A Walk in the Woods©

 

 

A “walk in the woods”, the Urban Dictionary¹ says that means “a big waste of time and effort, as in when a when a hunter comes back empty handed”.  I went on a walk in the woods at Chestnut Ridge Park the other weekend, but I didn’t think it was a big waste of time and effort!

 

The flame behind the falls was burning brightly, but it hadn’t rained recently, so the falls were dry, and it wasn’t very photogenic, but I did see some other cool things.

 

A big patch of partridge berries...

 

I found a big patch of partridgeberries (mitchella repens), with lots of ripe, bright red berries.  I knew that they were partridgeberries, not american winter green, because of the smooth-edged leaves, with the bright greenish-yellow leaf vein.

 

For more on partridge berries read “American Wintergreen or Partridgeberry? ... That is The Question©”, HERE.

 

A pawpaw tree...

 

I had never seen a pawpaw tree before, not because they are rare, although the Lake Erie shoreline is at the northern end of their range, but because their leaves resemble the leaves of the spicebush, shagbark hickory, white ash, and magnolia trees.  But just like oaks, beeches, and american chestnut trees, the leaves of pawpaw trees stay attached to their branches until late in the fall, so it is easier to identify them in the late fall than during the summer.

 

Pawpaw leaves are large and oval, and they alternate on the branch, they have smooth edges, and the trunks have bark that is mostly smooth, with a series of small, darker bumps on the bark.

 

An american chestnut tree...

 

Absolutely, the coolest thing that I found on my walk, was a living american chestnut, castanea dentata, tree!  It was only a small shoot growing from the roots of a tree that had died of chestnut blight fungus, cryphonectria parasitica, but it was alive!  The american chestnut is critically endangered, not extinct, because the blight infects and slowly kills the trunk of tree, leaving the roots alive.  This shoot is most likely a third generation sapling, growing from the existing root system of an original tree that had died from the blight in the early 1900s.

 

The american chestnut once grew to truly mammoth sizes, and now they are mostly gone, but several groups are working to find a way to make them resistant to the blight, so maybe someday they’ll be back, growing to their full gigantic size!

 

So, my walk in the woods wasn’t a big waste of time and effort, and I don’t think I came back empty handed, because I found some truly cool plants!

 

Don’t forget to come back next week and read “Clo Values...What? ©”, where we will talk about how warm clothes are and what to wear to stay comfortably cold in the winter outdoors.

 

I hope that you continue to enjoy The Woodsman’s Journal Online and look for me on YouTube at BandanaMan Productions for other related videos, HERE.  Don’t forget to follow me on both The Woodsman’s Journal Online, HERE, and subscribe to BandanaMan Productions on YouTube.  If you have questions, as always, feel free to leave a comment on either site.  I announce new articles on Facebook at Eric Reynolds, on Instagram at bandanamanaproductions, and on VK at Eric Reynolds, so watch for me.

 

That is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!

 

 

Notes

 

1 “a walk in the woods -- When a hunter comes back empty handed.  The hunting isn't always for animals, and can mean an effort that didn't pay off. A big waste of time and effort” . HERE

 

Sources

 

Grow It, Build It, The Blog; “The Pawpaw Tree – A Guide To America’s Native Tropical Fruit”, [Copyright 2023], https://growitbuildit.com/pawpaw-tree-asimina-triloba/, accessed November 24, 2023

 

Immel, Diana, and Anderson, M. Kat; “PAWPAW Asimina triloba (L.) Dunale.”, [USDA NRCS Plant Guide], https://plants.usda.gov/DocumentLibrary/plantguide/pdf/cs_astr.pdf, accessed November 24, 2023

 

Ross, Kathy N.; “Memory of great forests – and hope for restoration American chestnuts once dominated Appalachian region's forests”, August 27 2022, [The Mountaineer] https://www.themountaineer.com/news/haywood_history/memory-of-great-forests-and-hope-for-restoration/article_b4995be6-249d-11ed-a0ca-ff700334e153.html, accessed November 25, 2023

 

USDA, “Asimina triloba (L.) Dunal.  pawpaw”, [USDA NRCS Plants], https://plants.usda.gov/home/plantProfile?symbol=ASTR, accessed November 24, 2023

 

Wikimedia; “A close-up of the gas-lit flame below Eternal Flame Falls in Chestnut Ridge Park, Orchard Park, NY”, by Mpmajewski, May 1 2009, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Eternal_flame_falls_7252.jpg, accessed November 25, 2023