The New Orange Trail Section

 This summer the section of the Orange Trail by the river was re-routed to avoid several dangerously eroded spots on the river bank. The new route is further inland and includes a boardwalk over the marsh and an observation platform. 

This new section of the Orange Trail begins below the Scout bridge and traverses the lower end of what Nature Ramblers call the "beaver marsh" and then continues through the woods to the power line right-of-way. All the following photos (except one) were taken by Emily Carr.

Entrance to the boardwalk from the woods side. You can see a little of the platform ahead on the left.

Here is the observation platform.

Another view looking toward the observation platform.

This section is from the platform toward the start (or end) of the boardwalk at the Orange Trail.

When these photos were taken (8/30/2020) the Broad-leaved Arrowhead had been blooming for several weeks. The boardwalk makes them accessible without sinking into the mud up to your knees.

Broad-leaved Arrowhead with an inflorescence.

 

Staminate (Male) flower of Broad-leaved Arrowhead. The yellow parts are the anthers, the pollen containing structures of the stamens.

 

Pistillate (Female) flowers of Broad-leaved Arrowhead have green centers that are the fused pistils.

 

 

 

 

 

 Broad-leaved Arrowhead is a monoecious plant, meaning that each flower is imperfect. The flowers express a single sexual identity -- they either produce pollen or they produce seeds, but not both. In the Arrowhead the female (pistillate) flowers are produced on the lower part of the flowering stalk (the inflorescence) and the flowers on the upper end of the stalk produce the pollen (staminate). These flowers are easily distinguished: male flowers have many bright yellow anthers and female flowers have green centers, the fused pistils. (See the photos above.) The flowers on the stalk mature from the bottom up, so when the florescence is young only the lower, female flowers open to receive pollen. Because the upper, male, flowers are not open yet the receptive female flowers can only be pollinated by a different plant, one that is old enough to have open staminate flowers. By the time that the flowers in the upper part of the stalk are ready to open the seed in the flowers below will have been set. 

Monoecy is a condition that promotes outcrossing. Some populations of Arrowhead go to a further extreme: they are dioecious; all the flowers on an individual plant are the same sex.