Stony Brook Reservation

Photos taken at Stony Brook Reservation in West Roxbury, MA, August 31, 2008.

I started out on a trail through the shady woods.

This is a striped wintergreen, a fairly common forest plant in these parts. They like acidic soil, much like blueberries.

Here's a cluster of indian pipes. These strange plants are all white because they have no chlorophyll.

The trail comes out at Turtle Pond. It's really a small lake rather than a pond.

Nice lilypads.

More nice lilypads.

Still more nice lilypads.

Lots and lots of nice lilypads, all around the lake.

This is purple loosestrife, a noxious introduced weed. The flowers are pretty, but the plant spreads so rapidly in wet areas that it's crowded out native plants.

After leaving the lake, the trail meets up with this paved bicycle trail. I think I only saw one person on a bike here, though; it seems to be very lightly used. Anyway, the paved trail made for very easy walking.

I saw several patches of these showy false foxglove flowers all along the trail.

Fruits of the maple-leaf viburnum.

The obligatory toad photo from this hike. He was hiding in the shade under some blueberry bushes, so the picture didn't turn out well. This was quite a large toad, about 4 inches long in the body.

There were lots of these asters growing along the trail.

A bee visits a goldenrod in one of the sunnier stretches of trail.

These bell-shaped flowers are called rattlesnake root.

This is tick-trefoil. The pink-purple flowers are very pretty, but these plants were also loaded with triangular seed pods that stick to you all over like velcro.

This trail doesn't have a lot of up and down over big hills, but it does pass by a lot of random rock outcroppings, like this one. Although the park is called "Stony Brook", on my hike I saw only the "stony" part, and no "brook".

Here's a dragonfly resting in the sun.

A big patch of pretty ferns.

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	I started out on a trail through the shady woods.
	This is a striped wintergreen, a fairly common forest plant in these parts. They like acidic soil, much like blueberries.
	Here's a cluster of indian pipes. These strange plants are all white because they have no chlorophyll.
	The trail comes out at Turtle Pond. It's really a small lake rather than a pond.
	Nice lilypads.
	More nice lilypads.
	Still more nice lilypads.
	Lots and lots of nice lilypads, all around the lake.
	This is purple loosestrife, a noxious introduced weed. The flowers are pretty, but the plant spreads so rapidly in wet areas that it's crowded out native plants.
	After leaving the lake, the trail meets up with this paved bicycle trail. I think I only saw one person on a bike here, though; it seems to be very lightly used. Anyway, the paved trail made for very easy walking.
	I saw several patches of these showy false foxglove flowers all along the trail.
	Fruits of the maple-leaf viburnum.
	The obligatory toad photo from this hike. He was hiding in the shade under some blueberry bushes, so the picture didn't turn out well. This was quite a large toad, about 4 inches long in the body.
	There were lots of these asters growing along the trail.
	A bee visits a goldenrod in one of the sunnier stretches of trail.
	These bell-shaped flowers are called rattlesnake root.
	This is tick-trefoil. The pink-purple flowers are very pretty, but these plants were also loaded with triangular seed pods that stick to you all over like velcro.
	This trail doesn't have a lot of up and down over big hills, but it does pass by a lot of random rock outcroppings, like this one. Although the park is called "Stony Brook", on my hike I saw only the "stony" part, and no "brook".
	Here's a dragonfly resting in the sun.
	A big patch of pretty ferns.