By Flint’s Pond road in the woods.

September 23. 

September 23, 2017
Solidago, aster & vanessa

Wednesday. P. M. – To chestnut oaks. 

Varieties of nabalus grow along the Walden road in the woods; also, still more abundant, by the Flint's Pond road in the woods. I observe in these places only the N. alba and Fraseri; but these are not well distinguished; they seem to be often alike in the color of the pappus. Some are very tall and slender, and the largest I saw was an N. Fraseri! One N. alba had a panicle three feet long! 

The Ripley beeches have been cut. I can’t find them. There is one large one, apparently on Baker's land, about two feet in diameter near the ground, but fruit hollow. 

I see yellow pine-sap, in the woods just east of where the beeches used to stand, just done, but the red variety is very common and quite fresh generally there.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, September 23, 1857

Varieties of nabalus grow along the Walden road in the woods; also, still more abundant, by the Flint's Pond road in the woods. See September 13, 1857 (“Nabalus Fraseri, top of Cliffs, — a new plant, . . ."The nabalus family generally, apparently now in prime.”);September 15, 1851 ("Prenanthes alba; this Gray calls Nabalus albus, white lettuce or rattlesnake-root. Also I seem (?) to have found Nabalus Fraseri, or lion's-foot.”);September 17, 1857 (“I go to Fair Haven Hill, looking at the varieties of nabalus, which have a singular prominence now in all woods and roadsides.”)

I see yellow pine-sap . . . just done, but the red variety is very common . See  September 23, 1860 (“Red pine-sap by north side of Yew Path some ten rods east of yew, not long done. The root of the freshest has a decided checkerberry scent, and for a long time — a week after — in my chamber, the bruised plant has a very pleasant earthy sweetness. ”). See also June 29, 1853 (“American pine-sap, just pushing up, — false beech- drops. Gray says from June to August. It is cream-colored or yellowish under the pines in Hubbard's Wood Path. Some near the fence east of the Close. A plant related to the tobacco-pipe.”);  July 29,1853 (“American pine-sap, just pushing up, — false beech-drops. Gray says from June to August. It is cream-colored or yellowish under the pines in Hubbard's Wood Path. Some near the fence east of the Close. A plant related to the tobacco-pipe. Remarkable this doubleness in nature, — not only that nature should be composed of just these individuals, but that there should be so rarely or never an individual without its kindred, — its cousin. It is allied to something else. There is not only the tobacco-pipe, but pine-sap.”); August 14, 1856 (“Hypopitys, just beyond the last large (two-stemmed) chestnut at Saw Mill Brook, about done. Apparently a fungus like plant. It erects itself in seed.”); August 23, 1858 (“See an abundance of pine-sap on the right of Pine-sap Path.”); October 6, 1857 (“I see a great quantity of hypopitys, now all sere, along the path in the woods beyond. Call it Pine-Sap Path. It seems to have been a favorable season for it”); October 14, 1858 ("On the top of Ball’s Hill, nearly half-way its length, the red pine-sap, quite fresh, apparently not long in bloom, the flower recurved. As last year, I suspect that this variety is later than the yellowish one, of which I have seen none for a long time."); November 25, 1857 ("Methinks there has been more pine-sap than usual the past summer. I never saw a quarter part so much. It stands there withered in dense brown masses, six or eight inches high, partly covered with dead leaves.") and note to September 9, 1857 (“C. brings me a small red hypopitys. It has a faint sweet, earthy, perhaps checkerberry, scent”)

September 23, 2017

It has been a very warm week warmer in fact then the summer. We walk to the view and sit a long time longer than we planned  this extra time allows us to watch a flight of starlings cross the clearing and do a repeat performance then, unexpectedly a pileated bursts out of the woods and crosses the clearing this is the highlight of the walk. We go up the ravine past the Fisher “pond“ and around to the double chair New red pine needles are lightly strewn on the forest floor   we find a small bunch of white pine cones that has been nipped by a squirrel from the top of the tree. The cones are open, brown and very sticky.   We bushwhack  down the mountain.  By accident I come to the porcupine tree without knowing I was there or taking precautions with the dogs but all is well . At the lower view we snap a picture of the sun now setting  south of white face. I am hot and sweaty he when we get home. i think, “barred owls are the chickadees of the night”

This warm autumn day

unplanned a pileated

flys through the clearing.

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