Saxifrage Seeps, Liverworts, and Orchids
My first of the year foray at Adkins Arboretum.
If you are going to spend most of the day in meetings, there really isn’t a better place than Adkins Arboretum. Yesterday was spent with the Maryland Native Plant Society - Eastern Shore Chapter Steering Committee discussing the future of the chapter. It was a great meeting with wonderful and engaging folks. I really enjoyed our discussions about connecting the public with native plants and habitats of the Eastern Shore, but I was itching to get outside and walk the trails at Adkins.
Adkins Arboretum is one of those special places. Any time I walk the trails at the arboretum I always find something new or surprising. For those of you not familiar with Adkins, it’s not your typical garden-style arboretum. It’s so much more! The arboretum grounds are large and protect a diversity of habitats along Tuckahoe Creek. You can easily spend an entire day walking the many trails. My relationship with Adkins Arboretum began in 2018 when Wayne Longbottom and I were tasked with doing a property wide plant survey. We found over four hundred and fifty vascular plant species during our year long study. For the past two years I have led monthly biodiversity walks (April through October), and I’m also a new board member.
I had two plants that I wanted to find after my meeting: American Golden Saxifrage (Chrysosplenium americanum) and Downy Rattlesnake Plantain (Goodyera pubescens). Although neither plant would be in bloom, both species have distinctive evergreen foliage. I had observed both species at Adkins in previous years, so I knew where to concentrate my search. It was a beautiful afternoon. Walking past the meadows and down into the woods I heard my first Spring Peepers of the year calling from the vernal pools alongside the trail.
With the snow melt and rain over the past week, the Tuckahoe was very high. The floodplain was entirely underwater. I heard a Purple Finch singing from the top of a Sweet Gum. I couldn’t resist getting photos of interesting fungi and liverworts along the trail.
I arrived at my Downy Rattlesnake Plantain (Goodyera pubescens) location and began searching for the distinctive basal leaves. Downy Rattlesnake Plantain is one of Maryland’s common native orchids. The common name is derived from the unique venation of the leaves which is supposed to resemble snake skin. The basal leaves are evergreen and can be found throughout the year. This species prefers both dry and moist woodlands. It is uncommon on the Eastern Shore and has yet to be found in Dorchester, Wicomico, or Somerset Counties.
I spent about ten minutes searching the area where I had found the plants in previous years, but I couldn’t find any basal rosettes. What I didn’t consider was the deep layer of leaf detritus. The plants might have been hidden under a deep layer of oak leaves. No worries, I could always come back at another time. I did find numerous leaves of Cranefly Orchid (Tipularia discolor). I decided to go look for the American Golden Saxifrage
American Golden Saxifrage (Chrysosplenium americanum) likes its feet wet and mucky. It is a diminutive plant that creates mats of emerald green along the edges of dark back-wood seeps. Flowering occurs in early April, but the blooms are so small they are rarely noticed. Closer inspection of the inflorescence reveals exquisite tiny orange stamens surrounding reddish sepals. It’s one of my favorite plants. Unfortunately, yesterday was too early for flowers.
While trying to figure out how to get photographs of the American Golden Saxifrage without sinking up to my knees in mud, I found numerous Eastern Skunk Cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus) blooms poking up around the seep. A sure sign that spring is nigh.
…and then I saw loads of Snakewort (Conocephalum salebrosum)! This blew my mind. I don’t like the common name “Snakewort.” At the Maryland Biodiversity Project we call it Snake-skin Liverwort. I like that a bit better. For this post I’m just going to use the scientific name. Conocephalum salebrosum is Maryland’s largest and showiest (my opinion) liverwort.
Liverworts are often considered closely related to mosses and hornworts. iNaturalist taxonomy places liverworts in their own Phylum: Marchantiophyta. Marchantiophyta is in the Kingdom Plantae. Other phyla in the Kingdom Plantae include mosses (Bryophyta), vascular plants (Tracheophyta), hornworts (Anthocerotophyta), Charophyte Algae (Charophyta), Green Algae (Glaucophyta), and Red Algae (Rhodophyta). Although liverworts resemble mosses, it’s important to remember that they belong to an entirely different phylum, which means they aren’t closely related at all.
Conocephalum salebrosum is a large showy liverwort and it is REALLY rare on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. I think of it as a Piedmont/mountain plant, not a species you would expect to find growing in a small seep off Tuckahoe Creek in Adkins Arboretum, Caroline County on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Major kudos to Josh Ward (xaxy13 on iNat) for documenting this same population of Conocephalum salebrosum at Adkins back in November of 2024. I’m glad I didn’t see Josh’s record on iNaturalist because I was able to briefly enjoy the thrill of what I thought was a new discovery.
I walked up out of the seep after documenting the American Golden Saxifrage and Conocephalum salebrosum and something caught my eye. There at my feet was an old (last years) flowering stalk of Downy Rattlesnake Plantain (Goodyera pubescens). I pushed away over six inches of oak leaves and there at the base of the stalk were the distinctive evergreen leaves of the orchid I was searching for. Orchid flowering stalks are like strawberry shortcake to White-tailed Deer. It’s rare to find stalks from the previous year. A walk at Adkins Arboretum never disappoints!
It was getting late by the time I got back to the car, but I wanted to make two more stops on my way home. My first stop was at a hunters parking lot along Eveland Road just south of the arboretum. I wanted to tick a small but spreading population of *Trifoliate Orange (Citrus trifoliata). This shrub looks prehistoric; dark green throughout, with large sharp spines protruding from its many branches. A member of the Citrus Family (Rutaceae), and native to China, it has yellow fruit that resemble small oranges, but the fruit is extremely sour. Flowers appear in April and fruiting occurs in late summer. Most sources say that it was imported to the United States to be used as living fences. While not that common on the Eastern Shore, it is becoming more of a problem on the western shore, especially in bottomlands and other riparian habitats.
Last year I had found a small patch of *Lawn Marsh Pennywort (Hydrocotyle sibthorpioides) growing just off the bank of Tuckahoe Creek at the public boat ramp in Hillsboro. This would be my last stop of the day. I walked around the boat ramp documenting a few more common species like *Moneywort (Lysimachia nummularia), *Ivy-leaved Speedwell (Veronica hederifolia), and *Smallflower Buttercup (Ranunculus parviflorus). All three species are fairly common non-native species found in suitable habitats across Maryland. I did not find the Hydrocotyle. I’m not worried. I know where there is another small population at Adkins Arboretum.
I love the deeper dive into the lesser known plants at Adkins. What kind of camera do you use, Jim?
Thanks! Very informative.