On our way out from the park I spotted this Spicebush Yellow Swallowtail Catepillar.  Photo courtest by Virginia Naturalist Clif Fairweather 

Leaves from a HopHornbeam.

Here I show two ferns togther. The fern to the left is a called a Sensitive fern which was farily abundant and the one to the right, not so abundant, is a Rattle Snake or sometimes called a Grape fern. The sensitve fern is probably the third most abundant fern I observed in the park.

 Many of the Sensitive ferns were noticeably yellowing as if suffering from the extremes in weather lately .  

What is not clearly evident is the sporophyte on the RS fern protruding form the center of the plant. The sporophyte only appears as a single yellowish stalk.

The second most abundant fern in the park is the Christmas Tree fern. Note the shape of the pinna on the frond blade resembles a Christmas Tree stocking (see just below my thumb) 

New York fern. Note the tapering of the frond. New Yorkers “burn the candle at both ends”  Probably the dominant fern found in the park

Indian Ghost Pipe

Went out for a short visit to the park today just to see what might be popping out of the ground after all this rain we had the night before.

Took some photos of some plants as I walked though. Positive identification, as with all my doucmented organisms is yet another project but for now the pics will give some idea as to what one can expect to see (flora and fauna)  in our park.