Durham, North Carolina
This trail was pretty much a seemingly endless straight line through the forest. But imagine my delight when I noticed a small patch of princess pines growing alongside the path. It’s good to know they live down here in these woods, too! It was like running into an old friend.
These tiny plants are usually less than 6 inches tall but they look like miniature pine trees. They were fairy forests in my mind when I was a child.
Wonder — is not precisely knowing
And not precisely knowing not —
A beautiful but bleak condition
He has not lived who has not felt —
~ Emily Dickinson
(The Poems of Emily Dickinson, #1347)
At first I thought I also had the good luck to stumble across a wintergreen but the above plant turned out to be a downy rattlesnake plantain. Apparently this orchid grows in New England, too, but this is the first one I’ve ever noticed.
There are 18 trails in Eno River State park, over 30 miles of them, so we have plenty of places to explore in the coming months.
I imagine there are quite a few shared natives despite the latitude difference between CT and NC. With 30 miles of trails, it seems that you will have many fine walks through fall, winter and spring.
It’s going to be fun sorting out what species New England and North Carolina have in common and what unfamiliar ones I will find down here, like the loblolly pines. Range maps have become very fascinating to me.
Looking forward to seeing what you find!
🙂 Off to the mountains today!
Oh, I remember you writing about the princess pines on your Connecticut walks Barbara – how fun to see them here as well. That is a perfect poem to accompany this post. I’ve not seen a plantain that fancy before – ours are more “Plain Janes” and as a kid we used to peel the string that made up the leaf and strip the leaf apart into segments … for what purpose I don’t know. Your 30 miles of trails await you and Tim now that cooler weather is finally here.
Do you have princess pines up in your neck of the woods, Linda? Apparently there are plantains in Connecticut but I’ve never noticed them before. Stripping a leaf apart into segments sounds like a very hands-on type of thing kids like to do as they explore the world. Reminds me of that game of picking the petals off a daisy to see if he loves me or if he loves me not. I am looking forward to exploring the trails, although I’m still wary of possible snake encounters.
I don’t think I have ever noticed princess pines Barbara, but maybe I need to start taking a closer look near the ground. That shouldn’t be a problem since, like you, I study the ground as I walk for snakes, especially at Humbug Marsh. I did see a medium-sized snake cross my path at Lake Erie Metropark last year. It startled me and it moved so quickly I never got a shot of it. I am really nervous if there are a lot of leaves on the ground, especially the prior year’s leaves in Spring. A person who does not do well with spiders, centipedes in the house and a mouse in the yard, will not fare well with a snake. My groundhog still remains at large – he can only exit the burrow by entering the trap.
I would be startled to see a snake, too, even though I’m watching out for them. So, I put two sticks of cinnamon on either end of my bathroom floor and haven’t seen a spider since. (I read somewhere that spiders are repelled by the smell of cinnamon and figured it wouldn’t hurt to try.) Keeping my fingers crossed. Oh wow, I can’t believe your groundhog hasn’t come out yet! Do you think he began hibernating and might stay put until spring? (Or Groundhog Day?)
I didn’t know about the spiders being repelled by the smell of cinnamon – I will see if Meijer carries cinnamon sticks. That is a good tip. My friend Ann Marie, also afraid of spiders, read somewhere to take cotton balls and put pure peppermint oil on them and put them around the house. She claims she does not have spiders now. She dropped off a small bottle of peppermint oil at my house and told me to try it. I was not as lucky as she was however.
I hope it works for you! I’m going to put fresh ones down once a month or if I see a spider sooner than that…
I”m going to look for sticks the next time I’m at the grocery store. I have an ornament on the kitchen wall, a rustic little bag with cinnamon sticks in it, but they no longer smell. I know I tried to find sticks to replace the others years ago and no one had them. Hope I don’t have to resort to Amazon, but I will as that’s a great idea.
That’s interesting — I’ve never had trouble finding cinnamon sticks in the grocery store. I wonder if it’s a regional thing. Once they’re out in the air they do lose their scent so they need to be replaced regularly. I also like simmering them in water on the stove with whole cloves and pine needles and orange slices during the holidays.
I’ll have to try Krogers and maybe they have the cinnamon sticks. I can remember years ago when Honey Crisp apples were just coming onto the scene, I’d make several trips over to Kroger to buy them as they only had the usual apples at Meijer. They now carry them as well.
It’s been interesting discovering which supermarkets carry what around here. I can only find cod loin, one of my special diet staples, at one of them.
A high school pal who lives in Cary, NC mentions grocery stores we don’t have around here. Do you have a Wegmans grocery store near you? The same friend has gone to one in NC and another high school pal lives in NY and loves her Wegmans store.
Yes, we love our Wegmans! It’s the only place that carries cod loin and their fish and meats and poultry are outstanding. So we just do all our shopping there now even though it can be more expensive. The cashiers are warm and friendly and the store is incredibly clean. We didn’t have one in Connecticut.
My two pals rave about Wegmans for the same reasons as you. We don’t have any Wegmans in Michigan unfortunately.
🙁 My sister-in-law had a Wegmans when she lived in Virginia and I used to love going there with her when we were visiting. Hope you get to one some day. They even have a floor plan on paper that tells you what is in every aisle so we can arrange our shopping list in order.
I hope so too Barbara. I would like that – easier to make the list and faster to get the shopping done. They completely remodeled our Meijer two years ago. It took from May until November – they just finished in time for the holiday rush. They had a store map, but nothing was in the same place and they cut up the long aisles into two parts – I was lost when I went to do my stocking-up-for-Winter shopping, plus it was 2021 with the supply chain issues.
I remember you writing about princess pines before, and I was fascinated then (as I am now!). What a cool thing to see!
It was such a delightful surprise to spot those princess pines deep in the woods down here! I was also surprised to learn that deer don’t eat them because they are toxic to them.