Spring Ephemeral Wildflowers of Dutchess and Putnam's "Great Swamp"

Like most areas, spring in New York’s Hudson Valley is one of the most anticipated seasons of the year. Needless to say, residents are grateful to see the last of the winter snow fade away and see a spike in temperature, but for those who are fortunate enough to reside in Dutchess and Putnam Counties, the arrival of spring more importantly means the awakening of the 6,000 acre “Great Swamp.” What fireworks are to the sky on the 4^th of July, wildflowers are to the Swamp’s forest floors in March, April, and early May. The rich soil and muck, in addition to plentiful moisture coming from the many braided streams and rivulets of the lowlands, ensure the most fertile of conditions for the area’s unusually high biodiversity.

One of the best spots to view the wildflowers, or spring ephemerals, is along a section of the Appalachian Trail as it passes through the Great Swamp in Pawling, NY. At this location it’s possible to cross without becoming wet or inconvenienced, as a lengthy boardwalk spans the route. While several species can be found growing within the dampest sections, a majority of the ephemerals are located along the periphery of the Swamp.

The first flower to bloom in the spring is the eastern skunk cabbage. It’s difficult to spot the flowers as they are surrounded by a structure that resembles an inverted red cone, which is called a spadix. This feature hides the true petal-less flowers within, so a glimpse is rarely seen. Undoubtedly, this is by far the most common and abundant ephemeral. Thousands can often be seeing popping from the mud at the start of March. On occasion they may even sprout in the dead of winter—I’ve seen several patches growing in mid-February during a warm spell.

A trait extremely rare to plants, skunk cabbages exhibit thermogenesis, meaning that they produce their own heat. This unique trait comes in handy when they have to melt their way through standing snow that may still persist at the very beginning of the growing season.

After the last of the winter snow slowly melts and drains away, leaving the ground soggy and the trail a mess, the graceful hepatica emerges from the tawny detritus and dabs the first splash of color to the heretofore bleak landscape. Look for them starting in early to mid-April.  The small pink to purple flowers tend to grow on higher land that is well drained and can be found in small clumps that are dotted over a wide area of the forest floor. There are two species of hepatica: blunt-lobed and sharp-lobed. The former is the variety usually seen near the Great Swamp. Hepatica receives its name from the shape of its leaves that superficially resemble the lobes of the liver. They used to be collected in prodigious amounts to be used to cure ailments of its namesake. Current research has shown that they have little to no medicinal value, however.

One of the next plants to follow is the aptly named Dutchman’s breeches, which closely resemble an upturned pair of outdated pantaloons. Each plant can have over half a dozen flowers attached to a single stem that bends similarly to a candy cane. It’s also vaguely reminiscent of a clothesline with each flower a pair of pants hanging out to dry. The bright white flowers, with small yellow patches on the bottom greatly stand out in the dark forest environs—at twilight they certainly look like eyes or miniature ghosts peering out on whoever or whatever passes by.

Around the same time Dutchman’s breeches are in bloom, so too can be found in proud abundance the yellow trout lily. Often situated directly adjacent to streams, rivers, and other riparian zones, this species is normally present in the dozens or hundreds. Leaves appear beginning in March, but will usually not flower until April. It has been surmised that the plant gets its name from each leaf’s resemblance to the mottling found on the trout that inhabit the waters this plant grows near.

In mid-April, at the onset of some mildly warm weather, the forest explodes with color and multiple species can often be found intermixed with each other, blooming simultaneously, forming vibrant tapestries on the hills and knolls above the swampy plain. Immediately after crossing the boardwalk along the Appalachian Trail heading south from Route 22 in Pawling, the show begins. Red trillium, a large and showy, though rancid smelling flower, thrives with the trout lilies and the unrolling and sculpture-like fiddlehead ferns that gracefully rise from the beds of moss.

 

 

Sometimes growing on the very borders of the trail is the pale white, rue anemone, a diminutive and delicate plant that even the slightest breeze caused by you passing by may result in a few petals carried away. This usually sprouts near the ubiquitous violets that at this location are minted in a myriad of sizes and colors, the most common being purple and white. There are hundreds of violet species in the country, and with many being nearly identical to one another it’s difficult to tell precisely how many exist here, but it’s probably at least half a dozen.

 

 

Bloodroot, a true gem of the woods, is as beautiful as it is rare. It’s a relatively large flower consisting of 8-12 white petals and will usually only grow adjacent to streams or floodplains. This elusive plant is difficult to detect due to its short duration, which is extremely brief even for a spring ephemeral, with flowers only lasting a day or two before wind or rain disseminates the petals and it is lost until next spring. It receives its unusual name from the bright red liquid that exudes from the stem and root if broken. Native Americans and colonists used it as a dye. It stains readily.

South-bounders will notice as the Appalachian Trail starts to exit the Great Swamp it slowly begins winding up a small rise known as Corbin Hill, a low peak in the center of the Harlem Valley that from the top provides exquisite views of the higher Taconic Mountains that surround to the east and west. The most frequently encountered sights are the farms that have collected over the years in the sheltered valleys and on some of the fertile hills. The trail skirts a cow pasture atop Corbin Hill. Along a fence in scattered clusters are the bluets. This dainty, blue and yellow flower thrives under the rolling clouds that hang statically overhead on a typical spring day. It’s a scene resembling that of one found in Montana, Big-Sky Country. Bluets love the sun, but can occasionally also be found deep in the forest where ample light makes it to the understory. Each plant is about the size of a fist and contains over a dozen flowers on thin, wiry stalks. 

