MOUNTAIN LAUREL BLOOMS IN LEWDEN GREEN PARK, NEW CASTLE DELAWARE

A TALE OF THE TWO DELAWARES: AMIDST  CITIES AND 8 LANE HIGHWAYS, OIL REFINERIES, MEGA-MALLS AND MINI-MALLS, AND SEEMINGLY ENDLESS LOW-DENSITY SPRAWL IS A NATURAL LANDSCAPE FULL OF NATIVE TREES, SHRUBS  AND FLOWERING HERBACEOUS PLANTS, BIRDS AND BUTTERFLIES.

Lewden Green Park, New Castle County, Delaware
Lewden Green Park, New Castle County, Delaware

KALMIA LATIFOLIA

The contrast of natural landscape to urban sprawl is back-to back in New Castle County Delaware. At the intersection of Airport Road and Appleby Road is a mini-mall, a gas station, large swaths of parking, an apartment complex, lots of turn lanes and asphalt.  This is the place that is driven through day in and day out.  A place to merge on to the highway in order to get onto I-95. A place to buy gas.  However, there is an amazing woodland that almost exists in a alternative reality, in almost exactly the same spot.  This is the place where if you ever imagined what it must’ve looked like at this gas station 1000 years ago, at this exact spot, what was it like?  Well, here at Appleby and Airport roads, All one has to do is cross the street, 150 feet and you are there, 1000, years ago.

Lewden Green Park is the pre-strip-mall Delaware.   It is hard to believe that such a place can even exist in such close proximity to such a thoroughly disturbed urban area. Yet Lewden Green Park is so rich in diversity of trees, shrubs and understory herbaceous vegetation, it must be accepted as fact.

Lewden Green Park, New Castle County, Delaware
Lewden Green Park, New Castle County, Delaware

The above-pictured Kalmia latifolia is flowering in abundance in the Lewden Green park.  There are mature shrubs in full flower all over the park.  The woods is a joy to see: from the trails off into the forest is a shrub layer of blooming Mountain Laurel as well as maple leafed Viburnum. Oaks, Hickories, and Sweet-gum are in the canopy, and as we get closer to the Christiana River that flows through the park, there are Red Maples, Sycamores and Dogwood.

The Mayapples, Hay-scented ferns and False Solomons seals are on the forest floor.

Lewden Green Park, New Castle County, Delaware
Lewden Green Park, New Castle County, Delaware

What did this spot look like 1000 years ago?  It could be argued that the overabundance of white-tailed deer can explain the hay-scented fern patch pictured here, being that the deer don’t like the hay-scented fern. Evidence was noted of the deer, in that the Mayapples were in some areas reduced to leaf-less stems, a familiar scene in Morris Park, Philadelphia.

Lewden Green Park, New Castle County, Delaware
Lewden Green Park, New Castle County, Delaware

Just a glance into the forest reveals blooming shrubs under a canopy of mature native trees and a vigorous layer of  ferns and herbaceous plants, all native, which means they most likely have been living in this exact spot for thousands of years.  Imagine that a place in the forest can have stability for such a long time. The blooming Mountain Laurel pictured here is a descendant of  one that bloomed in this very spot 2000 years ago. The original Delaware, The natural lands that co-exist somehow with the developed areas are still holding on.  Imagine that the neighborhoods surrounding Lewden Green park could remain as stable as the park. Imagine living on a block of houses, where the inhabitants have been living there for 5000 years and thought little of it. The blooming Mountain laurel has been doing that for much longer and has no problems with that , just see the next picture:

Lewden Green Park, New Castle County, Delaware
Lewden Green Park, New Castle County, Delaware

This absolutely magnificent flowering shrub has the answer.  How many millions of years of evolution created this beauty?  So, in this very spot, here in New Castle County Delaware, what was it like two hundred  years ago in 1811?  How about  300 years ago in 1711? 400 years ago in 1611?

Ok then: 2000 years ago in just plain old 11?  Was this bush blooming just like it is here, right in this spot? In Delaware?

 

Lewden Green Park, New Castle County, Delaware
Lewden Green Park, New Castle County, Delaware

Maple-leaved Viburnum blooms!

Lewden Green Park, New Castle County, Delaware
Lewden Green Park, New Castle County, Delaware

Whoever is helping maintain this park , you are doing a great job. This park is a treasure.

The invasive exotics Multiflora rose, and the Asiatic bittersweet, as well as the party spots with the beer cans  and garbage, (also, the axe  hackings of that poor mid-sized  oak tree next to the pond ) are  troublesome problems In Lewden Green Park.

