A recent visit to Heart’s Content in the Allegheny National Forest near Tidioute resulted in seeing some flora not usually seen in this blogger’s neck of the woods.
Hearts Content Recreation Area is designated as a National Natural Landmark.
According to the United States Forest Service website, the area features 300 to 400-year-old trees. The website said the original forest was a mixture of white pine, Eastern hemlock and American beech.
However, the forest service said time, weather, insects and more have taken their toll on these towering giants.
A yellow-bellied sapsucker feeds on a mountain ash tree.
Where the old-growth trees fell in the day-use area, they lie, for the most part. Open spaces in the tree canopy soon create opportunities for new growth.
The forest service said 20 acres of what is now Hearts Content was owned by Wheeler and Dusenbury Lumber Company from 1897 to 1922. Wheeler and Dusenbury deeded the land to the U.S. Forest Service in 1923, according to the forest service’s website.
In the open field of the day-use area, milkweed, thistle, St. John’s-wort, daylilies, mountain ash and more flourish.
Several yellow-bellied sapsuckers favored what appeared to be a mountain ash tree.
A yellow-bellied sapsucker on a mountain ash tree.
An internet search turned up several varieties of mountain ash. Two that are found in Pennsylvania are European and American mountain ash.
A site crediting the University of Vermont Extension Department of Plant and Soil Science said that both have similar characteristics. The department also said another native plant is the showy mountain ash.
“None of the mountain ashes grow well with air pollution of urban areas,” according to the department.
A website providing information from Virginia Tech described the ash as a “small tree up to 40-feet tall but usually shorter, crown is initially narrow, but becoming wider with age.”
St. John’s-wort
The Hearts Content day-use area also sported a field full of what appeared to be St. John’s-wort.
The website www.wildflower.org which is hosted by the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center listed many, many varieties of St. John’s-wort reportedly found in Pennsylvania.
They include roundseed St. John’s-wort, spotted St. John’s-wort, northern St. John’s-wort, lesser Canadian St. John’s-wort, bushy St. John’s-wort, coppery St. John’s-wort, disguised St. John’s-wort, Drummond’s St. John’s-wort, pale St. John’s-wort, claspingleaf St. John’s-wort, great St. John’s-wort or giant St. John’s-wort, creeping St. John’s-wort, shrubby St. John’s-wort, dwarf St. John’s-wort and large St. John’s-wort.
The variety spotted in the Hearts Content area more closely resembled the rounseed or the spotted St. John’s-wort variety.
Common milkweed
Daylilies
The area was also filled with orange daylilies, common milkweed and bull thistle plants.
Thistle plant
According to the Pennsylvania DCNR website, www.dcnr.state.pa.us, the bull thistle is listed as an invasive plant.
It was thought to have been introduced to eastern North America during colonial times, according to the DCNR.
The site added that the thistle can now be found on every continent except Antarctica and it is present in all 50 states in the U.S.
Back home
Appalachian brown butterfly
Meanwhile, several Appalachian brown butterflies have been flitting around the neighbor’s pond.
The website, butterfliesandmoths.org, list the butterflies’ habitat as wooded wet swamps, shrub swamp, forest edges and along slow-moving streams.
Appalachian brown butterfly
The adults feed on sap and other non-floral resources, according to the website.
The insect uses sedge as a host for its caterpillars.
Common burdock or wild rhubarb
A common burdock plant popped up in the yard. The flowers seem pretty until one remembers they become hair-tangling burs when they die.
A doe with three fawns
The trail camera managed to capture a photo of a doe with three fawns.
A Walk in the Woods contains photos from newsroom staffer Anna Applegate’s daily jaunts around her neck of the woods. Tagging along on the treks are dogs Buford, Sherman and Sadie, and goats Kyle and Kennedy. Applegate manages the Good Times and can be emailed at bigdogs.thederrick@gmail.com.
