Marian Harnach Nature Trail at Ruffner Mountain

Marian Harnach Nature Trail, Ruffner Mountain

Photo by Shay Gibson

 

Ruffner Mountain is a state park located in Jefferson County with many trails for hiking.  Hannah and I decided to do our field study along Ruffner Mountain's Marian Harnach Nature Trail along with the Geology Trail. Both of these trails can be viewed on a map here.  This is a fairly simple trail, and with our first visit little green vegetation could be seen.  Much like this past week in lab, most of the ground was covered with dead leaves.  You can see that in the picture below.  This picture is of one of the plants we learned in lab called Nandina domestica. I have shown two pictures below of this plant.  The first is of the plant in the forest, and the second is of the dark red leaves seen on this tree.  It's hard to see Nandina domestica from the picture in the forest right now because of the like colored leaf background; however, you can see the distinct red leaves on the tree. 

Nandina domestica along Ruffner Mountain's Marian Harnach Nature Trail

Photo by Shay Gibson

Leaf of Nandina domestica

Photo by Shay Gibson

 

I chose to upload pictures of this particular plant because it was seen many times as we walked the trail.  Another important thing we noted throughout the trail was the disrepair found.  Many trees had fallen and the debris was everywhere.  You can see this from the picture below.  Despite the numerous trees that had fallen, many trees were still alive in our area.  The first picture in this post shows a wonderful picture of the forest taken along the Marian Harnach Nature Trail.  Little greenery was found along the trail because of the winter weather, but hopefully soon we will see some beautiful (or maybe not) flowering plants.  I think we chose a very biodiverse spot for our site. Though not being able to identify the plants right now, Hannah and I saw many different trees and bushes. I think this is going to be a great project, and I can't wait to see what we find here at Ruffner Mountain.

Tree fallen along the trail

Photo by Shay Gibson