Ryley Harris led last Sunday’s walk through Wildwood Park in the City of Radford. The park lies on both sides of Connelly’s Run, as it flows roughly north to the New River; the stream lies at the bottom of an abrupt gorge that once separated the two halves of the city. Seeps and other flows provide wet meadow conditions along the hike-bike trail. At left you can see Impatiens capensis (I. pallida is also found here), a Solidago, an ironweed (Vernonia), Queen-Anne’s Lace (Daucus carota), and Cowbane (Oxypolis rigidior) (and in closeup). Also along this path were the remnants of the preposterously-leaved, square-stemmed Cup Plant(Silphium perfoliatum).
On the far slope of the gorge, it was another day for looking at lush, leafy green ground cover: Wild Ginger (Asarum canadense) (left) and Sharp-lobed Hepatica (Hepatica acutiloba) (right).
This mystery caterpillar (maybe an Banded Sphinx Moth (Eumorpha fasciatus): the book says that they show a lot of color variation as they prepare to pupate) also made an appearance.