| If September has a woodland flower to represent this season of change, it would be one of my favorites, the inconspicuous Aster.
You can find Asters in August and all the way through October but the little composite just says September to me. Having arrived a little late in the evolution of the Angiosperms and coming into the game when the competition was so rough this little plant came up with a very efficient late in the season strategy. Unlike the ancient Magnolia that places so much energy in making big showy flowers to attract the insects when they first emerge from their winter hiding spots, that aster waits until many of the flowering plants are all done attracting insect pollinators and produces tiny white flowers during the final insect feeding frenzy of the season. The Aster may seem inconspicuous all by itself but having become a smashing success they cover the shady understory of the Northeastern forest.
Here is a photo that is not from Tuesday but offers the opportunity to inflict my local geological pun on you. I'm pretty fond of the rocks around this clump of asters, not Van Cortlandt rocks like the rest of my story. Not even Bronx Gneiss but a Central Park rock from the day that wide eyed lib and her husband took Jill Richardson and I foraging in Central Park. So that would probably make this rock Manhattan schist but do check out Jill's diary The Most Affordable Food in New York City for a fun new way to fill out the dinner table.
Now about the rock. I know the rock in the photo is not the local Bronx favorite, one of the oldest rock formations in the world that is actually called Fordham Gneiss because I used to go on walking tours with Doctor Dirt and I once took a tour where he showed the the outcrop of Fordham Gneiss that is the furthest south on Manhattan island way north of Central Park. This man is not the famous Dirt Doctor today and I can't understand why he did not call himself "Doctor Rock" because he once took New Yorkers out on stand up geology tours. Geological comedy sounds like a bit of a stretch but he was funny and filled the day with rock humor. I thought it was a little funny when someone asked about the vertical borings that you often see at roadsides and his answer was "those tubes were cut by the Devonian worm." I thought it was a lot funny when the earth science major standing next to me opened her note book and wrote "Look up Devonian worm." It's a shame that I can't remember Doctor Dirt's name but I'll never forget his teaching the first rule of New York City geological identification "The Bronx is Gneiss and Manhattan is full of Schist."
I don't know enough about rocks but early Tuesday morning I walked through one of my favorite areas of the park. There are several of these gullies or tiny canyons in the northern section of Van Cortlandt, very little by west coast standards but very green in the deep forest. The Devonian worm might be the prime suspect but then again it could have been the glaciers that once flowed through the neighborhood. Or perhaps it could be a miniature Grand Canyon caused by a long gone river from wetter times. For all I know it could have been carved by the WPA but this groove is chilly on the warmest day and on Tuesday it seemed a bit warmer.
For as long as I've walked through this little valley I've always enjoyed looking at this one root. The tree lives in a tiny crevice of dirt surrounded by rock above and is just about eight feet up from the nutrient rich and moist soil. The root that looks more like a branch is probably sixteen feet long with all of its curves but it found what it needed. Talk about "Yes We Can."
On Tuesday my favorite little root of life framed a tiny delicate yellow flower that also survived a season in the tiny crevice of dirt.
Tuesday was an especially good walking day both for the perfect weather and the fact that it was most walking I did in one day in a long time. While my car was in the shop I covered all four corners of the 1146 acres Van Cortlandt Park and made it an intercity walk by making it pretty deep into Tibbetts Brook Park to see what's popping up there too. I'm not as young as I once was and I paid for it all day on Wednesday but you know what they say.
I did not start at my usual Riverdale Riding Academy location.
Instead I started out at the northwest corner of the park and found a secret passage to an unmarked trail.
This early in September, Asters are far from the only flowers that can be seen in the shady areas of the forest. The first flowers of my fine morning were a blanket of tiny Asiatic dayflowers in the dark northern forest of the park.
There are many flowers to be seen along the trails in early September.
And a favorite of mine that has already gone to seed but is not yet at the stage it was named for. In a few weeks Jumpseed will fly at the slightest touch but today it just looks good in the September light of the forest.
This time of year wherever there is a break in the forest canopy, Jewelweed that also does well in the shade, thrives in the sunlight and owns the sunny areas of ground.
