A Walk in a Fern Bluff Park (24 March 2007)

This walk began in Veterans Park, and continued into Olson Meadows Park

Field Madder (Sherardia arvensis)

Photos and a narrative describing this walk are posted below in a series of pages.  It was a beautiful day for a walk.  The morning began with temperatures in the mid-60's (the low, early in the day, was 64 degrees F, and highs later reached 80), accompanied by an intermittent, gusty wind.  Soil temperatures were, by this date, uniformly above 60 degrees, a sign that soil-dwelling insects like fire ants are able to come to the surface and begin normal foraging activities.  After looking things over in Fern Bluff Park and treating a few errant fire ant mounds there, I headed over to Veterans Park.  After photographing some of the flowers and other wild plants I then drove to Olson Meadows and took additional photos of wildflowers.  The gusty wind made this a great day for flying kites, and several families were engaged in that sport.  Others were enjoying family and friend gatherings, with lots of children in tow, at the playscape.

In Veterans Park

I parked at the end of the park facing Fern Bluff Elementary. The first thing that caught my eye on entering the park was a small, dense cluster of tiny flowers on short stems, next to a telephone pole.  These plants, considered weeds by many, are found all over Fern Bluff, and are mostly overlooked because of their diminutive natures. 

Each flower head sports from one to five individual flowers, and each flower has four petals, sharply pointed and forming a Maltese cross.  The leaves occur in whorls of four to six leaflets, spaced at regular intervals along the plant's square stem.  On previous walks I misidentified this as a needleleaf bluet (Hedyotis acerosa).  It happens to be the only species in the genus Sherardia, and is often mistaken for a bedstraw.

The species name, arvensis, means "of cultivated fields". The plant is a native of Europe, and according to some authorities, originated in Britain. Its roots are used to produce a red or rose dye.

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Archives of previous walks in the park: 12 May 2007,  05 May 2007; 28 April 2007, 21 April 2007, 14 April 2007,  1 April 2007 Easter Egg Hunt; 24 March 2007,  17 March 2007; Nov. 03, 2001; April 04, 2001; March 25, 15, 10-11, 04, 2001; February 24,  18, 10, 2001

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