FOMR Walk and Talk with Dr. Ben DeMayo on June 18
The heat was not too much for at least 10 hardy hikers out to view DeMayo’s summer fern celebration. We began at the pavilion 3 parking lot, with a quick rundown on fern evolution along with a review of fern and plant resources. We inspected fern specimen that Ben brought along. Then we hiked the trail by the stream to view the ferns in their summer explosion. There are are large expanses of New York fern to the left of the path, and lots of Christmas ferns to the right. In more discrete patches, we found the sensitive, lady and others making themselves picturesque by logs, may-pops and stream banks. Chrissy was along, so mushrooms made their appearance in our itinerary. Double trunk trees, rock formations left most likely by young monument builders, climbing vines, and lovely native specimen familiar from other wild flower hikes kept our attention throughout the hike. Oh, and we cheered James for rescuing a Daddy Long Legs from the ladies’ room when a park visitor explained that she is afraid of “spiders” but was not sure if it would be OK to kill a “spider” in the park. Thanks Ben, for a lovely walk in the park.
Click on the photo below to see a set of pictures from Ben’s talk.
