Now that the flush of forest spring wildflowers has passed, it’s easy to overlook most of the late bloomers. Yet our June woods produce some lovely native wildflowers, beginning with the pink lady’s-slipper. Although it starts to bloom in mid-May, it holds its single crimson-pink slipper for three weeks. The pink lady’s-slipper orchid (Cypripedium acaule) […]
Category: Plant Lore
A Wild Resource Festival
Thunder rumbled ominously as my husband Bruce and I rushed to join Dr. Jim Bissell on a Dune Walk at Presque Isle State Park. Under a lowering sky spitting rain, we waited anxiously at Beach 10 Parking Area. Cars pulled in and out, but no one arrived for the 10:00 a.m. field trip. Then, Bissell […]
The Tree of Great Peace
The Iroquois called it the “Tree of Great Peace.” Its cluster of five needles to a bundle represented the five nations of the Iroquois and its spreading roots, reaching east, north, west, and south were the roots of peace that extended to all peoples. We call this tree, more prosaically, eastern white pine — Pinus […]
A Fruitful Year
Some years are more fruitful than others. Last year was one of those years. From mid-June until mid-August I never set out for my morning walk without slipping a pint jar into my pocket. I wanted to be prepared to pick first the low bush blueberries, then the huckleberries on the powerline right-of-way, and later, […]
Marcia Bonta 