Cranberry Glades

Today was my day to co-lead a trip up to the West Virginia high country, and Cranberry Glades. This spot within the sprawling Monongahela National Forest is one of the coolest places in the eastern United States, and is lush with diversity. It's nearly 4,000 feet up here, and these mountain crests are often dipped in cloud, as they were today. But constant moisture and cool temperatures makes the world work here, and creates the conditions for a fantastic assemblage of flora and all of the animals that go with it.

Like bonsai gone mad, twisted, gnarled Red Spruce dot the landscape. It is a birder's paradise, and boreal species that one normally would have to go much further north to see can be found here.

A territorial Dark-eyed Junco keeps watch on our group. Other northern breeders include Hermit Thrush, Blue-headed Vireo, Blackburnian Warbler, Winter Wren, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Canada Warbler, and many more.

Perpetually cool, waterlogged peaty soil spawn all manner of fascinating flora. Botanists got crazy at Cranberry Glades, and even the floristically unitiated will find the plants interesting. False Hellebore, Veratrum viride, dominates this shot, and some Marsh Blue Violets, Viola cucullata, thrust forth at the bottom of the photo.

A gorgeous treelet, the Mountain Juneberry, Amelanchier bartramiana, was in full bloom in the shrubby thickets. This was a "life plant" for most of our crowd. It is known from only three West Virginia counties, and they are the furthest south populations of this plant.

Mist, a constant companion of the numerous Black Bears that roam this area, shrouds the edges of the vast cranberry meadow.

The area namesake, Large Cranberry, Vaccinium macrocarpon, still holding some berries not yet found by bears or other hungry animals. It is common, as is a similar species, Small Cranberry, Vaccinium oxycoccos.

We were pleased to see the rare - at this latitude - Bog-rosemary, Andromeda glaucophylla, nearing full bloom. A member of the heath family (Ericaceae), it and it's fellow heaths, such as the cranberries, dominate the acidic sphagnous substrate of the open meadow.

The tiny urceolate, or urn-shaped, flowers of Bog-rosemary are suffused with pale pink and are indescribably showy upon close inspection, and we took a moment to inspect one closely.

In spite of the mistand clouds, we had a fantastic day high in the West Virginia mountains.