Into the Deep Cut

On a whim last Saturday I went up to the deep cut rail trail in Westmoreland. Two years ago the trail had suffered lots of flooding when a huge stone slab broke loose from the canyon wall and dammed a main drainage channel. I wanted to see if it was any drier than the last time I walked through here. Right off I saw a large Jack in the pulpit with added net wing beetles. The beetles were busy and I’m sure they wished I would go away. The plant called White Avens (Geum canadense) can be found all along this trail but it’s a small flower that’s easy to miss. Each flowers is about a half inch across with 5 white petals and many anthers. The anthers start out white and then turn brown and you usually find both on each flower. Each flower becomes a seed head with hooked seeds (upper left) that will stick to hair or clothing. The strangest thing I ever saw happening on this plant was a cluster of hoverflies madly stripping every bit of pollen from the anthers. Or maybe it isn’t strange.…