Lewden Green Park, New Castle County, Delaware
Lewden Green Park, New Castle County, Delaware
Lewden Green Park, New Castle, Delaware
Lewden Green Park, New Castle, Delaware

So do not be fooled by all of the miles of asphalt and industrial facilities in Delaware. There are Mayapples and Mountain Laurel blooming in the hidden forest remnants. In fact, Roger Tory Peterson writes in A Field Guide To Wildflowers:  “The best remaining natural flower gardens I have seen along the East Coast are in Delaware.”

Delaware will enrich any itinerary of wildflower viewing in the Mid-Atlantic region. The birds like it here too.

Garden of the Sanguine Root, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Garden of the Sanguine Root, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

So these two pictures here are not in Lewden Green or even the Mt Cuba Center or Bowman’s Hill Preserve.  They are in fact in our backyard. Thats right, this blooming beauty was purchased at a plant sale at Bowmans Hill Wildflower Preserve.  These shrubs are great garden specimens.  Rather than buy yet another Asian Azalea, perhaps your yard could be graced with this exquisite native shrub.  If you want birds in your yard, the insects that will visit the Mountain laurel will attract the hungry birds and pretty soon you will have a natural ecosystem happening in your own yard.  At your local native plant nursery, be sure to ask for Kalmia Latifolia. The latin name insures that you will get the right plant.

Garden of the Sanguine Root, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Garden of the Sanguine Root, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

BLOOMING PINXTERBLOOM AZALEA IN FULL BLOOM DAY 2

THE SUN FULLY ILLUMINATES THE HUNDREDS OF BLOOMS ON THIS SPECTACULAR NATIVE SHRUB GROWING ON THE RICH UPLAND FOREST OF MORRIS PARK

Pinxter-Bloom Azalea blooms in Morris Park, Philadelphia
Pinxter-Bloom Azalea blooms in Morris Park, Philadelphia

Rhododendron periclymenoides

Pinxter-Bloom Azalea blooms in Morris Park, Philadelphia
Pinxter-Bloom Azalea blooms in Morris Park, Philadelphia

On a cloudy day, this flower lights the place up. On a sunny day, the flowers are transformed into sparkling orbs bursting forth from this normally unassuming woodland shrub.

Pinxter-Bloom Azalea blooms in Morris Park, Philadelphia
Pinxter-Bloom Azalea blooms in Morris Park, Philadelphia

After we saw this, we purchased another one at the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education where they have a Spring Native Plant sale this weekend.

Pinxter-Bloom Azalea blooms in Morris Park, Philadelphia
Pinxter-Bloom Azalea blooms in Morris Park, Philadelphia

We are happy that the nursery trade has been able to cultivate this native woodland shrub and there is a market for it.  It is a long process (years) by seed, so its propagation is best done by cuttings.  Our new specimen is only about 11 inches tall, with  a few branches.  Still , this must have taken some time and care to create, and we are overjoyed at its commercial availability.  We can only imagine how many years it will take to look like this naturally occurring upland forest beauty here in Morris Park.

Pinxter-Bloom Azalea blooms in Morris Park, Philadelphia
Pinxter-Bloom Azalea blooms in Morris Park, Philadelphia

We have been keeping a close eye on the area around the shrub.  We remove the invasive vegetation that grows on it and around it, such as Japanese Honeysuckle, and Garlic Mustard.  We have been pulling Japanese Stiltgrass from nearby as well.  Asiatic bittersweet looms in the vicinity, and we see shoots come up from time to time which we immediately yank out.   However, the most ominous and alarming invasive is the Aralia elata, the Japanese angelica tree, which is growing only 25 feet from this shrub.

Pinxter-Bloom Azalea blooms in Morris Park, Philadelphia
Pinxter-Bloom Azalea blooms in Morris Park, Philadelphia

However, on this sunny and balmy spring day at the very end of April, we are very happy to see the Pinxterbloom Azalea in full bloom.

BLOOMING PINXTERBLOOM AZALEA IN FULL BLOOM

A NATIVE SHRUB IS BLOOMING.

