#spotted geranium

The month of May marks a transition time in Central Appalachia's forests as the canopy's vibrant green cloak closes above the forest floor, and the spring ephemerals go dormant and fade away. The forest now belongs to the ferns, fungi, mosses, and lichens, which collectively drive nature's great recycling engine. The next great spectacle, just around the corner, is the mountain laurel bloom, with a few plants already busting out their colors.

Photos from two different weekend hikes around the Cheat River Canyon (which, along with Dolly Sods and the New River Gorge, has one of the best laurel blooms in Central Appalachia).

Spotted Geranium, Wild Geranium Geranium maculatum Geraniaceae (Geranium) Family

Make a tea of the dried herb if you or another believes they may have been the target of an unwanted love spell, and allow the afflicted to drink it hot. Chant:

Non te cupio, non te amabit; non requiro amorem tuum.

(I do not want you, I will not love you; I do not request your love.)

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Take up a root of the plant and place it in a charm bag of green or gold cloth, alongside a coin of your choosing. As the geranium so readily propagates, so it will increase your wealth. 

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Spring at Ohiopyle, Part 1: Cucumber Falls and Meadow Run.

Some of my favorite memories of growing up in the densely-packed suburbs of Pittsburgh are from family trips to the Laurel Highlands, about an hour to the east of the city. These gentle, ancient summits, the first line of ridges along the Allegheny mountains, are potent magic for a kid, riddled with moss-encrusted rock formations, water chutes and cascading falls, mysterious, deep alcoves and rock maizes begging to be explored, and so on. Today, many years later, I am fortunate to live even closer to these mountains and their precious wild places, including the Youghiogheny River Gorge and Ohiopyle State Park, and return to them often to find both solace and joy and to re-connect to the rejuvenating magic I felt as boy exploring their many treasures, some obvious, many less easily discovered.

Spotted Geranium, Wild Geranium Geranium maculatum Geraniaceae (Geranium) Family

Spotted Geranium, Wild Geranium Geranium maculatum Geraniaceae (Geranium) Family