting just by themselves.
The light citrus scented flowers have
fuzzy interiors and grew in dense
aggregates along the flats and shelves
of the preserve. |
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We noted several varieties of
violet, purple oriented to the wetlands
and white violet on the dry side slopes. |
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We scampered down along a stream tunnel
in the hopes that the cold air and water
would allow us to find some wildflowers
that were suppressed/retarded in flower,
hopefully finding a trillium or two
still in bloom. Nothing doing, but
we did find masses of hydrangea and
maidenhair fern. |
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Michelle found these first, and said
"these look nice, what are they?"
Wow, the highlight of the day, Showy
Orchid (Orchis spectabilis).
Any/all orchids are significant,
uncommon to rare and should never be
picked. I've seen several types in
flower, but never the Showy. Until
today the only person that I know that
has photographed a Showy is Leslie Wood
of ESA, Inc. who took a photo of this
plant from a work site, near LaPlata, Charles
County, MD. |
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The showy orchid deserves a second
photo. |
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Several areas of wet, rock outcrops
contained columbine in flower. |
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We found one large aggregate of golden
ragwort, a wetland plant.
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In total we observed columbine, waterleaf,
chickweed, cleavers, miterwort, dwarf
ginsing, saxifrage,
Solomon seal,
hepatica, mayapple, rue anemone, sweet
cicely, violet, stoncrop, clearweed, false
nettle,
jack-in-the-pulpit, skunk cabbage, aster,
toothwort, geranium, cinquefoil, colts foot,
golden ragwort, jewelweed,
wild ginger, paw, daylily, bluebells, phlox,
mega-trilliums everywhere and dozen
plus herbaceous plants that I
could not key out because they were not in
flower and most likely limestone dependant.
I'd recommend a field day at Shenk's Ferry
to everyone, but make sure to time it for
mid-April, during the peak of the trillium
show.
Submitted by: Mark Burchick
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