Pine Barren Flora

smoke_jumper

Piney
Mar 5, 2012
1,518
1,050
Atco, NJ
The place I visit usually has them about 100 yards from 206 along and in a road. Every year they are in about the same place. This year they are also much closer to 206 but they are all still small. So some locations just don't grow as well as others. And in this location many of them never fully develop for some reason.
They come up there every year. I usually have around 6 that bloom but it's usually over several weeks. Right now I have 2 and a few that are about an inch tall. The late ones usually bloom in late May.
 

46er

Piney
Mar 24, 2004
8,837
2,143
Coastal NJ
Is that this year? if so, it is odd how some locations are so much more advanced than others. I was looking at them early yesterday morning along 206 and they were about an inch tall.

The local patch I check was well along too. A lot is ahead of schedule this spring.
 

bobpbx

Piney
Staff member
Oct 25, 2002
14,154
4,258
Pines; Bamber area
Some of the cedar swamps are inundated with water. Combine all the rains with those river rats (beaver), and it makes for tough going. Forget everything your body taught you about exploring a cedar swamp in drier conditions. When the swamps are flooded nothing you step on is stable, not even the hummocks, because the water seeps underneath them. Everywhere you step you take a chance that the footing is not stable.

bigseep.JPG
Diamond.JPG
exilis.JPG
fern.JPG
orgsticks.JPG
swamp.JPG
 

Rooftree

Explorer
Mar 24, 2017
330
580
78
Haddon Township
Bob; great pictures as always. I believe the picture with white stalks with yellow heads coming up out of the water are fruitbodies (apothecia) Mitrula elegans. They are found in early spring fruiting in large numbers in standing pools. I also like the picture right below it. It looks like the swamp is snowing with green flakes laying on the hummocks. That's my take anyway.
 

bobpbx

Piney
Staff member
Oct 25, 2002
14,154
4,258
Pines; Bamber area
Bob; great pictures as always. I believe the picture with white stalks with yellow heads coming up out of the water are fruitbodies (apothecia) Mitrula elegans. They are found in early spring fruiting in large numbers in standing pools. I also like the picture right below it. It looks like the swamp is snowing with green flakes laying on the hummocks. That's my take anyway.

Thank you! I see those matchsticks every year around this time. A refreshingly colorful sight in a damp swamp filled with green foliage and amber water.

I see on Wiki that they call them "bog beacons" elsewhere. A good name.
 

bobpbx

Piney
Staff member
Oct 25, 2002
14,154
4,258
Pines; Bamber area
Joe, I also saw out of the corner of my eye as I was leaving, a rim with no tire on it. It looks pretty cool. If I go back I'll snap a photo of it.
 

manumuskin

Piney
Jul 20, 2003
8,552
2,465
59
millville nj
www.youtube.com
Bob
I know what you mean about everything being unstable in a flooded swamp.I usually just take to the water when that happens.I would rather walk down a chest deep ditch then try to pull a balancing act and go in head first.If the bottom isn't muck then the deeper water usually has a more stable bottom,problem is when you hit muck it's either revert back to trying to stay out of it or just belly down and crawl:) Mudder boots look like they could handle the muck well but they would tear up so much plant life in a cedar swamp I think I"d save them for slat marsh mud flats,besides in a swamp they would probably get you hurt.
 

Gibby

Piney
Apr 4, 2011
1,640
442
Trenton
Bob, you will have all the old toy nuts out hunting for the pedal car. It is one of the more unusual rocket ship cars that are popular at the moment. It may be rare for all I know.
 

bobpbx

Piney
Staff member
Oct 25, 2002
14,154
4,258
Pines; Bamber area
Bob, you will have all the old toy nuts out hunting for the pedal car. It is one of the more unusual rocket ship cars that are popular at the moment. It may be rare for all I know.

True, but I doubt whether its even there anymore, and its certainly 14 years older than when I found it. Back then, American Pickers was just a gleam in someone's mind, so I had no idea it might have brought something. How about that patina, it's roached, right?
 
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