Autumn Walk at Pennypack with Dana Ward, naturalist

Always a delight and an educational experience to walk with Dana Ward and the folks he draws to Pennypack Trust.

I purposely didn't bring my camera, but the above photos were from a previous walk.

Scott was gonna take down our hummingbird feeders but I learned from a woman named Chris to keep em up until the first frost.
   The first signs of autumn, he said, are not the changing leaves, but oh darn, I can't remember what he said. Possibly the changing color of shrubs called Spicebush. Today I learned what the spicebush looks like

Remember, Ruthie, remember, I would say aloud.

We saw wild ginger, whose rhizomes - or roots - are used as a seasoning & also, said Beatriz, as a cancer stopper. Read article here.



Dana Ward also mentioned that a particular kind of mushroom - and we saw plenty on the walk - has properties to treat breast cancer. And "I'm not a mycologist," he said. Later on in the walk he referred to his "herpetologist" buddies.

There was older guy on the walk who had a unique way of standing and bracing himself so he wouldn't fall. Some of the ground we stood on - particularly by the Overlook - was hilly and rocky and difficult to stand on.

The ten or so people on the walk were remarkably physically fit and not a one was a fat-so.

 Birds and animals change into their fall colors. Goldfinch feathers turn green. The cardinal uses up his red feathers and when they fall out, brown ones appear.


Why do deer rub antlers on trees?

The antlers are "bones" and just as the deer's cute lil ears can feel things, so can the antlers. When they grow velvet on them, they itch!

That's why the deer rub em off on trees, which may ruin the bark of the tree.

  The persimmon tree has a very distinctive bark. Persimmons are still ripening on the tree, and falling for picking. Wonder what the native Americans made with em?

Dana Ward told us the difference between eating a young persimmon and a ripe one.

"Oh," I said. "My mouth's puckering."

That was the young persimmon.

The ripe one was sweet, mooshy and delicious, studded with seeds.



Next question: How do trees communicate with one another and know how to plant new trees.

It's all underground, in the root system, where their DNA or genetic material talk to one another.

This was just discovered, said Dana Ward. Read about it here. 

We saw tiny wiggly aphids - nicknamed 'boogie-woogie' aphids possibly on a beech tree.

I learned that in one part of the forest there were an abundance of cherry trees. Another older part of the forest had numerous beech trees and also hickory trees.

Learned that in Nature, as in human life, the color RED is a sign of danger.




Now, if you'll excuse me, am gonna have supper.

Cream of asparagus soup. It's got grated ginger in it - a rhizome, remember - and is also seasoned with tarragon. I mentioned tarragon to Dana and its licorice flavor and he said there's lots of licorice flavor in nature.

He also showed us a sassafras bush, whose root produces the flavor for root beer.

It's good as a tea, he said.