June 14 was warmer and sunny, but less humid than the preceding day, with a bit of a breeze. Our destination today was the Cliffs of the Octoraro, where the maidenhairs join the other flora described by Pennell on the steep, rather stiltgrass-infested slopes above the creek. On the way, I was pleased to see that a mystery I noticed last year had broken into flower: it proved to be fly poison, Amianthium muscaetoxicum.

The setting at the cliffs is very interesting: a fairly rich forest with basswood growing in the soil brought down by the Octoraro, at the foot of the serpentine slope. Walking fern grows on mossy boulders of serpentine, and I saw foxglove beardtongue (Penstemon digitalis) growing at the edge of the creek. While inspecting the spleenworts (I'm still hopeful that a Scott's spleenwort will someday appear), I found an ebony spleenwort with an unusually shaped pinnae, perhaps damaged during growth.

After finishing the site assessment, we retraced our steps and proceeded to the magnesite quarry, where Morgan finished the assessment of the mine dump site while I made my way home by way of the powerline cut.

Posted on June 19, 2018 04:35 AM by choess