Late in August, the trail crew spied an unusal wildflower, slender ladies’-tresses (Spiranthes gracilis), blooming in the large meadow. Ladies’ tresses is a native wild orchid with white blossoms (with a green interior lip) in a spiral along a twisted green spike of about a foot long. When I checked today, the blossoms had withered but the basal leaves and spiral flower spike were still evident. Photo by Daniel Torres.
Dr. Wansoo Im instructing Rutgers ecology students on how to operate mobile phone interactive mapping application for capturing geolocated ecological data in the EcoPreserve. Check out the Interactive Maps linked on the side bar or top menu.
Mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum) are unfurling their mini-umbrellas. Elsewhere spring beauties (Claytonia virginica) and trout lily (Erythronium americanum) carpet the forest floor. While the white and pink blooms of the spring beauties are everywhere the yellow flowers of the trout lily are few and far between. It takes number of years for the trout lilies to build up the energy reserves to bloom but the speckled foliage is still wonderful addition to the forest floor. Anecdotal accounts suggest that some species of wildflowers were much more…
Sometimes you’re at the right place at the right time. Driving home one rainy winter’s evening along River Road in Piscataway, Nicole Golden from the Mercer County Wildlife Center spied the flashing lights of police car and a cluster of people gathered around the cowering form of a red fox. Nicole pulled over and jumped out ready to help the hapless fox, evidently hit by a car while crossing the road from the Rutgers Ecological Preserve towards Johnson…