It’s nearly December.听 Goldenrods and asters are long gone, leaves have turned and fallen.听 听Yet I remain in denial – I simply haven鈥檛 been able to call an end to the botanizing year.听听

Besides dried weeds, milkweed pods and other winter delights, there is still some green to be found.听 听 听Take a look along roadsides – many verges are still green, and it’s not all grass.听

I鈥檓 not sure exactly what caught my eye, but I stopped at a roadside recently and quickly realized there were some unfamiliar plants,听 probably because I haven’t spent a lot of time botanizing along weedy roadsides!听 It soon dawned on me that many of these plants are halophytes – plants that can tolerate runoff of the salt that is applied in the winter. 听 Some are native, and have extended their range out of their native habitat (e.g. salt marshes or similar), while others are non-native, and do well in disturbed sites.听 All of the ones where I stopped can tolerate some salt just fine.

Here is a verge I stopped at last week, along the Lake Ontario Parkway in Hamlin, 91制片厂 (Monroe County), a little west of Rochester.听 It鈥檚 not exactly the kind of place that would invite most botanically-minded people!听 But as I looked more closely I saw some interesting plants.

Growing abundantly with the Diplachne was this European alkali grass, Puccinellia distans,.听 This non-native species, still in reasonably good shape in mid-November,听 is common on saline roadsides throughout the state.

Many species in the Amaranthaceae are also well represented in these types of salty roadsides.听 The fleshy-leaved, almost succulent, horned seablite, Suaeda calceoliformis is a treat to encounter.听 A native species found in salt marshes on Long Island, it is another one that has moved to saline roadsides as well.

Another fun plant growing on this salty verge is summer cypress, Bassia scoparia.听 I was finding lots of dried specimens of this species and struggled with the ID, until I found a still green one (on November 19!) and it readily keyed out, with its distinctive ciliate bracts subtending the tiny flowers.

Also growing here is oak-leaved goosefoot, Oxybasis glauca (formerly Chenopodium glaucum), a weed often found in, but not restricted to, saline habitats. 听 Its distinctive leaves that are densely farinose, while the inflorescence is glabrous.

Plants in the Caryophyllaceae include a great many native and non-native weeds in 91制片厂, including these two halophytes, both growing side by side at this very same intersection.听 Both in the genus Spergularia, growing here were the non-native greater salt marsh sand spurry, Spergularia media var. media听 and the native听 (but spreading along roadsides throughout 91制片厂) lesser saltmarsh sand spurry, Spergularia marina.听 While some differences between these species can be subtle,听 a quick look at the seeds will easily diagnose them – S. media with the winged seeds, while S. marina without.

I was pleasantly surprised to find so much interesting diversity at a random roadside stop.听 听Hooray for November botanizing!

In 2016 I was fortunate enough to consult for the Adirondack Chapter of The Nature Conservancy.听 My job involved exploring Noblewood Park at the mouth of the Boquet River in Willsboro, NY, and documenting the plants growing there.听 Noblewood Park is owned and administered by the Town of Willsboro, but TNC advises the town on property use and management.

The park is not that large but is quite diverse with plant communities ranging from eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) dominated flats perched above the river to shrub swamp and emergent wetlands in the floodplain of the river, sugar maple (Acer saccharum) dominated slopes in between, and Lake Champlain and Boquet River shoreline. The land has had a long history of human use dating back to the early 1700鈥檚.听 There are reports of a very early brick manufactory on the banks of the river on the westerly border of the property.听 Many of the plant species I found there were very common in the Adirondacks, but some not so much.

The river side emergent marsh had a large population of yellow iris (Iris pseudacorus).听 It鈥檚 unclear when or where this invasive came from but was very widespread throughout the open marsh.

It was good to see one of my favorite native wetland species, tufted loosestrife (Lysimachia thyrsiflora).听 This plant is not all that common in the central Adirondacks.听 I鈥檝e only seen it once before in a marsh near Paul Smith鈥檚 College.

Finally, I came across a unique find.听 Near the mouth of the river, its floodplain is segmented into low ridges separated by old river channels both of which parallel the contemporary river channel.听 In cross-section the floodplain looks corrugated.听 Swamp white oak (Quercus bicolor) and silver maple (Acer saccharinum) occur on the ridges, while the old channels are dominated by herbaceous aquatic species.听 Scattered throughout the ridges were individuals of black gum (Nyssa sylvatica).听 There were adult trees, saplings, and seedlings present.听Nyssa is a relatively common species in downstate NY, but it is almost non-existent in the Adirondacks.听 I know of several specimens on the westerly shore of Lake George but finding it here at the mouth of the Boquet River extends the northerly range in NY by approximately 50 miles. Is this the furthest north that Nyssa occurs in NYS?听 Possibly.听听