Wednesday, April 24, 2024

Brigadoon State Nature Preserve in late April

Before you look at this site you may want to 
see Brigadoon in March;
 just click here:


Here is a map of the area.



I returned to Brigadoon Nature Preserve
 in late April to check out the biodiversity.

This is the Loop Trail.  I turned left to go clockwise around
the loop, which brings you back to this point.


A few Spring Beauties are still flowering!
Click here for Info



Yellow Wood Sorrel or Sourgrass


A lemon flavor
Bursts from the flowers and leaves;
Sourgrass.



Information on Sourgrass




White Baneberry or Doll's Eyes
Flower of White Baneberry/Doll's Eyes
Click here for Info on Baneberry



Some Spring Phlox
Click here for Information




The strange looking Jack-in-the-Pulpit.
Click here for Info





A perfect day for a walk in the woods.




Violet Wood Sorrel
 Nice!



Mayapples
Click here for Information




After this turn you begin seeing some beautiful trilliums!


Looks like Large-Flowered Trillium
(Please correct me if I'm wrong on any ID)
Information on the Large-flowered Trillium
Large-Flowered Trilliums start out white and 
change to pink with age.







Adder's-tongue Fern with sporophyll.
Three in a row!!
Information





All the trilliums, today, looked like Large-flowered Trillium.



After this turn you'll begin a sharp descent to the creek.
I would call this Trillium Trail.


Grasshopper and Trillium.


A solitary Dwarf Crested Iris...the only one I saw 
on this side of the creek.
Information



The lighting was great!



A fly landed just as I was taking the photo.



The creek is at the bottom of the hill.


Hundreds of trilliums!









This part of the trail is the steepest...be careful.

Click here to see a video of the creek.



Looking up the creek

This Bishop's Cap was a treat to see! The flowers are so tiny!
They were growing right next to the creek.
 

Bishop's Cap
Information




Solomon's Plume with newly forming flowers.
Click here for Information




The NE corner of the trail, overlooking Barren River Lake.


Click here for a video of this view of the Barren River.



A succulent called Stonecrop.
Information



Dwarf Crested Irises on the boulder.

Surreal beauty!



The canopy kept the trail cool the entire way.



Daddy Longlegs...which are not poisonous, by the way!
Read about the Myth that they are poisonous.


Here is a plant, below, that does not make flowers.
Rattlesnake Fern, a kind of Grape Fern.
Its sporophyll or sporangium, which produces spores.
Information on Rattlesnake Ferns

Remember that ferns are not flowering plants.  They reproduce 
by releasing spores from their sporangia (spore cases).



Cleavers or Bedstraw
Click here to read about Cleavers as
a medicinal herb.



Some of the oak trees had plants called Bear Cones or Cancer Root
growing under them (photos below).  These are unusual in that they
are non-photosynthetic;  they cannot make their own food like 
typical plants.  
Cancer Root  or Bear Cones  or  Squaw Root
You might be asking yourself, "Why are they called plants, if
they are not photosynthetic?"  Biologists decided that if an 
organism makes flowers and seeds, then it is a plant, even if
it does not have chlorophyll.


Info on Bear Cones or Cancer Root


Bear Cones are actually parasites!  They steal nutrients from 
the roots of oak trees, with the help of fungi.


The leaf of a Cranefly Orchid;  
its flower will be out in July!
Info on Cranefly Orchids


The best find of the day!!!  A Showy Orchis!  Fantastic!
Also called Showy Orchid
Info on the Showy Orchis

This is the first one I've ever seen.  I've been looking
for this plant for many years.
 




The only pines that I saw all day.



A small plant called Pennywort.
Information

The end of the Loop Trail.  Turn left to get back to the lot.


If you're in the Glasgow/Bowling Green, KY area,
you must take some time to take a slow walk at
Brigadoon State Nature Preserve.
For more info on KY's Nature Preserves, click here.

To see Brigadoon in October just click here.

Get out and explore your surroundings!