(May 2025)

Cinnamon and interrupted ferns at Powdermill

~Frances Gully~

In their final acts of October sacrifice, hay-scented and interrupted ferns burn away under a beautifully-lit forest. The intoxicating odor of their self-immolation is still in my head.

Interrupted ferns bask in an autumn light.

Green on bronze: seasons collide as the fronds of a lady fern converge with those of an interrupted fern.

As the tree canopy closes in late May and shuts out all but the faintest rays of sunlight, the last of the spring ephemerals cede dominion of the forest floor to an onslaught of ferns, mosses, and fungi. By mid-summer, these shade-tolerant organisms are the dominant life-forms of the deep woods. A sampling of some of the fern species in the local woods (from top): sensitive fern (Onoclea sensibilis); intermediate wood fern (Dryopteris intermedia); Christmas fern (Polystichum acrostichoides); New York fern (Thelypteris noveboracensis); narrow-leaved glade fern (Diplazium pycnocarpon); interrupted fern (Osmunda claytoniana); bracken fern (Pteridium aquilinum); and northern maidenhair fern (Adiantum pedatum).