When I visited Salato Wildlife Education Center in Frankfort, Kentucky the other day for our CIG networking gathering, I chafed for a chance to get outside. And when given the go-ahead my eyes started searching for green. Still a good bet for a few more days yet are evergreen plants. And the one that caught my eye first could almost be walked right over as it clung near to the earth; a Christmas fern laid low as commonly happens after the winter snowfalls. Even when the fiddleheads are still just a dream, the Christmas fern can be found. It's called out by the shape of its pinnae. I learned to call the shape 'like a sled', though most others would turn it the other way and imagine a stocking. Perhaps not surprisingly, it's a member of the Holly fern family.
For more info start here:
http://www.mobot.org/gardeninghelp/plantfinder/Plant.asp?code=A710
http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=POAC4
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_fern
The Payne Hollow Journal has an entry for March 28, 1953 that mentions the prolific blooms of the red maples, but comments that the redbuds are yet to shine. I've observed the same this year. Though not native, I also noticed that the forsythia blossoms were beginning to open at the spring equinox.
Learn more about the trees here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_maple
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Redbud
For more info start here:
http://www.mobot.org/gardeninghelp/plantfinder/Plant.asp?code=A710
http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=POAC4
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_fern
The Payne Hollow Journal has an entry for March 28, 1953 that mentions the prolific blooms of the red maples, but comments that the redbuds are yet to shine. I've observed the same this year. Though not native, I also noticed that the forsythia blossoms were beginning to open at the spring equinox.
Learn more about the trees here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_maple
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Redbud
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