americanature: Woodland Plants near Blue Hole, Virginia

Two months ago, Catey and I were just finishing up a trip to Vermont, Virginia, and North Carolina, making stops along the way to visit special people and places. One of our adventures near Charlottesville was a hike with Rose to Blue Hole. Although we put our feet in the Moormans River, we did not swim at this well-known swimming spot. As Rose told us, there had been a renowned rope swing there until Summer 2012, when someone with a chainsaw, presumably worried about liability, took it upon themselves to cut the tree on which it hung. That story is here.

Those guys walked ahead and I stopped to find some old friends in the undergrowth -- woodland plants that I recognized from doing plant surveys in Illinois when I lived there.

I stopped to photo the heart-shaped, almost glisteny leaf of the wild ginger. I believe it has fine hairs on its surface to give it the texture it has. , which was lighted nicely, by the time I found it, by the tall forest above it.

The dappled appearance of a woodland floor in the summer can have a soothing effect on us. However, plants need light -- so leaves of woodland plants have to be ready to capture the few bursts of sunlight that filter through, even in the long days of summer. I don't know whether ginger or hepatica actually follow the sun as it moves throughout the sky, but they may. Plants do this, and it's called phototropism -- here's a link to a video showing it.