Integrative Natural History of Amnicon Falls State Park, Part 17: Rising from the Duff | Wisconsin, USA
Taken a few in / cm above the forest floor, not far from the park's Now and Then Falls.
Hanging out with a small community of Canada Mayflowers (Maianthemum canadense).
Despite its common name, this spring-ephemeral species tends to blossom in June this far north, just as it is here. Originally a member of the very large and, as it turns out, polyphyletic Lily Family (Liliaceae), it's now placed in the Asparagaceae—the Asparagus Family.
One of the reasons I like this picture, besides the cheerful white Mayflower blossoms, of course, is that it gives a good sense of the thick mantle of pine needles and dried leaves that make up the type of North Woods O Horizon (uppermost, organic layer of the soil). It's colloquially known as duff. Rain and snowmelt leach out much of the tannin content of this conifer-derived ground cover, and eventually the acidic brew reaches local streams and turns them brown.
Most of the duff on view here seems to be composed of fallen Eastern White Pine (Pinus strobus) foliage.
Integrative Natural History of Amnicon Falls State Park, Part 17: Rising from the Duff | Wisconsin, USA
Taken a few in / cm above the forest floor, not far from the park's Now and Then Falls.
Hanging out with a small community of Canada Mayflowers (Maianthemum canadense).
Despite its common name, this spring-ephemeral species tends to blossom in June this far north, just as it is here. Originally a member of the very large and, as it turns out, polyphyletic Lily Family (Liliaceae), it's now placed in the Asparagaceae—the Asparagus Family.
One of the reasons I like this picture, besides the cheerful white Mayflower blossoms, of course, is that it gives a good sense of the thick mantle of pine needles and dried leaves that make up the type of North Woods O Horizon (uppermost, organic layer of the soil). It's colloquially known as duff. Rain and snowmelt leach out much of the tannin content of this conifer-derived ground cover, and eventually the acidic brew reaches local streams and turns them brown.
Most of the duff on view here seems to be composed of fallen Eastern White Pine (Pinus strobus) foliage.