Alien Invasion

Periwinkle, Vinca minor

Grape Hyacinth, Muscari botryoides

Daffodil, Narcissus pseudonarcissus

Rock Polypody, Polypodium virginianum

My youngest daughter and I took a trip to Clear Creek Metro Park on Monday last week, hoping to see some spring ephemerals.  I figured our best chance would be on the lower section of the Hemlock Trail, which runs parallel to a small stream and then climbs among sandstone boulders to the top of the ridge.

I was surprised in that none of the cast of characters I was expecting, Hepatica, Harbinger of Spring, Trillium, or Trout Lily were even poked through the soil, let along flowering.  Seemed that this small little hollow was still working hard to hold on to winter, and botanically was even farther behind than the rest of southeast Ohio.

One neat discovery we did make was Rock Polypody, a relative small fern that inhabits the rocky crags and crevasses of the Blackhand Sandstone cliffs.  This is an evergreen fern, and while the spore structures on the back of the leaf were from last year, they were still adequate to identify this quaint little fern.

On the trip out of Clear Creek we had noticed a large patch of Daffodils along the side of the road, so we stopped to photograph those.  Unrecognized from the car was also a patch of Grape Hyacinth and Periwinkle near the Daffodils.  All three of these are what we call naturalized alien species.  These species were introduced to the area at some point in the past and decided they liked it here.  So much so, that they now grow (and spread) without any assistance from human kind.  Since they are naturalized, they are fair game for the One Thousand Flowers project.

With these four species, the total for the year rises to 19!