Packera anonyma, Small’s ragwort, a native perennial in the Aster family. Toxic to most mammals but insects have adapted to feed on it. Found on south set back line at SAFF. Desmodium rotundiflora, Round-leaved Trailing Tick-trefoil, or dollar leaf. A native perennial found across the eastern US that grows along the ground with round to heart shaped leaves and pink to purple flowers blooming from June to November. It serves as a larval host for the Variegated Fritillary and Southern Cloudwing. It is a member of the pea family so it helps fix nitrogen in the soil. It is a beautiful plant we see all over the farm as it typically grows in dry woodlands. Antennaria plantaginifolia, plantain-leaved pussytoes, also in the Aster family and found all over SAFF. It is a host for the American lady butterfly and a great drought tolerant ground cover. Smilax rotundifolia, round leaf greenbrier, a thorny, woody vine native to eastern US and Canada. It provides cover and food to wildlife. The tender young shoots are edible and taste similar to asparagus or green beans when cooked. Berries from it are a crucial late winter food source for cardinals and sparrows. Medicinal uses are teas and poultices used as an anti inflammatory, diuretic and detoxification. Chris prepping the area to clear the bridge encroachment. Drill in hand.
We loaded up the trailer with the supplies we needed to take down the bridge and drove the tractor to the south end set back line. It took several hours to take it down. The weather was perfect as it was much cooler with temperatures dipping into the high 30s at night and only warming to the 60s. It finally feels like spring.
Houstonia caerulea, azure bluet or Quaker ladies, bloom in early spring in the forest and clearings. These are still hanging on near the bottom main waterway. They provide early nectar for small native bees, bee flies and butterflies. The flowers are edible and can garnish salad. Mainly we love to look at them with the blue flowers floating near the ground, they are magical.Asimina triloba new leaves and early fruit still hanging in there! We counted 10 of these tiny little fruits. Podophyllum peltatum, Mayapple, with early fruit. We counted 4 fruits easily seen yesterday. They will ripen to yellow in late July or August typically. The bridge is gone. Yay!
Diospyros virginiana, American persimmon, we just noticed this new persimmon coming up out front near the roadway. Phylloxera caryaeglobuli, Hickory leaf stem Gall Phylloxera, an insect creating the distinctive galls. They do not damage the hickory trees. This was found in the bottoms near main waterway.The underside of the pignut hickory leaf with the gall showing a little hole where the insect exits. Aplectrum hyemale, Putty root orchid, open a bit more than the day before. Seedlings that look like this get our attention because we are on the lookout for Tree of heaven, Ailanthus altissima, which has thumbs on the leaves. It’s a fast growing invasive that attracts spotted lantern flies and grows in thickets of dense trees that fall over quite easily. Happily, it has no thumbs, so this is Juglans nigra, eastern black walnut which grows primarily in riparian zones and is native to eastern North America. Asimina triloba grows well with eastern black walnut. However the tree produces juglone that can inhibit growth of plants that are sensitive to it within their root zone. Juglans nigra has dark strong wood and nutrient dense bold tasting nuts. Blurry Rubus pensilvanicus, Pennsylvania blackberry, found along SAFF south set back line. We found a couple clusters of these native berries flowering.Ferns and Mayapples, Podophyllum peltatum, in the old clonal colony of Asimina triloba.
We went over to Buckingham to get some jobs done at Saint Andrews Forest Farm. It was a gorgeous day here in Virginia with crisp cool overnight temperatures and warm sunshine heating everything up throughout the day. The rain gauge registered .1 inch. Virginia and most of North Carolina are in a drought. Before we left to drive back to Staunton, we took a walk around the forest. It was quiet except for the birdsong and our footsteps crunching along on the dry leaves. We plan to spend most of the weekend working on our Pawpaw project and taking down the bridge our neighbor to the south built on our property a few years ago.
Top of pic shows the bridge we will dismantle this weekend.
Yesterday in the clearing up top beginning with the start of this season’s meadow of crimson clover on the hillside.
Aplectrum hyemale, Putty root orchid, budding up at the bottom of North Trail at the waterway. The corm produces a single green and white striped leaf in the Fall that we watched all winter until it sent up the flower stalk. Native Americans used the sticky substance from the corms to mend pottery. This morning at SAFF we counted about 10 fruits set on various trees down in the old clonal colony pawpaw patch. We are delighted and grateful they’ve stayed on this long and continue to hope for the best. We were pleased to find a rooted agaric mushroom, Hymenopellis incognito, in the main clearing up top near the shed. It was in the sun on the grass yet growing from an underground stump or root. It has a long tapering taproot that extends into the ground to eat dead wood. Photo by Cecily Franklin showing the long taproot of the Hymenopellis incognita. Diospyros virginiana, American persimmon, up top near the female tree. They’re crowded by pines and we’d like to give them more room.
