I try to remind everyone to get out into nature and enjoy and observe. If your walk or trek takes you into woodlands, you notice the red maples, red and chestnut oaks, white pines, and probably our “struggling” hemlock trees. A squirrel, deer or blue jay catches your eyes or a hawk’s screech or a woodpecker’s hammering perks up your ears. How about the “taken for granted” plant life at or near your feet?

The forest floor offers some nice finds as well. Look for club mosses (also known as ground pine) sometimes carpeting a damp shaded wooded area. At one time these were very popular to collect and use in Christmas wreaths and decorations. In this area I have found five different species. You simply need to “look down.”

Unfortunately, limiting the growth of club mosses today is the smothering growth of a fern called hay-scented fern. Foresters and the Pennsylvania Game Commission have been evaluating the effects of these plants.

Two theories for the exponential growth of this fern include more acid rainfall which encourages its growth, and also the loss of the shade-producing overstory. Overbrowsing by white-tailed deer seems to be a factor in the loss of the overstory. Hay-scented fern in our area is growing into dense mats and smothering out the seedlings of oak, maples and conifers, resulting in poor forest regrowth.

Although very picturesque, this pretty forest scene showing up everywhere will soon result in less wildlife from birds, to rodents, and even the larger mammals. Let’s hope this problem resolves itself before causing too many ill effects.

If you look closely, especially in damp summers like this year, you will notice many mushroom species, puffballs and the less common Indian pipes. Indian pipes actually are flowering plants which have no chlorophyll (they can’t make food) and grow 8 to 10 inches tall in just a few days after a soaking rain. This year in areas not smothered by the ferns, I’ve seen a number of them. Indian pipes get nutrition from an association with a fungus in the soil, much like mushrooms.

Of course, we have a large variety of other fern species present here. Bracken fern, interrupted fern, sensitive fern, lady ferns and Christmas ferns can still be found, too. The latter remains green throughout the winter (an evergreen fern) and its green fronds can be seen poking out of a light covering of snow.

In areas of the Poconos, especially along woodland trails or firebreaks, search the ground for teaberry plants. Also called American wintergreen, their fall red berries can be eaten by you, rodents, turkeys and ruffed grouse. Grouse would stuff their crops once the teaberries ripened. Those who fancy teaberry ice cream would certainly enjoy eating a few of these forest floor berries.

Get out there, enjoy a fall walk in the woods and look for all of these. Even though rather detrimental to the forest floor, frost-killed hay-scented ferns give off a nice aroma when crushed and add a golden hue to the ground as you trek through them. Remember, look low so you can appreciate the smaller things on the forest floor.

Test Your Outdoor Knowledge: Shagbark, pignut and bitternut are all types of: A. walnuts, B. hickories, C. oaks, D. birches.

Last Week’s Trivia Answer: The larch, even though it produces cones like pines and spruces, loses its needles in fall like maples, and is a deciduous conifer.

Nature hint: Look for small flocks of blue jays as they migrate just above the tree tops for the next two or three weeks. In the evening, about an hour before dark, look for flocks of robins moving south. (Their migration will continue through the end of October.)

Contact Barry Reed at breed71@gmail.com.