Autumn on the Allegeny Front. Photos from various hikes around Dolly Sods and Canaan Valley.
From top: The view east from the Allegheny Front along the South Prong Trail (Roaring Plains); one of the many sphagnum bogs on the plateau, home to tawny cottongrass (Eriophorum virginicum) and large cranberry (Vaccinium macrocarpon); minniebush (Menziesia pilosa), bracken fern (Pteridium aquilinum), and American beech (Fagus grandifoli) in their gorgeous fall colors; running clubmoss (Lycopodium clavatum) with strobili containing spores; common blue wood aster (Symphyotrichum cordifolium); Applachian ladies' tresses (Spiranthes arcisepala), a member of S. cernua complex with a distinctly bell-shaped flower and rounded labellum; stiff gentian (Gentianella quinquefolia), also known as agueweed, which along with Spiranthes is one of the last wildflowers to bloom during the Applachian autumn; a beaver pond complex in Canaan Valley, adorned with colorful watershield (Brasenia schreberi); milkweed seedpods bursting and offering up a new generation to the wind; and a monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus), newly emerged from its chrysalis, takes a sip of nectar from a wrinkleleaf goldenrod (Solidago rugosa), also known as rough-stemmed goldenrod.
