I often head out around the lake covering the same territory, about a four mile hike. For this last session I stayed very close to home, hunching down under bushes and crawling through wet leaves. How much beauty and diversity can be found in the tiniest places? I'll try to work on that over the next few posts. :-)
In between Saturday's rainstorms I discovered the little Partridgeberry,
Mitchella repens. It was the red berry that first attracted me; I then came upon many more plants, all without berries.
Partridgeberry (I love that name!) is an evergreen creeping (and not climbing) native vine that prefers forest floors, often close to hemlock.
The two dimples on the fruit are the result of two flower ovaries fusing, an interesting habit making for an effective ID property. Why only a few berries among so many vines? Was this a bad year for flowering? Have most fruit already been dined upon?
These Google maps are so cool! I never knew I could embed like this! :-) Okay, here's where I was poking around, from the A marker (that's my place) on up to Elm Street. Do check out the Sat view.
