Mother's Day Wildflower Walk
ClearWater
Conservancy will celebrate Mother’s Day with its traditional Mother’s Day
Wildflower Walk, to be held Sunday, May 11, 2008 from 1 to 3 pm at The
Rock, located off of Rock Road near Houserville.
View map.
Now
in its twenty-fourth year, the walk leads participants along a section of
Spring Creek within the property of Rockview State Correctional Institution,
by special permission.
Participants can expect to see a variety of plants in bloom, including rue anemone, columbine, and jack-in-the-pulpit, among others, during the two-hour walk. “This is a once-a-year opportunity to have bridge access to the limestone cliffs along a stretch of stream with a good diversity of spring wildflowers,” according to wildflower walk guide George Hildenbrandt.
As a special treat this year, and to help handle the blossoming crowd we have been attracting in the past few years, we hope to add two alternative walks from the same starting point. A group of walkers may join Bob Hazelton in a walk from the stream to the uplands to the Philip Benner cemetery. We are also hoping to have a group walk downstream along Spring Creek to the Benner Fish Hatchery for a special talk and tour.
This
event will be held rain or shine. The walk covers sloping terrain and is
recommended only for the sure-footed. Sturdy shoes and water are a must;
cameras, binoculars, and mothers are optional.
Wildflowers that can be seen at “the Rock” on Spring Creek
near Houserville in early May are shown in bold.
Flowering Plants:
Alternate-leaved Dogwood, Angelica, Barren Strawberry, Bishop’s Cap, Bladdernut, Bloodroot, Blue Cohosh, Burdock, Canada Mayflower, Clevers, Coltsfoot, Columbine, Common Purple Violet, Crinkleroot, Curled Dock, Dame’s Rocket, Dandelion, Doll’s Eyes (White Baneberry), Early Meadow-Rue, Early Saxifrage, Field Pussytoes, Garlic Mustard, Gill-over-the-ground, Goutweed, Greater Celandine, Hairy Yellow Violet, Hepatica, Jack-in-the-Pulpit, Jacob’s-Ladder, Lyre-leaf Rockcress, May-Apple, Mint species, Moneywort, Nine bark, Pennsylvania Bittercress, Poison Ivy, Prickly-ash, Purple Clematis, Queen Anne’s Lace, Rue Anemone, Skunk Cabbage, Slippery Elm, Smooth Yellow Violet, Solomon’s Plume, Solomon’s Seal, Spring Beauty, Stinging Nettles, Sweet Cicely, Sweet White Violet, Toothwort, Veronica (Speedwells), Virginia Creeper, Virginia Waterleaf, Wild Garlic, Wild Ginger, Wild Onion, Wild Parsnip, Wild Sarsaparilla, Wild Strawberry, Wintercress , Woodbine, Yellow Iris
Ferns and other non-flowering plants: