State Line Adiantum, Day 2
June 13 was humid and cloudy. Morgan and I started at Nottingham County Park, where a logging operation is underway to remove pitch pine snags from the "front country". Fortunately, the Feldspar and Buck Trails remained open, giving us a path to maidenhair country.
We started by wading up Black Run from the Feldspar Trail to examine some small streamside colonies. Then we backtracked, went up the Feldspar Trail, and after a brief detour to examine the Mystery Hole, cut across Firebreak 10 and the serpentine seep to reach a streamside site on the Buck Trail. While Morgan was doing site assessment and soil samples, I explored down the length of Victory Run and documented a number of Adiantum pedatum colonies. The species is more abundant in the park than I had realized; perhaps it's less visible because there are fewer trails along drainages when compared to Goat Hill. The streamside was otherwise not especially interesting, except for a few rattlesnake ferns (Botrypus virginianus). A Chamaelirium luteum turned up near the site; I haven't yet found a site of high local density for these as at Goat Hill.
After a brief lunch, we ran southwest for Pilot Barrens, examining the perimeter of the two openings on the site, particularly the western one. Maidenhair was reasonably common in shaded areas; we had a false start near the entrance, and then found a larger and more interesting patch an an area of grassland reverting to greenbrier and brush. Here, there was essentially no canopy, and the maidenhairs growing on the side of a small gully had rotated their ultimate segments out of the plane of the blade, presumably a response to reduce sun exposure. Some daytime moths and odonates were present on the site; in addition to the usual skimmers, etc., I found a clubtail (ID'd by @scottking as a black-shouldered spinyleg) in a stiltgrass meadow near the Conowingo Creek. A small box turtle turned up in the brushy area.
One of the trees in the savanna forming the eastern opening appears to be a tupelo; not unknown on the barrens, but a little surprising to me in a savanna. On closer examination, the slopes around the eastern opening also proved to be rich in maidenhair ferns, disclosing one patch so large we decided to return for it on another day.
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