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Indusia are splitting and peeling off the sori and revealing the dark brown spores.

Indusium (pl. indusia) A thin epidermal outgrowth from a fern leaf that covers the sorus.

Same plant as Observation dated May 16, 2022 when the indusia were intact and the sori looked like pale green rounded kidneys.

A few days ago, on a hike, I found a vine unknown to me, photographed it, and learned that it was in fact Celastris scandens, a species endangered in North Carolina. And to think I had at first disregarded the plant as probably not significant, but had sense enough to argue with myself that I had better go back and give it some respect wit the chance for me to learn something. And I did!

SO, imagine my surprise this morning whilst out watering plants in my mother-in-law's garden, that one of the large pots left by the previous owners, and in which was growing a culinary sage bush, there was also a Celastris scandens. It is almost unbelievable. I reckon a bird planted it there via its droppings. I consider it a serendipitous series of events of sheer delight.

I provided the plant a small trellis, just like the pot, a vestige of the previous owners' gardening exploits, found abandoned between a Rhododendron and the house foundation. It is curious how such unrelated things culminate in something so wonderful.

West Virginia White butterflies are important pollinators of Spring herbaceous perennials. I have seen them visit flowers of

• Acteae pachypoda
• Erigeron philadelphicus
• Erigeron pulchellus
• Stellaria pubera
• Trillium grandiflorum

Notably - all are white-flowered species.

Bartram Trail, Franklin, North Carolina

Mid-plant at the 12 o'clock position, one can see a dark speck at the tip of a leaf. It is a spider supping on a Cranefly.

2nd Photo = Spider feasting on Cranefly at leaf tip.

Betty's Creek Recreation Area

On the forest floor and along the Creek, Luzula echinata is quite common. Only atop these mossy logs have I noticed this species. A curious and delightful scene.

• solitary florets that sometime sprout a second floret in stair-step fashion

Accompanied by two mosses that carpet the log, Calicladium imponens with a scattering of Thuidium delicatulum.

The spider doing a cameo in the first photo may be a young Brown Water Spider, Dolomedes species.

Bartram Trail, Franklin, North Carolina

• with apothecia!

Accompanied by Dicranum montanum, which seems well capable of quelling the spreading habit of Ochrolechia yasudae that usually over-runs the mosses on the rocks that it inhabits. Perhaps with the vegetative reproduction held at bay, this individual has resorted to spore production via the disc-like apothecia.

Bartram Trail, Franklin, North Carolina

photos 3 & 4 show a spent inflorescence from last season

This species is a "multi-annual" and is like an Agave in that respect, which is to say that the rosette of leaves increases in size each season until sufficient energy reserves have been accumulated to allow the production of a large inflorescence, into which the plant pours, and finishes, its life.

As Howard Scott Gentry put it, "After years of rain and light-catching, the time comes to make a show of things." [Gentry, 1972, The Agave Family in Sonora ]

Bartram Trail, Franklin, North Carolina

When I saw this attractive, architectural, colorful rosette of leaves, I knew it would be photogenic. As to its identity, I did not know, and hoped its charismatic form would have a following amongst botanists. Serendipity lent a hand, as that evening, whilst reviewing observations of another iNaturalist, they had an observation of this same species in the same early stages of the season. And, when I uploaded my photo, iNat's top choice was Smooth Rock Cress - a plant I knew nothing of until yesterday.

Synonyms

• Boecheria laevigata
• Arabis laevigata

This patch was loose on the forest floor, apparently torn away by some woodland creature, perhaps a bird, and so a convenient sample with spore capsules was usefully at hand. I tucked it under a wedge of bark, on the tree trunk, after the photos were taken.

"The Art of Mother Nature".

These images represent the brief but beautiful display we get on the first hard freeze of a winter--if we get such a morning at all at our latitude. We've had a few cold mornings just below freezing in Austin over the past few weeks, but this Arctic blast was enough to keep the temperature in the teens and 20's for several hours. The result for Frostweed is frozen sap which splits the base of the stem and comes curling out in fantasticly beautiful "shaved ice" forms. Botanical icicles. The shapes are as diverse as snowflakes.