What you can see in these photos are tree trunks and young members of the understory--a lot of spicebush, young hickory, maples, viburnum, ferns, and moss gracefully returning fallen trees to their original elements.  Enlarge the photos, and you might see trillium gone to seed, Jackin-the-pulpit, Solomon's seal, false Solomon's seal, and various species of grapevine.  These photos cover the area cleared of invasives from the entrance to the Botany Trail at Flanders and to the left about 100 feet.

These plants are visible because the invasive plants have been chopped away.  As Ross and I worked under the rain-splattered canopy last week, we cut away burning bush.  Burning bush, also called winged euonymous, spreads aggressively through both seeds and suckering.  It will rapidly crowd out native plants. Getting rid of the plants before they form seeds in September and October improves the chances of reducing its spread.

The cleared area revealed Japanese barberry, multiflora rose, and bittersweet.  By far, the Japanese barberry was the most pervasive plant covering the ground and sprawling by layering.  This happens when the spreading branches touch ground and root.  This method of reproduction allows the plant to cover a lot of ground and deny air and light to the native understory.  It's good to get the barberry out before it drops its leaves because the leaves make the soil more basic, increasing nitrogen levels and possibly negatively affecting native plants.  

Barberry has prickers and can be a nuisance, but tracing the branches back to the main root makes it easier to pull out.  We cut away a lot of plants at the base.  In the fall, we can use the root wrench to finish the job.

Multiflora rose and winged euonymous are often fellow-travelers with burning bush and barberry.  So they were on the Botany Trail.  I have learned the hard way with multiflora rose to cut back some of the radial branches so that it is less dangers to me and to the leaves on the surrounding trees when I cut the canes at the base.  We removed several bunches of multiflora rose and bittersweet as we cleaned up the area where we worked on Thursday, July 10, in the morning.

It's a very moving experience to step back and look into the woods, to see the variety of trees providing the canopy, to wonder at their height, to notice the snags doing their part to provide habitat to smaller wildlife, and to hear the birds sing in the rain.

Multiflora rose and bittersweet are often fellow-travelers with winged Euronymous and