Evening star. [volume], March 18, 1962, Page 10, Image 114

About Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972

Image provided by: Library of Congress, Washington, DC

                
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10
SUNDAY. THE STAR MAGAZINB. WASHINGTON. D. C.. MARCH 18. 1982
Wild Flowers
Along the Canal
By EILEEN J. WILLIAMS
Contributing Writer
ONE hundred and sixty-five miles of gar
den path, beginning minutes from your
doorstep-where else could you find this
than along the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal?
Besides its attractions for hikers, campers,
cyclists, fishermen and people who just like
to be outdoors, the newly created National
Monument offers an incomparable variety of
wild flowers.
The display begins with skunk cabbage in
damp spots and early saxifrage on the rock
outcrops. Spring beauties may open by the
end of February in sheltered nooks with
southern exposure and later are to be found
almost everywhere along the towpath, con
tinuing through April.
Cabin John Island has long been out
standing both for numbers and variety of
flowers. There are large areas of both white
and yellow trout lilies (often called dog
tooth violets) and many kinds of violets. Here,
as elsewhere, the lovely Virginia bluebells
grow almost in the water. Here also can be .
found the uncommon twinleaf, whose scien
tific name, jeffersonia diphylla, honors our
third President.
In many places, the masses of tiny blos
soms of the spicebush give an effect of yellow
green light under the tall trees. Redbud and,
a little later, dogwood flower profusely along
the edges of wooded areas. Overhead, the
beautiful chartreuse and orange blossoms of
the tulip trees are soon to open. Lilacs and
gnarled old apple trees bloom near aban
doned homesteads.
Not ail the “tame” flowers have been
planted. The canal was once a route for com
merce and population movements. Many
PHOTOS BY HAROLD MARSHALL WILLIAMS
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Twinleaf, which resembles blood
root, adds beauty to the C&O Canal.
seeds and plants were carried to new homes
across the mountains, just as today a young
housewife takes to her new subdivision a
plastic bag full of African violet leaves and
cuttings of her favorite roses. We like to think
that some of these growing things escaped
along the way, to reappear unexpectedly as
grace notes to history. Other kinds may have
been carried by birds or flood waters from
gardens near the river.
As the season advances, columbines and
wild geraniums replace the bloodroot and
toothwort. Yellow iris blooms along the
water’s edge, where mallow and cardinal
flower will be found in midsummer. Yet if the
spring season passes too quickly, we can re
capture it by traveling farther up the canal.
Washington may already be broiling, but
there is cold spring water trickling down over
thick moss and tiny ferns on the walls of the
rocky gorge near Paw Paw. Birdsfoot violets
and azaleas are blooming, and tiny pink and
beige oak leaves are expanding in the woods.
In the fall, blue, purple and white asters
add to the vivid colors of leaves and fruit.
Spicebush and dogwood berries are bright
red, Virginia creeper and wild grape, purple.
The maple-leaved viburnum combines pur
ple-black berries with rose-colored leaves. A
straggly little euonymus opens its strawberry
like husks for Chinese red droplets, to earn
its name “Hearts a-bustin’ with love.”
Finally, the witch hazel: This “every
one’s-out-of-step-but-me” plant shakes out its
crumpled yellow flowers after most of the
leaves have fallen. And after that, it’s only a
little while until skunk cabbage and early
saxifrage!
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Yellow iris, brought to Virginia by
settlers, grows wild near Brookmont.