Seasonal Highlights
Spring Highlights
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- Blooming wildflowers: Virginia bluebells, Dutchman’s breeches, squirrel-corn, Virginia springbeauty, Canada waterleaf
- Elongated flower clusters of the cottonwood tree, which look like long caterpillars
- Tiny yellow blooms all along the branches of northern spicebush
- Mildly foul-smelling maroon blossoms of the pawpaw tree
- Butterflies and other pollinators visiting the wildflowers
Summer Highlights
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- Ripening lime green fruit of pawpaw
- Reddish orange blooms of trumpet creeper
Autumn Highlights
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- Yellow blooms of wingstem
- Ripe pawpaw fruit—yellow-green with brown spots, and mango-sized (delicious!)
- Red northern spicebush berries
- Changing leaf colors
- Large brown leaves of American sycamore on the ground like brown handkerchiefs (pleasant smell when crushed)
Winter Highlights
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- Notice the structure and colors of tree trunks, like the majestic straight trunks of tuliptree; the mosaic-like pattern of American sycamore bark near the base, bone-white near the top; and the smooth, gray bark of American hornbeam that seems to be stretched tight over bulging muscles (also called ironwood or musclewood)
- Look for clues to the height of the most recent flood (although it may not have flooded in several years)
- Look for birds seeking shelter from the weather in this natural community