We met the electrical cooperative representative at Saint Andrews Forest Farm to talk about the logistics of hooking up to the local grid. We are undecided still. We went on a walk and saw our Tallahatchie Asimina triloba cultivar rebounding from the freeze with a new leaf on the top which was happifying. It was a cool morning and warmed up throughout the day. SAFF got about .1 of an inch of rain. We are forecast to get more on Saturday.
Smilax glauca, sawbrier or the cat greenbriar found up top near the driveway. A thorny woody vine native to North America. Young shoots are edible with an asparagus-like flavor. It produces dark berries in winter providing food for birds. Its extensive root structure helps it to regrow quickly after a disturbance. Can be a nuisance.
Apheloria virginiensis, Black and gold flat millipede, found on the road to the bottom south set back line. It’s reported to secrete cyanide so if you touch them, wash your hands or it can irritate your eyes or skin.
A grass spider, Genus Agelenopsis, amidst a sea of Neivamyrmex nigrescens, Black legionary ants, a common species of army ant in the US. The ants are nocturnal, predatory nomads that hunt other ants and insects.Deidamia inscriptum, Lettered Sphinx moth, feeds on Virginia creeper, grapevines and woody vines. Only one brood occurs per year. Active at night and attracted to light and nectar from lilacs. Asimina triloba fruit developing at SAFF. This is the longest they’ve stayed on for us and the biggest we’ve ever seen them get. Fingers crossed! Another fruitlet. Chris found what may be a Carolina leaf roller insect infected with something similar to what Ophiocordyceps kimflemingiae does to carpenter ants. It forces infected ants to leave their nests, climb plants and bite into leaves (or branches) with a death grip. Then, the fungus grows and releases spores from the ants head. We will update you with any information about the identification of this insect and fungus.
Catkins on a Virginia pine, Pinus virginiana.Developing leaves and flowers of a female American persimmon, Diospyros virginiana. Early fruit on a pawpaw, Asimina triloba. Eastern poison ivy, Toxicodendron radicans, found on the Pawlonia stump. Taken from Orchard hill trail at the bottom of SAFF. Chris string trimming on the old farm road. Another pawpaw fruit set down in the old clonal colony.
We got out to the farm this morning to get a few things done and take a walk. The forest is getting fully leafed out and it looks like summertime in Virginia all of the sudden. We were happy to see a few surviving pawpaw fruitlets still there after the wide spread but scattered frost damage in all three pawpaw patches. The persimmon trees are starting to get flower buds. We saw American hog peanut and creeping bush clover growing near our trees and feeding them nitrogen underground. Mountain laurel is budding up in the woods. We saw Aplectrum hyemale, putty root orchid, sending a flower stalk up with a leaf wilting. This flowering and dying back usually occurs in late spring/early summer (May or June here).
Putty root orchid with striped leaf and stalk arising from it.
Wee tiny mayapple initial fruit set. They grow to the size of a plum. 1.5 to 2 inchesVirginia bluebells, Mertensia virginica, blooming in the old colony pawpaw patch. Beautiful and attractive to pollinators in the foreground. Perfoliate bellwort, Uvularia perfoliata, in the background.
We visited Saint Andrews Forest Farm yesterday afternoon and went to check on the Asimina triloba as we walked around the woods. In every patch (Southside gully natives and Rappahanock, old clonal colony and newly planted cultivars and seedlings in the new orchard at the bottom of North Trail), we had frost damage. The new seedlings and cultivars and the Southside gully gang will rebound albeit wounded for the season. Our sad loss was down in the clonal colony where we spent hours pollinating from the wild. We had a lot of frost damage. We’ll see. We saw tiny green bananas still hanging untouched by the cold. It definitely will impact our fruit this year. We did not expect it since temperatures were reported as 33 degrees. We think they may have been especially sensitive since it was also very dry here. The drought is ongoing. We had sprinkles yesterday while we walked around but still no significant rain.
Tallahatchie cultivar Asimina triloba hit by frost and will hopefully rebound.Southside Sally and her gang, a native SAFF group, got hit by the frost we were sad to see.Rappahanock cultivar was filling out and getting fluffy before the frost.
