Cemetery Botanizing – Corgey Cemetery | 2

And then I found something interesting! The leaves were tall and they had what looked like sporangia on the back, which led me to thinking this was some kind of weird fern. The forked leaves reminded me a lot of staghorn ferns and celery ferns so my mind went to ferns for the longest.

But someone corrected my ways quickly and told me it was actually a rust fungus parasite of anemones called Ochropsora ariae. After I realized that, it clicked and I could see the leaf pattern of the anemones in these. The rust causes the leaves to deform and that’s why I didn’t initially associated them with the anemones. There was a lot of it there and I’m curious how it will affect the plants in future seasons.

Zizotes milkweed, Asclepias oentheroides. Since finding plants around my neighborhood last year I’m realizing how much more common this species is around here despite being on the edge of its eastern limits.

Aren’t they all lovely?

I’ve come to really love this plant, bulbous woodrush (Luzula bulbosa). We’re on its southwestern extent here and I love finding it! Again, it is one of those plants that is more prevalent than people presume because no one is out documenting it. I see it quite frequently.

And finally, I went back to this cemetery for a drive-by after I went to another cemetery to try to take photos of a plant only to find it had been mowed recently (grumble, grumble) and thought this one might have something new in the ensuing weeks since I’d been there. Of course, I got there and it had also been mowed. *sigh* But I did find this threadleaf evening primrose (Oenothera linifolia) hiding in the grass.