Author: Bob Saur

If you are here in late April or early May, at the base of the large tree on the far side of the brook you can see the broad, upright, bright green leaves of skunk cabbage emerging from the forest floor.  This is an early sign of spring, as the skunk cabbage tries to get … Continue reading Skunk Cabbage

Look carefully near the ground at the tree just off the trail.  It is a red maple that has “root sprouted” into at least three main stems, one of which was cut off to clear the rail trail.  The bark of the tree is covered with lichens, an association between an algae and a fungus:  … Continue reading Root Sprouts and Lichens

You are standing in a “cut” made through a small hill, so that the rail bed remains level.  Earlier in the walk you went through a “fill” where the rail bed had to be raised up to keep it out of the wetlands on either side.  Now these cuts and fills make it easy to … Continue reading Cuts and Fills

The dark evergreen tree is a hemlock.   This isolated tree can survive here, because it likes to have “wet feet;” it is close to the water and is protected from drying out by being on the north side of the rail bed.  The extremely dense shade of the hemlock makes it difficult for other plants … Continue reading Hemlock

Just to the right of the post is a small, low plant called checkerberry or wintergreen, which carries its bright red fruit through the winter.  Just to the left of the post is a slightly taller plant called sheep laurel.  Both are in the Heath Family.  Come back in the early summer to see their … Continue reading Wintergreen, Sheep Laurel, and Lowbush Blueberry