PVFS 2023 Calendar of Events

First Fern Walk April 30th at Mt Toby

The warmer weather is here, and more fiddleheads are starting to emerge!

Pictured here are Rusty Woodsia (Woodsia ilvensis) fiddleheads, which grow in the same area as the previously showcased Blunt-Lobe Woodsia, but slightly different micro-habitat. If you look at the PVFS news article from 3/23/23 you will see a photo of very early Blunt-lobe Woodsia fiddleheads. The Rusty Woodsias are more hairy than the Blunt-lobe, and smaller. A key way to tell them apart this time of year is that the stems of the Rusty Woodsia tend to break off in the winter at about the same short height, while the stems of the Blunt-lobe Woodsia are longer and different lengths. You can see the short same-length broken stems in the top of this photo that Randy took this past Tuesday (4/8/23).

I have recently found some new early Sensitive and Maidenhair ferns fiddleheads. We are still enjoying seeing nice Fragile fern fiddleheads, and now new Bulblet fern fiddleheads too.The Fragile and Bulblet fiddleheads are similar in size and grow in similar locations, but the Bulblet fiddleheads have red stems while the new Fragile fiddlehead stems are green. These are just some of the fiddleheads we hope to show you on our First Fern Walk of the Season. There are also the usual evergreen ferns, and lovely spring wildflowers to see.

I have added some event dates and descriptions to our PVFS calendar on our website. The First Fern Walk is Sunday April 30th from 1-3 PM at the Mt Toby Waterfall in Leverett. See the poster attached to the calendar event for details on directions.