Soldier's Delight
This weekend (9/4/21) I visited Soldiers Delight Natural Environment Area, NW of Baltimore for the third time. This area, noted as serpentine barrens, has thin and magnesium-rich soil that many plants do not like very much. It is also noted as the only place in Maryland with fringed gentians (Gentianopsis crinita). They are found there, not exactly thriving with limited numbers, but hanging on because of limited competition on the serpentine soils. The first fringed gentians (same species) I ever saw were in 1989, alongside a small pond in south central Michigan, somewhere between Jackson and Albion (where I went to Albion College). I thought they were incredible. The next time I found fringed gentians (Gentianopsis thermalis) was in Yellowstone in August of 2010 with my, then 7 yo, son. This trip to Soldier's Delight, I knew the gentians wouldn't be blooming yet, but it was worth the trip. Lots of foxglove spp. and liatris were blooming, and the prarie grasses were magnificent. I really need to learn my grasses better. I should take a class.
Check out Willam Cullen Bryant's poem, "To The Fringed Gentian: at https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/55340/to-the-fringed-gentian
