Friday, September 27, 2013

Reese Hollow Flowers...and Ultrarunning

Over at "my" trail and shelter (I am the volunteer overseer of the Reese Hollow Shelter and the Reese Hollow Trail off the Tuscarora Trail near Mercersburg, PA) there are a number of wildflowers.

Right now there's a particularly perplexing yellow flower that when keyed out seems either to be Rattlesnake Weed (Hieracium venosum) or Two-Flowered Cynthia (Krigia biflora):


[image credit Gary, sorry it's a bit fuzzy]
 
 
The flower is a better fit with being Rattlesnake Weed, but the leaves don't quite synch up; the leaves match up better with Two-Flowered Cynthia but the flowers are off.
 
Both plants are likely to inhabit Reese Hollow.  So, I must be content with just admiring the beauty of these flowers; after all, as one of my Bio profs once said, in a remark that obviously stuck, "The name is the least important piece of information about a plant."
 
Oh, and the link to Ultrarunning is that spotting flowers is one of my favorite incidental activities while running.  I often stop dead in my tracks to admire some posie that happens to be within eyeshot of the trail.  And while I may wonder about its name, I (usually) don't get obsessed about it and instead just enjoy the sight.
 
 

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