Coral-root by Brister's Spring

August 20 

August 20, 2018

That large galium still abundant and in blossom, filling crevices. 

The Corallorhiza multiflora, coral-root (not odontorhiza, I think, for it has twenty-four flowers, and its germ is not roundish oval, and its lip is three-lobed), by Brister's Spring. Found by R. W. E., August 12; also Goodyera pubescens found at same date. 

The purple gerardia is very beautiful now in green grass, and the rhexia also, both difficult to get home. 

I find raspberries still. 

An aster with a smooth leaf narrowed below, somewhat like A. amplexicaulis (or patens (Gray) ?). Is it var. phlogifolius? 

Is that smooth, handsome-stemmed goldenrod in Brown's Sleepy Hollow meadow Solidago serotina? 

Bidens, either connata or cernua, by Moore's potato- field.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, August 20, 1852


The Corallorhiza multiflora, coral-root (not odontorhiza) found by R. W. E., August 12. See August 13, 1852 ("I hear that the Corallorhiza odontorhiza, coral-root, is out.). See also August 29, 1857 ("Nearby, north [of Indian Rock, west of the swamp], is a rocky ridge, on the east slope of which the Corallorhiza multiflora is very abundant.") and  note to August 13, 1857 ("Corallorhiza multiflora . . . how long") [spotted coral-root (Corallorhiza maculate) -- a saprophytic orchid]


Goodyera pubescens found at same date. See August 20, 1857 ("The Goodyera repens grows behind the spring where I used to sit, amid the dead pine leaves") and note to August 27, 1856 (“Goodyera pubescens, rattlesnake-plantain, is apparently a little past its prime. It is very abundant on Clintonia Swamp hillside. . .”)


The purple gerardia is very beautiful now in green grass, and the rhexia also, both difficult to get home. See August 20, 1851("The Rhexia Virginica is a showy flower at present.") See also note to August 5, 1858 ("I cannot sufficiently admire the rhexia, one of the highest-colored purple flowers, but difficult to bring home in its perfection, with its fugacious petals.")


Bidens, either connata or cernua, by Moore's potato- field. See August 30, 1856 ("Bidens connata abundant at Moore's Swamp, how long? ");  September 12, 1851("in Baker's Meadow beyond Pine Hill. . . the Bidens cernua, nodding burr-marigold, with five petals")September 12, 1859 ("The four kinds of bidens (frondosa, connata, cernua, and chrysanthemoides) abound now, [T]he first two are inconspicuous flowers, cheap and ineffectual, commonly without petals, like the erechthites, but the third and fourth are conspicuous and interesting, expressing by their brilliant yellow the ripeness of the low grounds.");   September 15, 1856 ("What I must call Bidens cernua, like a small chrysanthemoides, is bristly hairy, somewhat connate and apparently regularly toothed"); September 19, 1851 ("Large-flowered bidens,or beggar-ticks,or bur-marigold,now abundant by riverside.")

A little bundle scents my pocket for many days.

August 13. 

Mikania scandens well out; was not out July 18th. How long since, then? Perhaps not far from 1st August. 

The Lactuca sanguinea (var.) was perhaps as early as the other. 

Rhexia, very common on those bare places on the river meadows from which the soil has been moved by the ice. 

Saw the head and neck of a great bittern projecting above the meadow-grass, exactly like the point of a stump, only I knew there could be no stump there. 

There are green lice now on the birches, but I notice no cotton on them. 

Pennyroyal abundant in bloom. I find it springing from the soil lodged on large rocks in sprout-lands, and gather a little bundle, which scents my pocket for many days. 

I hear that the Corallorhiza odontorhiza, coral-root, is out.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, August 13, 1852

Rhexia, very common on those bare places on the river meadows from which the soil has been moved by the ice. See July 18, 1852 ("The petals of the rhexia have a beautiful clear purple with a violet tinge."); August 1, 1856 ("Far in the broad wet meadows, on the hummocks and ridges, these bright beds of rhexia turn their faces to the heavens, seen only by the bitterns and other meadow birds that fly over.") and note to August 5, 1858 ("I cannot sufficiently admire the rhexia, one of the highest-colored purple flowers, but difficult to bring home in its perfection, with its fugacious petals.")

Saw the head and neck of a great bittern projecting above the meadow-grass, exactly like the point of a stump. See  August 5, 1854 (Near Lee's (returning), see a large bittern, pursued by small birds, alight on the shorn meadow near the pickerel-weeds, but, though I row to the spot, he effectually conceals himself.); ;August 31, 1855 ("Passed in boat within fifteen feet of a great bittern, standing perfectly still in the water by the riverside, with the point of its bill directly up, as if it knew that from the color of its throat, etc., it was much less likely to be detected in that position, near weeds.")

Pennyroyal abundant in bloom. I gather a little bundle, which scents my pocket for many days. See August 11, 1853 ("Evening draws on while I am gathering bundles of pennyroyal on the further Conantum height. I find it amid the stubble mixed with blue-curls and, as fast as I get my hand full, tie it into a fragrant bundle.”); August 13, 1856 ("Is there not now a prevalence of aromatic herbs in prime? — The polygala roots, blue-curls, wormwood, pennyroyal, Solidago odora, rough sunflowers, horse-mint, etc., etc. Does not the season require this tonic?"); August 26, 1856 ("I gather a bundle of pennyroyal; it grows largest and rankest high and close under these rocks, amid the loose stones.")

I hear that the Corallorhiza odontorhiza, coral-root, is out. Compare August 13, 1857 ("Corallorhiza multiflora . . . how long")

August 13. See A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, August 13.

A little bundle

of pennyroyal scents my

pocket for many days.

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 © 2009-2025

Sailing lightly on Bateman's Pond.

August 13. 

J. Farmer saw some days ago a black headed gull, between a kingfisher and common gull in size, sailing lightly on Bateman's Pond. It was very white beneath and bluish-white above. 

Corallorhiza multiflora and Desmodium rotundifolium, how long?

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, August 13, 1857



Corallorhiza multiflora [spotted coral-root (Corallorhiza maculate) -- a saprophytic orchid]... See August 24, 1857 ("The Corallorhiza multiflora was common in these [Natick] woods, and out.")  See also Vascular Flora of Concord, Massachusettscompiled by Ray Angelo ("There are about 10 references to this in Thoreau’s Journal. On August 20, 1852 he refers to Emerson finding this at Brister’s Spring on August 12, and again at Brister’s Hill on July 29, 1853. On August 1, 1854 he refers to it at Fair Haven Pond. On August 29, 1857 he finds it in the vicinity of Bateman’s Pond and names the rocky ridge where it was abundant as Corallorhiza Rocks")

Desmodium rotundifolium, how long? See August 6, 1856 (“Desmodium rotundifolium, some days at least.”); August 7, 1856 (“At Blackberry Steep . . . D. rotundifoliumis there abundant;. . . as also at Heywood Peak. All these plants seem to love a dry open hillside, a steep one.”);  August 19, 1856 (“I feel an agreeable surprise as often as I come across a new locality for desmodiums. Rarely find one kind without one or two more species near, their great spreading panicles, yet delicate, open, and airy, occupying the August air. Like raking masts with countless guys slanted far over the neighboring plants”); August 26, 1856 (“The desmodium flowers are pure purple, rose-purple in the morning when quite fresh, excepting the two green spots. The D. rotundifolium also has the two green (or in its case greenish) spots on its very large flower. . . . The round-leafed desmodium has sometimes seven pods and large flowers still fresh”)

August 13. See A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, August 13.

 

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 © 2009-202