Pinxter-Bloom Azalea blooms in Morris Park, Philadelphia
Pinxter-Bloom Azalea blooms in Morris Park, Philadelphia
Pinxter-Bloom Azalea blooms in Morris Park, Philadelphia
Pinxter-Bloom Azalea blooms in Morris Park, Philadelphia

Rhododendron periclymenoides

Pinxter-Bloom Azalea blooms in Morris Park, Philadelphia
Pinxter-Bloom Azalea blooms in Morris Park, Philadelphia

This native shrub grows in the vicinity of the Overlook, the area where the Morris Park Road trail meets the upper trail, which connects Lotus road to Woodcrest Avenue.  The Overlook is a place of special importance, and it is no surprise that there is a fine display of  Rhododendron periclymenoides along the viewing area.  The high diversity of plant species growing in this special area is inspiring, considering the area also offers a view of center city Philadelphia in the wintertime.  This is a moist upland area, and for most of the year, all that can be seen and heard are trees rustling in the wind and a waterfall of the Indian Creek  80 feet below.  Breezes can be afforded in this spot even on hot summer days, that are stifling only a five minutes walk away into the adjacent urban neighborhoods.

Pinxter-Bloom Azalea blooms in Morris Park, Philadelphia
Pinxter-Bloom Azalea blooms in Morris Park, Philadelphia

Nestled below a canopy of mature Beeches and Oaks, the shrub layer of Rhododendron periclymenoides can be seen going down the steep hillside, with blooming bushes visible down the hillside where it grows amidst Spicebush and Lowbush Blueberry, and American Chestnut, also a once grand tree that dominated the forest canopy now reduced to the height of a woodland shrub.

The Sanguine Root has been dragging the neighbors out to see the wild Azaleas, some of whom ask “Where are you taking me?” as we lead them further and further into the forest, which eventually opens out into the Overlook area. Any neighbor who shows any inclination of interest about the natural world of the park to the Sanguine Root is given a tour of interesting trees, shrubs and blooming flowers. Also the invasive plants are pointed out and discussed at length. The more the community can learn about the park, and feel that they know a few plants and trees themselves, the more pride they will feel, and the more connected they will be to the place. We are asked about the little umbrellas.  We answer that they are a native wildflower, they are Mayapples, which bloom in late April and early  May, and make a little “apple” that ripens and is edible after its ripe and is associated with the native Box Turtle.  (The turtle likes the ripened fruit, and it is a source of seed dispersal)

The large population of American Chestnut that grows in the area also has sparked the imaginations of many.  These small shrublike trees with exotic toothed leaves that grow to almost a foot in length grow abundantly in the moist upland areas along the Morris Park Road Path. Each specimen is most likely 10os of years old, the young shoots growing out of an ancient root system. 30 years ago, the vestiges of the original trunks could be excavated from the leaf litter, a circle of rotting wood around the spindly stem of the original tree, but even these remnants have since rotted away.  The roots are still alive, and are not affected from the chestnut blight, an introduced pathogen (Cryphonectria parasitica) carried into America from Asia, on an imported Chinese chestnut tree. The tree above is susceptible, and dies off every few years. the roots send up new shoots and the tree lives on in the form of a shrub.

The Chinese Chestnut tree is an exotic tree that has carried the Chestnut fungus, that has caused the blight that has all but destroyed the American Chestnut tree, and it is resistant to this fungus, and can grow just fine here in America. Here is an example of an imported, alien plant that is not invasive (at least yet). However, the damage it has cost to our forests is catostrophic and barely quantifiable, although attempts have been made at quantification.  When we talk about non-native introduced species to our neighbors, we often start with this one.

Pinxter-Bloom Azalea blooms in Morris Park, Philadelphia
Pinxter-Bloom Azalea blooms in Morris Park, Philadelphia

We are happy that the introduced azaleas into America have not brought a fungus that has blighted the beautiful native Azaleas so far.  This Pinxterbloom azalea is a source of nectar for the Monarch butterfly, for one.

Pinxter-Bloom Azalea blooms in Morris Park, Philadelphia
Pinxter-Bloom Azalea blooms in Morris Park, Philadelphia

Here is the view we have been talking about all this time. This picture, taken this morning, is from the Lookout.  At the very front, to the right, is the spindly specimen of the American Chestnut, Castenea dentata. To the immediate left is a rock, part of the Wissahickon Schist formation, a metamorphic rock, much in need of discussion.  To the left of the rock is a Rhododendron periclymenoides, the Pinxterbloom azalea, just growing on the rich upland hillside. On a balmy spring day, the Overlook is a happy place, with blooming Mayapples, and every tree and shrub leafing out.

Box turtle in Morris Park, Philadelphia
Box turtle in Morris Park, PhiladelphiaÂ

On the way back from the visit with the Blooming Pinxterbloom azaleas in full bloom, this little muddy Box turtle was found. It had been somewhat hot in the past few days, and was due to rain in the afternoon.  Perhaps after keeping cool under the leaf litter, this one was ready for a shower. This one looks like it was under there for quite some time. Was it hibernating? Anyone want to chime in about this?