This beautiful Jewelweed flower that can be seen everywhere is also called Touch-Me-Not and should be touched often if you run into Poison Ivy, another plant that often occupies the same areas. Actually it is the juice in the stem of the Jewelweed that neutralizes Poison Ivy.
But for the first time I discovered vast sections of the trail where an all yellow variety of Jewelweed was making a stand.
One of the first things I notice when September rolls around is that the forest seems to go to a darker shade of green. The darkened hue is ever so slight but it seems like a prologue to the autumn splendor soon to come. On Tuesday I found three exceptions to the rule, the ferns that hold onto their spring green, young shoots that must have gotten off to a late start and the moss that never gives up.
The branch in the foreground of the log that was cut for hikers is called wineberry. It is an introduced species that adds a little winter color to the forest. In a few weeks the leaves will come off and the hairy stem will turn the color of red wine. One other common and native species has already taken a turn towards reddish, pokeweed.
Much more noticeable than darker shade of green is the last chance power drive of the insect world. The nectar seeking insects have reached their apex for the season and they all seem very busy preparing for a transition. There is an introduced species called Japanese Knotweed. This one that completely crowd out any other herbaceous species at the sides of rivers and streams is a really bad invasive species. The tops of these plants are covered in flowers now and there are so many insects feeding that from a distance it actually looks likes the flowers are dancing.
With all of those vegetarian insects the population of carnivores shoots up too.
There is a large species of Urban Dragonfly that is thriving this year. I don't know what it is called, perhaps one of the Darners, Green or Swamp but whichever one it is this huge dragonfly is curious about humans and hovers right if front of me, just not long enough for a photo. And the spiders, they are having such a banner year that every time I leave the trail to capture a flower, I have web all over me.
Tuesday was not just about wandering aimlessly through forest. I was on a mission to revisit my childhood while the flakes messes with my car. I wanted to go back to the swimming pool where I spent so many summer days. Tibbetts Brook that feeds all of the water into Van Cortlandt is also the name of a Westchester county swimming pool. So I followed the unofficial Bronx nature trail of the Old Putnam Railroad Trail.
Once the "Old Put" leaves the Bronx and enters well to do Westchester County it changes from nature trail to a long and well kept bicycle path. There is a rumor that up there the voters have some say about what the government does with tax money. Personally I like the low maintenance nature trail better.
The first interesting sighting on the path was a tree that is not a tree. It does not register in the photo but to the my eyes it looked like Snoopy begging. I can still see the eye but now it looks like a green wallaby. Do you see anything?
It took me a long time to find the tree that was underneath that vine. Somewhere inside all of that Canada Moonseed was a very stressed out Red Maple that is probably looking forward to winter.
There is a big difference between the nature of northern Van Cortlandt park and the manicured setting of Tibbetts Brook Park but when I got to the waterfall of the lower lake there was an overpowering stench of rotten eggs.
I got up to the lower lake and could not even find the water. Whatever it is it seemed much larger than duckweed and I think breaking down after a season of overrunning the lake is producing hydrogen sulfide. I'm really not sure what the smell was but it was really bad.
But it didn't scare everyone off.
And there must be something living underneath.
The north lake seemed much happier and had many waterfowl enjoying the clear lake.
The big swimming poll I was going to visit was closed for renovation this year and becoming a water park instead of the pool I once knew and loved.
So I headed down the Old Put to my more familiar lake before the battery on my camera ran out. I'm very fond of the Van Cortlandt lake.
I was carrying a dead camera but I still had plenty of walking left in me while I waited for my mechanic's personal assistant to call. After a walk to the Woodlawn section of the Bronx I took the bus back and my car was ready. I asked her when it was done and she said "Oh around 10 this morning." She made a great day possible so I wasn't upset about forgetting to call me but I should mention why my car was in the shop for eleven hours. It was for the annual New York State inspection.
Besides today being a day for the media to talk about lost jobs and forget about all the union organizers that gave us so much, today is also the traditional end of summer. That seemed like a quick summer and certainly my favorite weather wise in a long long time. There was plenty of rain, more cool days than most summers and much less of the hazy, hot and humid that NYC is infamous for.
I'm sure looking forward to walking through the asters as they bring the city to autumn.
Happy Labor Day. Did you have a good summer? Do you have a happy story from this holiday weekend?
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