*December 30, 1962 - Woodland PlantsWoodland Plants
Exclusive Sunday Review sketch by Dennis Puleston of Brookhaven
Focus on Mature by Paul Stouteriburgh, Cutchogue
GUEST WRITER
HENRY NYE
Mr Henry Nye has previously
written for us on the "Bayard
Cutting Arboretum" and "Fall
Color." For those of you w h o
are not familiar with Mr Nye,
he is Director of the Bayard
Cutting Arboretum at Oakdale,
LI, and president of the Long
Island Horticultural Society. It is
indeed a pleasure to have h i m
share his wide and varied back-
ground with us this week in his
article about "Woodland Plants"
Along the south shore of Long
Island, there are numerous inlets
from the Great South Bay and
small streams that empty in to
the brackish waters of the insets.
The ground surfaces bordering
the inlets stand but a few feet
above sea -level and during north-
east storms the marshlands be-
come partially submerged by the
swollen waters.
The higher land in the marsh
Supports pitch pine, black a n d
white oak, while the more de-
pressed surfaces give great vigor
to swamp maple, pepperidge and
occasionally grey birch and
sassafras.
Without getting one's shoes i
wet, it is possiblle to approach
the marsh, treading on s p o n g y I
ground littered with fallen leaves. I
Actually, the home land of many t
Of t h e native plants of t h e
marshland is much farther north p
but the cold north delivered them t
down here long ago, d r i v i n g _
them south before the icy threat
of the advancing glacier.
Although the surface of t h e
marsh is relatively flat, the edges
Of the marsh undulate with small
hummocks or depressions occur-
ring which provide greater s o i I
moisture in some locations than
in others. Older residents remin-
plants are the mosses. The trees
shrubs and her'hs form on I y a
framework to set off the beauty
of the wintergreen against t he
mossy sod. Mosses undulate over
much of the wintergreen plantings
in waves of emerald and bronze.
In other locations, may be found
the striped or spotted pipsissewa,
Chimaphila maculata. T h e s e
pants are low growing evergreen
herbs with creeping semi - woody
stems branching close to t he
ground surface. Unlike the winter-
green, the pipsissewa grows more
as a solitary plant or plants, in
much more scattered locations. It
is found in greater abundance
as one approaches the edge of
the marsh, growing in company
with low bush blueberry, sheep
laurel and underneath a canopy
of pitch pine or oaks. The leaves
are thick and shiny and t h e
flowers in July and August are
borne on stem at least a few
inches above the topmost leaves.
A very exotic effect is experi-
enced when seeing the n a t i v e
pink Lady's Slipper growing in
colonies of maianthemum in the
oak or pine woods that are ad-
jacent to the marsh. The ladies
S
may be found growing
n both sun and shade. T h i s
flower, also known as the Stem -
esss Lady's Slipper :has but two
eaves, both of which arise from
he base of the stem.
There are many other floweving
]ants, like the wood anemone,
he wild sarsparilMa, varieties of
native aster, star grass, par -
tridgeberry and wood betony that
may be added to the list of herbs
and wild flowers that are indigen-
ous to the marshland.
The swarming plants of t h e,
marshland exist and thrive with-
out attention. In the springtime,
the ground surfaces are carpeted
with a host of pretty little flow-
ers, all bright, coming out of
their bed of decaying grass and
tree leaves, before a tree leaf
has o p*e n e d. When the flowers
drop their petals, the tree leaves
unfold to form a canopy and pro-
tect the plants from .the hot sun.
Later on follow the asters which.
m i n g I e their color with t h e
autumn -tones from the trees and
shrubs. Then during the winter
months, the stems of the woody
trees and shrubs stand out as
sentinels against the g r o u n d
cover of the fallen leaves.
FIELD OBSERVATIONS
Judd Bennett reports:
East Marion — Dec 18
Duck Hawk
L R Ernest reports:
Southampton — Dec 15-17
Baltimore Orioles
Meadow Larks
Flickers (4)
;.'tort -eared Owl
now Buntings (17)
Bonaparte Gulls
Horned Grebes (2)
Common Loons (5)
Pacific Loon