Here’s a native plant you don’t see very often, but Ruby-throated Hummingbirds have a knack for finding and adoring it within the limited habitat where it still exists.
Not likely to thrive in deep forest cover, Allegheny Vine is a denizen of edge habitat. The species is dependent on some type of disturbance to maintain suitable growing conditions. The plants seen here were found flowering in an area that had experienced a fire prior to last year’s growing season. It is therefore quite possible that the fire completed the stratification process and triggered long-dormant seeds to germinate last spring or summer to develop a basal plant which matured and flowered during this second summer of the biennial’s growth. On a forested slope opposite this site, a first-ever prescribed burn was conducted in March of this year to eliminate accumulated fuel and replicate a natural fire cycle. With a little luck, this forest management approach may prompt additional long-dormant Allegheny Vine seeds to germinate and form basal plants this year for maturation in 2025. Without man-made disturbances, Allegheny Vine may remain viable as a species by enduring seed dormancy periods of 40-100 years or more between fires, lightning strikes, wind storms, ice accumulations, and other events which clear the canopy and encourage growth.
This linear grove of mature trees, many of them nearly one hundred years old, is a planting of native White Oaks (Quercus alba) and Swamp White Oaks (Quercus bicolor).
Imagine the benefit of trees like this along that section of stream you’re mowing or grazing right now. The Swamp White Oak in particular thrives in wet soils and is available now for just a couple of bucks per tree from several of the lower Susquehanna’s County Conservation District Tree Sales. These and other trees and shrubs planted along creeks and rivers to create a riparian buffer help reduce sediment and nutrient pollution. In addition, these vegetated borders protect against soil erosion, they provide shade to otherwise sun-scorched waters, and they provide essential wildlife habitat. What’s not to love?
The following native species make great companions for Swamp White Oaks in a lowland setting and are available at bargain prices from one or more of the County Conservation District Tree Sales now underway…
So don’t mow, do something positive and plant a buffer!
Act now to order your plants because deadlines are approaching fast. For links to the County Conservation District Tree Sales in the Lower Susquehanna River Watershed, see our February 18th post.
They get a touch of it here, and a sparkle or two there. Maybe, for a couple of hours each day, the glorious life-giving glow of the sun finds an opening in the canopy to warm and nourish their leaves, then the rays of light creep away across the forest floor, and it’s shade for the remainder of the day.
The flowering plants which thrive in the understory of the Riparian Woodlands often escape much notice. They gather only a fraction of the daylight collected by species growing in full exposure to the sun. Yet, by season’s end, many produce showy flowers or nourishing fruits of great import to wildlife. While light may be sparingly rationed through the leaves of the tall trees overhead, moisture is nearly always assured in the damp soils of the riverside forest. For these plants, growth is slow, but continuous. And now, it’s show time.
So let’s take a late-summer stroll through the Riparian Woodlands of Conewago Falls, minus the face full of cobwebs, and have a look at some of the strikingly beautiful plants found living in the shadows.
SOURCES
Long, David; Ballentine, Noel H.; and Marks, James G., Jr. 1997. Treatment of Poison Ivy/Oak Allergic Contact Dermatitis With an Extract of Jewelweed. American Journal of Contact Dermatitis. 8(3): pp. 150-153.
Newcomb, Lawrence. 1977. Newcomb’s Wildflower Guide. Little, Brown and Company. Boston, Massachusetts.