Catoctin Mountain Range ... Hiking North & South on the Catoctin Trail
Plants on the South Side of Bobs Hill
Decomposed logs and leaves make a great soil for many plants, such as this Striped Wintergreen (Chimaphila maculata), with seed campsule. I see this plant growing in the all the mountains in the region.
Up on Bobs Hill we again find our friend the Ground Pine (Lycopodium obscurum), which we first encountered back in the Frederick Municipal Forest. On the right is a closeup of its strobilus containing the sporangia, to make seeds for the next generation.
On the sides of the trail, Hair Cap Moss(Polytrichum commune) is frequently seen in the summer. Most that we saw included spore capsules like this specimen.
Mountain Laurel, like this young specimen, grows all over the mountains in the region.
Bobs Hill in summer is alive with vegetation. This cat greenbriar (or cat-briar for short)(Smilax glauca) is a thorny vine that grows all over the eastern United States, and here in the mountains too.
This brown material used to be a log from a fallen dead tree ... fungi and bacteria broke it down to this "saw-dust" like stuff. This completes the cycle of nature: the tree died, fell down, and became soil to support the continued growth of more plants.
The invasive stiltgrass, on the left, which entered this country as packing material, now threatens native undergrowth plants such as the ferns on the right.