Nature and Outdoors - Shenks Ferry Part I

Shenk's Ferry Road tunnel.

Shenk's Ferry is a 50-acre subset of the Holtwood Environmental Preserve and is touted as having incredible displays of spring ephemeral wildflowers, especially trilliums, which number in the millions. My wife and I took the day off to check it out. If not for the Garmin nuvi 680 we would have never found this place.

Shenk's Ferry trail head.

We walked a recommended loop trail that more or less followed a series of streams, and rocky, steep slopes, within primarily mature and old-growth forest. The big show is clearly the erect trillium, Virginia bluebell and Dutchman's breeches display of mid-April. The nature of ephemeral wildflowers is that of "aspect dominance", with a dramatically different set of wildflowers every two-weeks from late March through late May.

This is a bank of false Solomon seal, and we saw many aggregates of this wildflower at peak bloom.
This photo is the underbelly of true Solomon seal that flowers along the axils of the leaves instead of the terminal flower cluster of the false Solomon seal.
Here's a patch of false Solomon seal.

The succulent stonecrop was common in shady rock-outcroppings.

Wild geranium was common throughout the woods.
Ok, here is a wild, wildflower, the inflorescence head of carrion-flower at near peak bloom. This Smilax is very similar to our common greenbriar vine, but smells like dead meat. Not all pollination occurs due to the sweet smell of spring flowers. A rare few flowers smell like rotting flesh and attract flies for pollination. My wife was amazed at this one and she did the sniff test. Sure enough, rancid death!
Here is the unfurling leaves of the carrion-flower.

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Submitted by Mark Burchick

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