Early summer in Hubbard's Close

May 30.

May 30, 2014

I see now green high blueberries, and gooseberries in Hubbard's Close, as well as shad-bush berries and strawberries. 

In this dark, cellar-like maple swamp are scattered at pretty regular intervals tufts of green ferns, Osmunda cinnamomea,  above the dead brown leaves, broad, tapering fronds, curving over on every side from a compact centre, now three or four feet high. 

Wood frogs skipping over the dead leaves, whose color they resemble.

Arethusa bulbosa (Dragon's mouth)

I am surprised to find arethusas abundantly out in Hubbard's Close, maybe two or three days, though not yet at Arethusa Meadow, probably on account of the recent freshet. It is so leafless that it shoots up unexpectedly. It is all color, a little hook of purple flame projecting from the meadow into the air. Some are comparatively pale. This high-colored plant shoots up suddenly, all flower, in meadows where it is wet walking. A superb flower.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, May 30, 1854

Wood frog ~ See May 27, 1852 ("Catch a wood frog (Rana sylvatica), the color of a dead leaf. He croaks as I hold him, perfectly frog-like.”)


Arethusa  abundantly out at Hubbard's Close. . . .  See May 30, 1852 ("The bulbous arethusa, the most splendid, rich, and high-colored flower thus far, methinks, all flower and color, almost without leaves, and looking much larger than it is, and more conspicuous on account of its intense color. A flower of mark. It appeared two or three times as large as reality when it flashed upon me from the meadow."); June 1, 1855(“Arethusa out at Hubbard’s Close; say two or three days at a venture, there being considerable.“); May 29, 1856 ("Arethusa bulbosa at Hubbard’s Close apparently a day or two.”).

May 30 See A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, May 30

A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau

"A book, each page written in its own season,

out-of-doors, in its own locality.”

~edited, assembled and rewritten by zphx © 2009-2021