HomeMy WebLinkAboutDecember 30, 1962 - Woodland PlantsWoodland Plants Exclusive Sunday Review sketch by Dennis Puleston
of Brookhaven
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GUEST WRITER
HENRY NYE
Mr Henry Nye
has previously written for us on
the "Bayard Cutting Arboretum" and "Fall
Color." For those of you w
h o are not familiar with
Mr Nye, he is Director of
the Bayard Cutting Arboretum
at Oakdale, LI, and president oftheLongIslandHorticulturalSociety.
It is indeed a pleasure to have h
i m share his wide and
varied back- ground with us this week
in his article about "
Woodland Plants" Along the south shoreofLongIsland, there are
numerous inlets from the Great South
Bay and small streams that empty
in to the brackish waters of
the insets. The ground
surfaces bordering the inlets stand but a
few feet above sea -level and
during north- east storms the
marshlands be- come partially submerged
by the
swollen waters. The higher land in
the marsh Supports pitch pine, black a
n d white oak, while the
more de- pressed surfaces give
great vigor to swamp maple,
pepperidge and occasionally grey
birch
and sassafras. Without getting one's
shoes i wet, it is possiblle
to approach the marsh, treading on s p o n g
y I ground littered with fallen
leaves. I Actually, the home land of
many t Of t h e native plants of t
h e marshland is much farthernorthpbutthecoldnorthdelivered
them t down here long ago, d r i v ing _ them south before the
icy threat of the
advancing glacier. Although the surface of t
h e marsh is relatively flat,
the edges Of the marsh undulate
with small hummocks or
depressions occur- ring which provide greater s o
i I moisture in some
locations than in others. Older
residents remin- plants are the mosses.
The trees shrubs and her'hs form on Iyaframeworktosetoffthebeautyofthewintergreenagainst
t he mossy sod. Mosses
undulate over much of the
wintergreen plantings in waves of emerald
and bronze. In other locations, may
be found the striped orspottedpipsissewa, Chimaphila maculata. T h e
s e pants are low
growing evergreen herbs with creepingsemi - woody stems branching close to
t he ground surface. Unlike
the winter- green, the pipsissewa
grows more as a solitary plant or
plants, in much more scatteredlocations. It is found in
greater abundance as one approaches the
edge of the marsh, growing
in company with low bushblueberry, sheep laurel and underneath
a canopy of pitch pine or oaks.
The leaves are thick and shiny and theflowersinJulyand
August are borne on stem at least
a few inches above the
topmost leaves. A very exotic effect
is experi- enced when seeing the n a t i
v e pink Lady's Slipper
growing in colonies of maianthemum
in the oak or pine woods thataread- jacent to the marsh. The
ladies S may befoundgrowingnbothsunandshade. T hisflower, also known as
the Stem - esss Lady's Slipper :has
but two eaves, both of whicharisefromhebaseof
the stem. There are many
other floweving ants, like thewoodanemone, he wild sarsparilMa,
varieties of native aster, star
grass, par - tridgeberry and wood
betony that may be added to the list
of herbs and wild flowers that
are indigen- ous to
the marshland. The swarming plants of t
h e, marshland exist and
thrive with- out attention. In
the springtime, the ground surfaces
are carpeted with a host of pretty
little flow- ers, all bright, coming
out of their bed of decayinggrassandtreeleaves, before a
tree leaf has o p*e n e d. When
the flowers drop their petals, the
tree leaves unfold to form a canopy
and pro- tect the plants from .the
hot sun. Later on follow the
asters which. m i n g I e their color with t
h e autumn -tones from the
trees and shrubs. Then during
the winter months, the stems ofthewoodytreesandshrubsstand
out as sentinels against the g r o u
n d cover of the
fallen leaves.
FIELD OBSERVATIONS Judd
Bennett reports: East Marion —
Dec 18
Duck Hawk L R
Ernest reports: Southampton — Dec
15-17
Baltimore Orioles
Meadow Larks
Flickers (4) tort -
eared Owl now
Buntings (17)
Bonaparte Gulls Horned
Grebes (2) Common
Loons (5)