#flatrock plains

[vandaliatraveler]

Walk with me: Autumn fire on the Allegheny Front. The heath's ablaze on the plains of Dolly Sods, signaling a change of season as Summer's greens burn away in Autumn's fire. Photos from the Allegheny Front at Flatrock Plains, Dolly Sods, and the Bear Rocks Preserve.

[vandaliatraveler]

View from the Allegheny Front along the South Prong Trail on the Flatrock Plains in the Monongahela National Forest. Flatrock and Roaring Plains combine to form the highest Plateau in the eastern US.

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Ménage à trois in the reindeer lichen. Photo taken on the South Prong Trail in Flatrock Pains.

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The hills are alive . . .  with wild blueberries. I literally ate my way through Yellow Creek Preserve yesterday. The berries (Vaccinium angustifolium and Vaccinium pallidum) are at peak ripeness in the local mountains - and they are sweeter and more nutritious than anything you can buy in a store. Meanwhile, bog cranberry (Vaccinium oxycoccos) is on the way (bottom photo). The cranberries will ripen in late summer, long after the blueberries have been eaten by wildlife (and people) or withered away.

[vandaliatraveler]

Above are a few mementos from my trip to Dolly Sods this past Saturday.  The gorgeous but deadly pine barrens death camas (Stenanthium leimanthoides) is reaching peak bloom in the plateau’s peat bogs and seeps. This showy perennial is often confused with the closely related fly poison (Amianthium muscitoxicum), but while the latter produces an unbranched inflorescence (a raceme), Stenanthium produces a multi-branched one (a panicle). Both plants are in the false hellebore family and contain high concentrations of poisonous alkaloids - early white settlers who mistook death camas bulbs for those of wild onion paid dearly for their misidentification. Other wildflowers currently in bloom on the plateau include cow-wheat (Melampyrum lineare) and fireweed (Chamaenerion angustifolium), a tall, stately perennial with a broad distribution across the Northern Hemisphere. Incidentally, fireweed nectar makes a beautiful, rich honey that’s quite popular up north in Alaska and Canada. I order it online every now and again as a change of pace from the locally-produced honeys. But you can make it yourself if you have fireweed blossoms readily available.

[vandaliatraveler]

Moss, lichen, Pottsville sandstone, quartz, and gnarly red spruce: an ancient and potent spell. Photos above were taken along the South Prong Trail, which winds though Red Creek and Flatrock Plains.

[vandaliatraveler]

Yesterday morning on top of the Allegheny Front at Flatrock Plains, with the fog rolling in over the spruce trees.  Weather is extremely variable on top of the mountain - a few hours later, the sun was out and the fog was gone. 

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A damp, bouncy boardwalk crosses a boggy area along the South Prong Trail on Flatrock Plains.

[vandaliatraveler]

Part 1 of 3: A Summer Hike on the Sods.

Although each season brings its share of wonders and revelations to the Dolly Sods Wilderness, late July to early August is a particularly opportune time to visit. An extraordinary wildflower convergence happens on the high mountain plains at this time of year, with plants that finished blooming weeks ago at lower elevations (e.g., rhododendron) just getting to peak and new mid-summer arrivals showing up weekly. In addition, the berries from earlier spring blooms are now (or will soon be) ripe for the picking, including blueberries, huckleberries, and cranberries. The photos above are from various bogs on Dolly Sods and the adjacent Flatrock Plains and highlight a few of the treasures to be found this time of year. From top: orange-fringed orchid (Platanthera ciliaris); little club-spur bog orchid (Platanthera clavellata); black huckleberry (Gaylussacia baccata); pine barrens death camas (Stenanthium leimanthoides), similar to fly poison (Amianthium muscitoxicum) but with a panicled inflorescence; bog goldenrod (Solidago uliginosa), an elegant and beautiful member of the genus Solidago;  bushy St. John’s wort (Hypericum densiflorum); round-leaved sundew (Drosera rotundifolia); and small cranberry (Vaccinium oxycoccos), also called bog or swamp cranberry.

[vandaliatraveler]

Part 3 of 3: A Summer Hike on the Sods.

Above are a few final memories from my various hikes around the Dolly Sods Wilderness and Flatrock Plains last weekend. Amazingly, the rhododendron was still in bloom, which seems unusual even at this elevation, but as a fellow amateur wildflower enthusiast I met on the mountain noted, “This has been a strange year.” She traveled up from Frederick, Maryland, one of many thousands of folks from the Mid-Atlantic region who are drawn as if by some primordial impulse to this land’s ancient bedrock throughout the year. Aside from the rhododendron, the fireweed (Chamaenerion angustifolium) was getting past its prime, but other wildflowers, including the lovely cutleaf coneflower (Rudbeckia laciniata), were just getting to peak. There were also lots of ripe (but not necessarily edible by people) berries to be found, including the luminous red fruits of catberry holly (Ilex mucronata), a deciduous mountain holly often found growing in the same habitat with another deciduous holly, winterberry holly (highlighted in earlier posts).

[vandaliatraveler]

The rugged plateau that lifts Dolly Sods, Flatrock Plains, and Roaring Plains high above the Potomac River drainage has a well-deserved reputation for tempestuous weather conditions. Barely two hours after I had departed Red Creek Canyon under clear blue skies, I emerged at the Rorhbaugh Trailhead on the Forest Service Road to discover a big, gorgeous, stormy sky forming over the Allegheny Front (top front). But the intermittent showers that followed were no match for the late spring wildflower show along the South Prong Trail: American mountain ash (Sorbus americana) on the verge of blooming; black chokeberry (Aronia melanocarpa); minniebush (Menziesia pilosa), an uncommon Central Appalachian endemic identified by the white "nipples” at the ends of its leaves; bunchberry (Cornus canadensis), a dwarf member of the dogwood family; early azalea (Rhododendron prinophyllum); a pink lady’s slipper orchid (Cypripedium acaule) enveloped in reindeer lichen (Cladonia); and Canada mayflower (Maianthemum canadense).

[vandaliatraveler]

Camouflaged in a patch of rusty peat moss (Sphagnum fuscum) and small cranberry (Vaccinium oxycoccos), a round-leaved sundew (Drosera rotundifolia) ensnares a hapless victim in its sticky tentacles. Sundew may be the coolest plant in the bog, but if you aren’t looking for this tiny wonder, you’ll never know it’s there. Photo taken on the South Prong Trail in Flatrock Plains.