#picea rubens

[dailybotany]

Baby spruce cones! (Picea rubens)

[vandaliatraveler]

Beautiful fall day many years ago on the heath plains of Dolly Sods.

[vandaliatraveler]

The red spruce forest straddling the spine of Spruce Mountain is truly an island in the sky - a bit of boreal forest stranded by the northward retreat of the glaciers during the last ice age. Red spruce forests once cloaked vast expanses of the higher elevations of the Central Appalachians but were largely logged out of existence by the early 20th Century. Today, the remnant forests are slowly making a comeback, although they will never be restored to their full historic range. We are fortunate to have them at all. A stroll through one of these high elevation forests is a surreal experience and reveals a surprising diversity of plants and animals, many uniquely adapted to live in the cool, acidic environment.

From top: Spring-fruiting Entoloma mushrooms, most likely Entoloma vernum,  saprophytes that decompose organic matter for food; minniebush (Rhododendron pilosum), a blueberry-like shrub of the Central Appalachians that’s genetically closer to a rhododendron; black chokeberry (Aronia melanocarpa), a small, suckering shrub with blackish-purple berries and crimson-red leaves in the fall; yellow clintonia (Clintonia borealis), or bluebead lily, whose iridescent blue berries have the sheen of fine porcelain; pink lady’s slipper orchid (Cypripedium acaule), which clumps gregariously in the heath thickets on top of the mountain; the drop-dead gorgeous fringed polygala (Polygala paucifolia), also known as gaywings and flowering wintergreen, which for all the world looks like a dainty orchid but is actually a milkwort (Polygalaceae); and that lovely dwarf  dogwood, bunchberry (Cornus canadensis), a perennial groundcover more at home in Maine and Nova Scotia than West Virginia.

[vandaliatraveler]

“One gram of moss from the forest floor, a piece about the size of a muffin, would harbour 150,000 protozoa, 132,000 tardigrades, 3,000 springtails, 800 rotifers, 500 nematodes, 400 mites, and 200 fly larvae. These numbers tell us something about the astounding quantity of life in a handful of moss.”

― Robin Wall Kimmerer

“Mysterious and little-known organisms live within reach of where you sit. Splendor awaits in minute proportions.”

― E. O. Wilson

Moss is so much more than a small, non-vascular plant. It is a community and a life-force. Photos above from a red spruce forest on the summit of Spruce Mountain.

[vandaliatraveler]

Bear Rocks Preserve, located adjacent to the Dolly Sods Wilderness, encompasses a dramatic sandstone promontory overlooking the Valley and Ridge Province of the Central Appalachians and the Potomac River drainage. The preserve is characterized by its sprawling heath plains, which turn vivid red and purple in the fall, red spruce flagged by near constant, buffeting winds, and massive slabs of Connoquenessing sandstone that break the spine of the Allegheny Front and form the most amazing features and patterns - faces, animals, etc. Wind, rain, and ice are the primary forces of change here, but that change comes slowly to human eyes; the landscape looks much the way it did when I first visited it forty-plus years ago.

Last year, Bear Rocks Preserve and adjoining lands were incorporated into the nation’s 600th National Natural Landmark, the Bear Rocks and Allegheny Front Preserve NNL.

[vandaliatraveler]

At an elevation of 4,308 ft (1,313 m) above sea level, Bald Knob is a commanding high point from which to view Canaan Valley and the undulating ridges of the Allegheny Mountains to the west. A hike to the summit, via Canaan Valley Resort State Park, can be either challenging or easy, depending on the mode of ascent. For those wanting to test their endurance and stamina, a trailhead adjacent to the ski area will gladly accommodate, with a 900 ft (274 m) vertical rise in about a mile of constant climbing. On the other hand, a visitor can opt for a $5 lift ticket at the ski area and hike essentially downhill from there. Either way, the reward is a breathtaking panorama of some of Central Appalachia's wildest country.

From top: the edible “haws” of one of the many hawthorn trees (Crataegus) that grow in these mountains, providing a valuable food source to wildlife; the bright, clustered berries of the American mountain ash (Sorbus americana), like hawthorn, a member of the Rosaceae family; whorled wood aster (Oclemena acuminata), a lovely mountain aster whose bunched, tightly-alternating leaves give the appearance of being whorled; and a Pholiota mushroom, most likely shaggy scalycap (squarrosa), growing in the hitch of a red spruce tree (Picea rubens).

[vandaliatraveler]

Blinded by the green (redux): Blackwater Canyon, Panel 2.

[vandaliatraveler]

On Saturday, I hiked several trails along the Highland Scenic Highway I missed during my earlier trip a few weeks ago. There are simply too many to tackle in an entire spring or summer, let alone one weekend. One of the shorter but more rewarding hikes (about 3 miles) is the Red Spruce Knob Trail, which winds up the namesake mountain (top photo to left) to a true boreal forest, replete with a maturing, moss-encrusted red spruce forest, on the summit. The forest has a dark, almost primordial feel to it, with only the occasional barking of a red squirrel or a flitting bird in the spruce saplings to keep you company. And as an added bonus, the view from the top is quite beautiful. I just missed peak bloom for the yellow clintonia (Clintonia borealis), or blue-bead lily, which carpets the forest floor wherever enough sunlight can get through, along with Canada mayflower, mountain wood sorrel, and Indian cucumber-root.  A few plants still held their delicate yellow flowers, but most had gone to fruit - by late summer, the berries will turn an iridescent shade of blue, glossy like fine porcelain.