Flora and fauna of the appalachian trail

[Zippy Morocco]

Here’s our unscientific list of plants and animals spotted on the AT this year (Georgia to Maine, March 5-July 22). Diddo put this together and asked me to share it with all of you.

This list can also be found here:
www.sidewaysgaze.com/flora/

Flora

Bluet
Briars–the young shoots of which are actually edible!
Bunchberry
Cattails, last year’s old ones
Chestnut trees, almost gone since the blight many decades ago, but still there though small
Chickweed–also edible, but to what hiker is it calorically worthwhile to reap them?
Cinquefoil, which looks like strawberry but all yellow and a creeper
Clover, both purple and white
Columbine–red and yellow
Corydalis, like half a Dutchman’s breeches (breech?) but pink and yellow
Cow parsnip
Creeping charlie, a ground cover that grew also in my parents’ yard in Minneapolis
Cutleaf toothwort
Daffodil
Daisy
Dandelion
Deadly nightshade
Dogwood
Dutchman’s breeches
False strawberry
Fern
Field pansy? Or is it just a more elaborate violet?
Fire pinks
Fireweed
Fleabane
Forget-me-not, little blue flowers with white and yellow centers
Geraniums, much prettier than the domestic variety.
Grasses
Hemlock, which is dying away due to an invasive pest
Hickory?
Indian pipes
Irises: dwarf, yellow flag, blue flag, and a multicolored one
Jack-in-the-Pulpit
Japanese stiltgrass, an invasive in New York
Jasmine? Something heavily scented in a white and yellow bower
Lady’s slipper:
image
Lamb’s quarters
Lichens
Lily of the valley
Lily pads
Lupine
Mayapple
Milkweed
Mosses
Mountain laurel… Just starting to bloom in June
Mushrooms
Oak
Partridgeberry (two flowers needed to make one berry, which has two navels)
Periwinkle?
Phlox
Pine
Pipsissewa
Pitcher plant, in a bog below Fourth Mountain in Maine
Poison ivy
Poor man’s pepper
Poplar
Ragwort?
Ramps–we’ve walked through whole patches of trail that smell like onions
Redbud
Rhododendron aka azalea, Catawba variety blooming late April!
Rue anemone
Sassafras, from whose root you can make a tea
Shepherd’s purse
Slime mold, yellow… Don’t pet it! Looks furry, but not.
Spiderwort
Spring beauty
Spruce
Squaw root, a parasite of oaks.
Stinging nettle, I think, but don’t want to find out!… Confirmed, it’s nettles.
Strawberry
Sumac
Trailing arbutus?
Trillium, pink and white, and painted, which are smaller.
image
Tulip poplar
Vetch
Violets: violet, halberdleaf yellow, white, and bicolor
Virginia creeper
Wild bleeding heart
Wild mustards
Willow
Wintergreen, whose tough little leaves are refreshing to bite but not to swallow
Wood sorrel
Yarrow
Yellow hawkweed?

Fauna

A red toad
Bald eagle
Bat
Bears! Black, with cubs
Beetle
Bluebird
Bullfrog (heard, not seen)
Bumblebee
Butterfly, including sulphurs and swallowtails
Cardinal
Cat
Caterpillar
Centipede
Chipmunk:
image
Cicadas, who appeared en masse on June 1 in NY, leaving their shells and wings behind, but only audible for 5 days
Cows and horses in fields
Cricket
Dog (okay, not wild, but we have seen many on the trail, including a lapdog or two!)
Duck
Firefly
Humans of all ages and varieties
Inchworm
King snake
Leech, riding on a turtle
Loon, with two young
Millipede
Mole?
Moths, Luna and otherwise
Mouse
Owl
Porcupine
Peregrine falcon!
Rabbit
Raccoon (just glowing eyes in the dark)
Rat snake?
Raven
Red eft (a newt):
image
Red winged blackbird
Robin
Ruffled grouse, who scare the bejeezus out of you by roosting low and not flapping away noisily until you are right on top of them
Salamanders, tiny brown guys under wet rocks
Scarlet tanager
Spring peepers
Squirrel
Stinkbug
Swan
Sweat sniffer bee
Tent caterpillars
Ticks, deer (ugh) and regular
Tiny red mites… chiggers?
Turkey
Turkey vultures, ugly guys indeed
Turtles, painted and otherwise
Virie, whose song sounds like a video game
Vireo (See me! Here I am! Where are you?)
Water strider
Whippoorwill (heard, not seen)
White throated sparrow (Poor Sam Peabody, Peabody, Peabody)
Whitetail deer
Wild ponies
Worms

[Zippy Morocco]

Never mind

[Zippy Morocco]

Donated and edited

[Hill Ape]

are you listing only what you saw, or trying to make a comprehensive list? either way, i think its a very cool project. no mosquitos though?! i'm impressed. fox are hard to spot, but i've seen one at night on springer. and boar, pretty common in the south.

[Kookork]

nice list and very observant eyes to find all of these,thank you

[Zippy Morocco]

These are just what we saw along the way. Mosquitoes and black flies could be added to the list for sure.
We try not to think about them though :-)

[Tri-Pod Bob]

Nice compilation!! You've made a couple of side notes regarding munchies on the list, but actually there is quite an exceptional array of wild edibles (flora & fauna) incorporated here!

[Tri-Pod Bob]

With regard to the dying hemlocks, the invasive 'pest' is probably the wooly aldegid. A local arborist informs me that Hurricane Gloria brought it up the coast to Mass. in 1985. It's really raising hell with the hemlock in this neck of the woods.

[HikerMom58]

This is an awesome list, Zippy! Diddo did an awesome job on this list. The mayapple was in bloom while we were in PA. Loved it! Also, seeing the lady slipper was so cool. That's my favorite.

[Just Bill]

While we're on the topic- anyone recommend a SINGLE guidebook for the trail? I blowwww at plant and tree ID, figure I'll learn when my 2 1/2 year old starts asking about it, but I'd like to pick something up one of these days.

[Driver8]

Just bill - I hear that Audubon has some good apps for visual ID of flora and fauna in the wild. Probably worth checking out if you like - I intend to do so soon as well.

[Tri-Pod Bob]

Just bill - I hear that Audubon has some good apps for visual ID of flora and fauna in the wild. Probably worth checking out if you like - I intend to do so soon as well.

+1......audubonguides.com Or if you prefer printed material, they can be had in a number of different formats. The 'Tree Guide' is quite good for a general single carry reference. Regional guides are also available for trees, birds, mushrooms, spiders, etc. It's a great organization! Card carrying member for 25+ yrs now. Annual dues is only $10 & they send you 10 tree/shrub/bush rootings every year just prior to prime planting time. Easy to carry into the woods, or wherever you want to go, for planting. I planted 10 Colorado Blue Spruce throughout my area last fall.

[da fungo]

Really nice compilation.

I have to say, though, that I'm absolutely horn-swoggled that anyone could walk the AT through NJ without noticing the Japanese Barberry. Unless that was included in the "briars" entry. Too bad the omission from this list doesn't signify that it's been eradicated.

[Pedaling Fool]

This would be such a very large list if one were to build one up...BTW, you forgot Ants and Bees and Wasps and spiders and ... Those are among my favorite animals.

BTW, there is a new slave-making species of ants found in the North American forests, still trying to find exactly where.... http://entomologytoday.org/2014/01/1...north-america/


Here are some pics along the AT

[Firefighter503]

I didn't see Black Cohosh mentioned.