2019 Nature Walk with Melanie Choukas-Bradley

I was all decked out in my Dartmouth green for this event!

For yet another year in a row, Melanie Choukas-Bradley has led a nature walks in Rock Creek Park for the Women of Dartmouth Club of D.C. She is a local naturalist and author, and she leads nature walks not only in D.C. but also in places like the Badlands. She is amazing, and I honestly joke about wanting to be her when I grow up. (Here's my blog post about a previous walk she led for our group.)

I love plant identification, so I was very happy that we got plenty of that in our walk this weekend. Here are some fun facts I learned (I learn something new every time I go out on a walk with Melanie.):

The bitternut hickory has a velvety yellow bud, and the scar where the previous bud was looks like a monkey face.      Image found here.

Partridge Berry is identified by its red berries, and in the spring they have white or light pink flowers. Native Americans used to use the leaves as a wash or salve for women's sore nipples from breast feeding.

The mapleleaf viburnum has black berries. Image found here.

I know that Spicebush smells good, but we also smelled the Beefsteak plant, which is part of the mint family.                Image found here.

Eastern Hop-Hornbeam has flowers that look like hops. The tree has both flowers and catkins (i.e. tree sperm), so the tree is monoecious (as opposed to dioecious), having both male and female parts. Image found here.

AND there are 20 kinds of Oak trees in this region!

Melanie pointed out some good, go-to plant ID trees which I already knew about. But she did teach me a few new things:

She said the samaras on the tulip tree look like candles when the light hits them. And the trees can grow so big that Native Americans used to make canoes out of the trunks. Image found here.

The leaves of the American Beech have parallel veins, which can help with identification. Image found here.

The American Elm's shape at the top looks like a full vase, and I noticed that all the thin, tiny twigs seem to meet the main branches at 90 degree angles. Image found here.

The Spicebush, which is part of the laurel family, has tiny, round buds. They are brown or burgundy on the females (and sometimes more pointed) and greenish on the males. The males will bloom first, and then the females will bear fruit that goes from green to red.  Image found here.

 Just like the Sycamore, the Silver Maple likes to be near water. Its leaves have more teeth than the sugar maple, which can be a helpful way to tell the difference between the two trees. Image found here.

The Eastern Cottonwood is related to the Quaking Aspen, and both of these trees have leaves that flutter in the wind (the petiole, the stalk that connects the leaf blade to the stem, is flat, which allows for that movement). The tree has very chunky, block-like bark. Image found here.

The Boxelder is a type of maple tree, although it has a compound leaf that looks more like poison ivy leaves. Its samaras (winged seeds) grow on tails almost, and they make quite the shaking sound when the wind blows. Image found here.

White oaks have shaggier bark than other oaks, especially towards the top. Image found here.

When the Crane-fly orchid is in full bloom, the leaves die back and come back later. Image found here.

Even in the winter you can see the seed pods of the Eastern Redbud tree. Image found here.

Skunk cabbage is in the same family as the corpse flower. Image found here.

The Scarlet Oak, which is the tree of Washington, D.C., has leaves with very deep lobes, and the acorn looks like a child's top. The Red Oak (NJ's state tree) on the other hand has acorns that look like they are wearing little French berets. Images found here and here respectively.

We also saw a few non-native invasive plants, like the Japanese knotweed and Winged Euonymous (also known as Burning Bush), which are both pretty noticeable in the fall because of their leaves.

While we were walking, and Melanie quite poetically said, "Every day there is a new tapestry of leaves." Such a nice sentiment! It was kind of like how Pocahontas felt about rivers:

Melanie mixed in some forest bathing with our walk. She brought out a poem written by Poet Laureate Joy Harjo called "Remember." Here is the poem:

Remember the sky that you were born under,
know each of the star’s stories.
Remember the moon, know who she is.
Remember the sun’s birth at dawn, that is the
strongest point of time. Remember sundown
and the giving away tonight.
Remember your birth, how your mother struggled
to give you form and breath. You are evidence of
her life, and her mother’s, and hers.
Remember your father. He is your life, also.
Remember the earth whose skin you are:
red earth, black earth, yellow earth, white earth
brown earth, we are earth.
Remember the plants, trees, animal life who all have their
tribes, their families, their histories, too. Talk to them,
listen to them. They are alive poems.
Remember the wind. Remember her voice. She knows the
origin of this universe.
Remember you are all people and all people
are you.
Remember you are this universe and this
universe is you.
Remember all is in motion, is growing, is you.
Remember language comes from this.
Remember the dance language is, that life is.
Remember.

What a fun group! And yes, I am always the go-to "Sorority squat" person.

Looking forward to next time!