In the woods, before making it to the open summit the cheery shadbushes are in full bloom with their long, flowing white flowers. The flowering of these modestly sized trees are an indicator of when the estuarine shad begin making their yearly spawning run up the Hudson. They are in full bloom from late April until the first weeks of May.

The willow with its golden, pollen-laced catkins can be seen growing along the streams that flow through the swamp. Many are rooted only feet from the boardwalk, affording excellent close-up views of the catkins which bring to mind a bushy squirrel’s tail. Willows are diecious, meaning they’re either male or female, unlike most plants which contain both genders’ reproductive organs. Only the males will put on a show with their pollen. Female catkins are more mundane and don’t easily stand out, being nearly completely green. A few large willows, several feet in diameter, just to the south of the boardwalk have been girdled round by beavers. The beavers’ dam runs parallel to the boardwalk, at times almost close enough to touch; a mound-shaped lodge resides just beyond in the shallow pond they have created. On a bright, clear day when the sun is directly overhead the water in this portion of the swamp becomes perfectly transparent, allowing you  to peer down to the bottom of the numerous pools and get a glimpse of the Great Swamp’s aquatic environs, spotting sunfish and minnows darting away from your shadow along the mud and grass lined bottom.  The thick mud substrate has a clay-like consistency perfect for preserving footprints, which enables one to easily track the beavers’ movements in the shallower areas.

 

 

As one travels the trail on the western edge of the Swamp it’s hard to miss the stone wall bordering a slight bank that descends to a patch of skunk cabbages. This crumbling and moss covered ruin serves as a reminder that even this wild and biologically diverse segment of land was once inhabited by man on a level much greater than the humble footpath that now traverses it. If you veer off the trail 20 or 30 feet and take a closer look at the wall it will be undoubtedly apparent that you’re standing in an abandoned dirt road that is slowly, yet steadily succumbing to the forces of nature, evinced by its subsidence that has loosened the compacted soil enough to be repopulated by plant life. This old woods road has numerous trees—both saplings and adolescents— that are popping up haphazardly in all quadrants, and apart from a shaky levelness bordered by the cut banks that it passes through in various portions, it would be difficult to establish its existence. It is here in the muck just below the road and stone wall that the swamp marigolds thrive and brighten up the gloomy surroundings.

Growing beneath the large, sheet-like leaves of the innumerable skunk cabbages, swamp marigolds openly revel, bringing mirth to an otherwise reserved landscape. It’s no wonder why this impressive species was bestowed with the title of mari-gold—it’s as if someone tossed handfuls of gold coins here and there onto the cold mud. When even the most minor of sunlight strikes these flowers they light up and shine like the stars in the sky. I know of no other spring ephemeral in the swamp itself that can catch the eye as this one does.  

Just beyond the marsh marigolds, 10-20 feet deeper in the swamp, in a select few locations, hundreds of miniscule violets, so small they could be called dwarfs, burst out from the soggy and rotting logs that are half buried in the water and muck.  The only neighbors these plants have on their slowly sinking islands are the beds of moss which they grow from, parts of which reach nearly the height the violets stand at. The light purple mixed with the lime-green mats make you feel as if you’re in a tropical oasis, buried in the deepest portion of some remote Amazonian jungle. Not until you look round at the various northern birches and hemlocks do you return to your senses.

 

Another plant which may be found hovering around the confines of the swamp is the elegant and diecious Jack-in-the-pulpit. Resembling an old-fashioned preacher’s pulpit, this species is somewhat similar to the skunk cabbages in that the flowers are hidden from sight. They reside within a long, cylindrical structure known as a spadix, or the “Jack” that is sheltered under a curled overhanging leaf. This leaf is quite beautiful—decorated with numerous vertical bands, green and white as the plant first blooms, keeping the green, but the white often transitioning into a deep purple as the spring progresses. As previously stated, plants are either male or female—males usually having a single leaf stalk, females two. Jack-in-the-pulpits also have the unique ability to change gender from one year to another depending on environmental conditions and the availability of resources.

As early spring advances towards mid-season, the flat uplands are populated with minor dashes of dwarf ginseng and starflower, two white ephemerals slowly being buried beneath the rapidly expanding vegetation of the understory. By May the air is already noticeably sweetened with the aroma of the hay-scented fern, which grows in grand profusion on the many undulating knolls that comprise the steeper land within the Appalachian Trail’s buffer zone. As these glades become filled with ferns and morph into distinct monocultures the first wave of the spring ephemerals has subsided and second lesser round begins, filling the continually darkening woods with red columbine, forget-me-not that matches the sky, the graceful pink lady-slippers, white carpets of Canada mayflower, and the topaz-like flowers of the wild Indian strawberry, among many others. Not until July commences will the last of the ephemerals have blossomed, giving way to the green blush of summer.


This article is currently slated for publication in the 2014 May-June issue of A.T. Journeys.