Deerberry, Vaccinium stamineum, about 7 feet tall along SAFF Northern Trail overlooking Blueberry Hill Trail. We stopped on our way to the farm and got strawberries and farm fresh eggs at Dickie Bros. Orchard in Afton, Virginia. We are still enjoying the fruit, and the eggs were not only way more delicious, they were less expensive than the grocery store. Just saying. $5Lespedeza repens, creeping Lespedeza or creeping bush clover, is a native low growing perennial. The small pea like pink and purple flowers attract pollinators from late spring through early fall. It also thrives in dry sunny conditions making it a good ground cover. We will interplant this for erosion control and nitrogen fixing near our Asimina triloba and other fruit & nut trees and other plants. It is similar in appearance to invasive and more aggressive plants so we are happy to finally identify it as beneficial since it’s everywhere at SAFF. We also do have the invasive and aggressive Chinese bush clover (yet, since it’s a nitrogen fixer, we’re less bothered by it than the Japanese stiltgrass and Japanese honeysuckle. We’ve got plenty of those especially along our fertile bottoms that get sun. The stiltgrass is erosion control right now and will need to be replaced with non aggressive natives like this creeping bush clover when we get to it.) We pull out the Japanese honeysuckle wherever we see it. It’s in the forest and on the trails. We rip it out of the ground with its root system and hang it from the tree it was strangling to dry and die. It feels like good therapy to save trees from noxious vines.Tiny house leveled up nicely. Chris has been working hard on these hot days using jacks and cinder blocks and wood.The back of the tiny house on wheels with the paulownia logs and sticks on the ground. We decided to use the logs from taking down the paulownias last month to make terraces along the slopes for our planting. Wheels off the ground!A nice pic Chris took of the old clonal colony pawpaw patch with lots of new leaves coming out. The ground is covered with ferns over a vernal pool that is almost always squishy and wet. The old colony has grown around this wet area with roots going five feet deep for what could be centuries —if as we suspect all of these hundreds of trees are from one individual. It’s anchored itself firmly to where it can access moisture and grown a thicket of itself. We can see the oldest and tallest of the trees are 20 to 25feet tall and the youngest just year old sprouts. This colony is full of rootsuckers. This is how the colony can live on and on when the typical life of an Asimina triloba seedling not allowed to root sucker is 45-50 years.
We mowed the main clearing for the first time this season. Spring is always a ticky time at SAFF. We have especially been seeing the lone star ticks. Mowing helps. It’s been very dry this season yet the lone stars are looking for a meal so be careful out there on the trails. We decided not to mow the slopes in the clearing and will leave it to the butterflies and critters. Leaving it long will help with erosion control. We mowed wide paths to our trails and around the slope to keep our tick experience walking around low on the paths. We also spray permethrin on our shoes and legs this time of year and tuck our socks into our pants. Any other tips, please feel free to comment below.
Last night, we ordered 41 Scion wood cuttings from various Peterson and other Asimina triloba cultivars and also including 2 American persimmon Keener cultivars, Diospyros virginiana. We plan to graft about half of the pawpaw Scion onto the old colony pawpaw patch, Asimina triloba. This will be a more permanent solution to getting novel dna into the colony much faster and more easily than anything else. We can make branches or trees with the Scion wood depending on the size of the root sucker we transplant the Scion wood onto in our clonal colony. Grafting produces fruit quicker , usually in 4 years. We have begun studying grafting techniques by watching plenty of YouTube videos from trusted advisors and are collecting the supplies for our continued Pawpaw Project at SAFF. We will keep you updated.
Pollinated mayapple, Podophyllum peltatum, with initial fruit set in the SAFF old colony pawpaw patch. We are noticing more flowers this year on the Mayapples. Southern adder’s -tongue, Ophioglossum pycnostichum, was found in the newly planted Pawpaw Orchard very near our Mango cultivar and a select seedling we planted last year. Found in moist shaded bottomland forests during late spring, Southern adder’s-tongue is considered rare in many regions but common here in Virginia. It is a fern that spends most of its time underground. Although edible and medicinal, it’s a plant that stores energy for years to send up a single leaf. Members of this family of plants have extraordinary high numbers of chromosomes. Over 1200. This occurs because of extreme polyploidy. It has astringent and anti inflammatory properties.Vaccinium stamineum, deerberry, a native deciduous shrub in the blueberry family found on Blackrock Trail near the wet weather gully at SAFF. These are eaten by birds and mammals.Erigeron philadelphicus, Philadelphia fleabane, is a widespread native wildflower in the daisy family. It is a valuable food source for bees, butterflies and moths. Found on our Northmost Trail at SAFF these Vaccinum stamineum, Deerberry, sit atop a hill near many pines.Sensitive fern, Onoclea sensiblis, known for being sensitive to frost and dying back if touched by it. Thrives in moist shady areas. Historically used by Iroquois for medicinal purposes and food. A native bush clover, Genus Lespedeza, found throughout SAFF. Today we noticed it near the Asimina triloba seedlings we planted last Fall. It is a nitrogen fixer and is valued for soil improvement and provides food for quail and other wildlife. Monochamus scutellatus, White spotted sawyer, a native wood-boring beetle that eats dead pines mainly. This appears to be female by the shorter antennae. Asimina triloba in old colony pawpaw patch with initial fruit set. Mayapples in the background.
