Friday: West Woods revisited

[15_the_circle]

[OT from cottage renovations]

Friday afternoon's late light was excellent for a chance to get back to the West Woods; I wanted to see the results of the ivy cut-and-slash exercise. 

(click through these thumbnails for higher resolution images)

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West Woods

the tree canopy hasn't having leafed over yet so there's plenty of illumination all the way down to ground level.  sight lines are already significantly shortened by understory vegetation that's coming out, much of it undesirable invaders such as barberry and greenbrier.  but down on the forest floor there are also tiny spots of beauty: 

Violet

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looking up in the infested areas the cut-off ivies, both English and poison, appear gratifyingly dead.  over the next few months the vines will fall down on their own and the trees will be that much the better for it. 

by way of comparison, here's what it looked like back in February.  now that's what I'd call a successful intervention. 

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not far off from some of the ivy hot spots, the skunk cabbage is coming along quite nicely. 

Symplocarpus foetidus

and though it seems a bit early for the Jacks-in-the-pulpit they are cheerfully doing their thing though looking a bit on the dried out side.  if they can hold out for another day or so there's rain in the forecast. 

Arisaema triphyllum

note how these examples differ in colouration.