State Line Adiantum, Day 1

My long-standing obsession with Adiantum pedatum on the State Line serpentine barrens has, in a sense, paid off. Morgan Southgate at UVM, who has been studying the entire A. pedatum complex on and around serpentine in Vermont, came south this week to survey and sample maidenhair from various sites on the barrens. I came along to point out some of the more interesting sites and identify local flora.

Our first day in the field was June 12, which we spent at Goat Hill Barrens. The first site surveyed was not far from the Rose Trail, on the upper waters of Pine Run. This is fairly typical habitat for Adiantum in the barrens; streamside in thicker alluvial soils, in a pine-red maple-catbrier or oak-red maple-catbrier forest where serpentine character is relatively limited. Saw the caterpillar of a definite tussock moth (Orgyia definita) near the site; common, but new for me, and carrying the interesting bristles characteristic of the genus.

We took a long loop through some of the forests and grasslands to the northwest of the powerline cut to see some of the characteristic serpentine flora, including quill-leaved fameflower (Phemeranthus teretifolius), which seems to be having a good year this year on various barrens (not yet blooming, though). Our path crossed a valley between two grasslands which abounds in fairy-wand (Chamaelirium luteum), now in spectacular bloom, and also contains some A. pedatum crawling some distance up the slopes in the forest. We emerged at the old magnesite quarry, where a population of maidenhair growing on the near-vertical slope of the mine dump was chosen for Site 2. A monarch butterfly was seen alighting nearby.

After carrying out the floral survey for Site 2, we backtracked towards a property corner below grassland 86, where a canopy gap near the stream shed light on a large, dense patch of maidenhair. (We also saw a nice Ophioglossum vulgatum site, discovered by Janet Novak in 2015, in the vicinity.) This was chosen as Site 3, and Morgan worked on surveying it as I left the field to go teach.

由使用者 choess 在 2018年06月17日 17:35 所貼文