Spring at Gravatt is a time of much activity. The cold of winter relents and warmth is returned to the world. In this spring edition, I wanted to highlight some of the fascinating features of Gravatt.

There are a couple of signs that spring has arrived at Gravatt. Disregarding what any groundhog says, spring arrives with the sight of the red buds on a Red Maple, the return of the osprey, and the unfurling of the first ferns. We observed the red buds first blooming near March the Fifth, not long after that we observed an osprey soaring over Lake Henry, and after a heavy onset of pollen during the latter half of March, the ferns began to unfurl. Spring is here.

Here you can see the first blooms of the Red Maple standing over Lake Henry.

Ferns are some of the first new growth of spring racing to absorb as much sunlight and nutrients as they can before the rest of the forest wakes up and shades them. While they are a pleasing plant, they are a well-adapted pioneer plant that will jump at the first opportunity to spread and take over a disrupted area. They populate all over Gravatt, but a favored location is a special corner of Sparkleberry Trail with a view down an alley of Longleaf Pines. While we have many types of ferns at Gravatt, a common species is the Bracken Fern. Bracken Ferns are so ubiquitous that they are found on every continent excluding Antarctica and in every environment except Deserts. They are even one of the oldest species of Ferns with fossil records dating it’s species to 55 million years ago! By early April the ferns are well established throughout the woods, but not for long.

This series of photos were taken over the course of the spring. Here you can see the progression of life of the ferns. Single and solitary standouts who slowly grow and fill in the forest until they are nearly all the new green you see

These ferns will soon be outcompeted after heavy April showers come to lively up the rest of the forest foliage, and well we have had plenty of April showers. Hard rains clear away most of the pollen and much of the dirt roads at camp. The forests begin to fill back up and spring rainstorms bring about much activity from local residents at Gravatt. Mushrooms fruit, reptiles/amphibians emerge from hiding, and flowers bloom. After one such mighty rainstorm, a very happy female Bullfrog, Lithobates Catesbeianus, was found near the edge of the pond up at the Vicarage. These frogs are native to our area and enjoy swampy marshy locations and larger bodies of water. They hunt on just about anything big enough for them to eat, spiders, small fish, insects, slugs, other frogs etc. If threatened they quickly leap into the water and will swim to safety.

Here is a female bullfrog found near the pond at the Vicarage. This frog was huge and blended in beautifully with the damp vegetation.

Here we have a beautiful tiny Dwarf Crested Iris, Iris Cristata, a native flower to Gravatt. One of only two native crested Irises, it is a rhizomatous perennial plant, meaning that it forms horizontal stalks that store nutrients (the rhizomes) to allow it to come back year after year (perennial). Every year the Dwarf Crested Iris blooms and then dies but it’s able to return because of the nutrients stored up in its root stalks. A small but mighty and resistant species. This tiny plant was gorgeous to stumble upon and is found along the forest edges in sunny spots around Sassafras Trail.

Two splendid Irises found off of Sassafras Trail.

Yellow Jessamine, *Gelsemium Sempervirens,* growing along Lake Henry, further down blackberry bushes are blooming too!

There is an abundance of natural beauty at Gravatt. The bright green of the ferns, the blooms of the red maple, the yellow jasmine vines, the frogs, snakes, and the evening call of the whip-or-will. While spring is an exciting time and we are all waking up to the wondrous world around us, there is something coming. We can admire the flowers and loathe the pollen, but something is coming…summer. Summer just like the temperature is on the rise, and I’m sure if you are reading this we all know what to look forward to soon enough. What are some of your favorite springtime sightings? Do you have any stories of Gravatt in the spring? Comment below, we would love to read them!

Sparkleberry Press

When the Fern Unfurls