It was dry at Saint Andrews Forest Farm on Friday afternoon. The ground crunched as we walked around the trails. There’s a chance of storms and cooler weather expected Sunday. If no rain by then, we will need to water the newly planted Asimina triloba seedlings at the bottom of North Trail. All of them look great with leaves filling out. We weeded and worked on clearing spaces around each of them. Even the ones that had tops chewed off by a passing deer or rabbit have new growth sprouting.
Houstonia caerulea, azure bluet, found all over SAFF has now passed its peak blooming and is beginning to to die back.
Old snag we check every time we go to Saint Andrews Forest Farm to see if it has fallen. It has holes all the way up from woodpeckers.
We’ve seen many pollinators this year. One of our favorite is the zebra swallowtail butterfly. Asimina triloba is the sole host plant for the zebra swallowtail butterfly, Eurytides marcellus. The zebra swallowtail caterpillars feed exclusively on pawpaw leaves. Toxins in the leaves make the caterpillars and butterflies distasteful to their predators. The butterfly lays a single pale green egg on the underside of the leaves. It is a mandatory host relationship and planting pawpaws are essential to supporting zebra swallowtail butterflies.
An energetic zebra swallowtail butterfly flitting about the old clonal colony pawpaw patch and landing on young Asimina triloba leaves. We will check them for an egg later.Lowbush blueberry by the main waterway.Initial fruit set on Asimina triloba.
Antennaria plantaginifolia, plantain-leaved pussytoes, was found budding in multiple locations on the trails Monday afternoon. The buds resemble cat paws. This native groundcover supports Virginia pollinators and is a host plant for the American Lady butterfly, Vanessa virginiensis.American lady butterflyUvularia perfoliata, perfoliate bellwort, a north American woodland perennial known for its distinctive leaves that appear to pierce the stem and drooping yellow bell shaped flowers. Attracts pollinators. Young shoots can be cooked like asparagus and eaten. Roots are also edible after cooking. Found along the trails at SAFF.
We got out to the farm yesterday to check on the tiny house and continue to level it up. We’re placing cinder blocks around the trailer to support it. We also continued to pollinate the newly opened small, green pawpaw flowers. We see tiny initial fruit set has occurred as well as new buds opening.
Asimina triloba buds showing an older female flower to the right with green color at bottom and the pollinated one facing us with the green banana surrounded by pollen. There’s another smaller and younger bud not yet open behind the middle bud which has dropped most of its petals.
Early fruit set on just one small 6 foot Asimina triloba in the old clonal colony pawpaw patch. There’s multiple large colonies of Mayapples and Virginia bluebells coming up. Mayapples by the main waterway down in the old clonal colony pawpaw patch. A Mayapple, Podophyllum peltatum, with a white bloom in center. We will watch this one for a fruit. All parts of this plant are poisonous except for the ripe yellow edible fruit. Extracts of this plant are used for treating cancers. It spreads through rhizomes to form thick ground cover colonies and goes dormant mid summer. Wear gloves when handling as it can cause irritation. Mayapple flower. This is the Mayapple fruit which ripens through the summer. We begin to look for it in August in spots where we’ve seen flowers. It’s the 2 leaved Mayapple that flower and fruit. The fruit is described as a fleshy lemon shaped berry native to eastern North America that has a unique tart flavor compared to pineapple, passion fruit or starburst candy. I found this description from one of my favorite teachers. “My first encounter with a ripe mayapple fruit was unforgettable. I actually smelled the fruit before I saw it. Within seconds of harvesting, I indulged in what little edible material was available. The taste was ambrosial — almost too good to be true — and from that day forward I became a devout seeker of ripe mayapple fruits. “ Adam Haritan from Learn Your Land.
I was literally standing on a young rat snake as I took this photo of the blueberries here by the waterway! I bet I scared him as much as he did me. First peaches are forming on the heritage Indian Blood cling peach.Our first asparagus spear this season.
We’re picking up 100 bare root Asimina triloba seedlings from the Virginia Department of Forestry Thursday and we have 50 Spicebush seedlings and another 50 Asimina triloba seedlings coming from the Arbor Day Foundation this week. We will be busy this weekend potting up the new trees in deep tree pots to accommodate their long tap roots. Last year we planted 108 and this year it looks as though it will be 300-400. We can’t wait to see how many seeds sprout that we cold stratified over winter. Last year they began growing in June. It may be early this year since it’s been so warm. We will get photos of it all this year. Last year we were too amazed by how much grows from the seed so quickly. The taproot goes 10 inches before there’s anything to be seen up top. It’s a wondrous thing growing Asimina triloba —and the seeds sprouting is just the start but we were too overwhelmed last year to document it. We will do so this year. 👍🏼
Saint Andrews Forest Farm 