THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 6, 1995 TAG: 9508040250
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Coastal Journal
SOURCE: Nary Reid Barrow
LENGTH: Long : 103 lines
Last fall, folks in the Nature Conservancy told me the freshwater marsh along the group's North Landing River Preserve Boardwalk Trail would be ablaze with colorful wildflowers in midsummer.
I had always thought of a marsh as being not much more than green reeds, so a blooming marsh was intriguing enough that I've had a reminder on my calendar for several months to make sure I didn't miss the sight. And the other day, I prevailed upon Vickie Shufer, a wild plant enthusiast, to go with me in search of the preserve's wildflowers.
Shufer, a Nature Conservancy member, helped write the boardwalk trail brochure as a volunteer project for the conservancy. The brochure is usually available in a box at the start of the boardwalk, at Blackwater Road about a half-mile south of the fire station. The trail is open from 10 a.m to 7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday through Oct. 1 and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday only, Oct. 1 through April.
As we walked out on the boardwalk, Shufer immediately picked up on the aromatic scent of the sweet pepperbush's white blooms. That in and of itself was a surpise when I thought of traditional marsh smells.
Although the marsh wasn't a riot of blooms as I had envisioned it to be and some of the leaves were parched and brown, I was still surprised at the number of colorful plants. The bloom has been affected, Shufer conjectured, by saltwater influx in the North Landing River, due to the dry weather.
Even so, I could see that with optimum growing conditions, big showy rose mallows would just about cover the marsh. This year the white mallows - up to 8 inches across - were dotted like tufts of cotton here and there throughout the area. That day bees were buzzing overhead searching out the big mallows and crawling into their red centers to get a taste of nectar.
Out toward the end of the boardwalk a couple of pink seashore mallows also were blooming. The pink mallow, logo flower of the local Virginia Native Plant Society chapter, is smaller and daintier than its large rose mallow cousin.,
As we walked, we could reach over the Boardwalk rail in several places and feel the sharply serrated edge of the sawgrass leaf, a wicked foil to its graceful rusty-colored seed head. When in bloom earlier in the summer, the sawgrass flower is on the yellow side, Shufer said.
Giant cordgrass, a more typical marsh grass, was in bloom, too. Tiny white blooms ``hung'' off green spikes like holiday balls on a Christmas tree branch. Later in the summer, these blooms would become the familiar golden plumes of the tall giant cordgrass that waves overhead in many local marshes. Greenish-black, the black needlerush adds still another color to the marsh, though it too is one of our familiar marsh grasses.
As we walked, apple green grasshoppers leapt from plant to plant. Dragonflies popped off our bodies and the deck railings as they darted here and there and cicadas were humming their heads off in the still mid-summer morning heat.
Touches of purples and blues could be seen in the form of swamp loosestrife, just beginning to bloom, and familiar pickerelweed, which can be seen at times in profusion in roadside ditches. The pickerelweed's large heart-shaped leaves are about as pretty as its bloom.
In some places you could see a white flower, looking for all the world like Queen Anne's lace, only smaller. In the same family as Queen Anne's lace, it is known as water parsnip and blooms in the marsh, Shufer said.
Delicate white waterlilies bloom on the water itself, surrounded like a protective life raft by round flat leaves. Tiny duckweed with its miniature round leaves also floated. Shufer said she has never seen duckweed bloom but it is known as one of the smallest flowering plants in our area.
Shufer noticed a red/orange flower from afar. Related to the butterfly weed, it is called red milkweed or lance-leaved milkweed because of its long narrow leaves, Shufer said.
``At first it looks like it's just a marsh with grasses,'' Shufer said. You have to look for the blooms, but once you start looking, you see them everywhere.''
That's for sure, maybe not in the profusion I expected, but the variety was more than I ever dreamed.
P.S. PICK-YOUR-OWN FIGS at Swope's Produce, 1448 Gum Bridge Road. You also can call ahead and place an order for figs already picked. Swope's is open from 7 a.m. to dark, daily. Call 426-2576.
TOMATO UPDATE: Buddy Matthews' sweet 100 tomato plant that was more than 9 feet tall last week is now pushing 11 feet and still growing.
CREATURE CRAFTS is the topic of a craft night for kids, 6 to 10, at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Virginia Marine Science Museum. The fee is $6 for museum members and $8 for non-members. Call 340-6003 to register.
WHO MADE THAT? Learn about early trades and businesses and try your hand at some of them from 2 to 4 p.m. Wednesday at historic Francis Land House. The continuous program is free with admission. To find out more, call 340-1732. MEMO: What unusual nature have you seen this week? And what do you know about
Tidewater traditions and lore? Call me on INFOLINE, 640-5555. Enter
category 2290. Or, send a computer message to my Internet address:
mbarrow(AT)infi.net.
ILLUSTRATION: Photos by MARY REID BARROW
Vickie Shufer, a wild plant enthusiast, shows off marsh wild
flowers, including this white rose mallow, near the North Landing
River Preserve Boardwalk Trail.
Photos by MARY REID BARROW
Vickie Shufer, a wild plant enthusiast, shows off marsh wildflowers,
including this white rose mallow, near the North Landing River
Preserve Boardwalk Trail.
by CNB