Grape fern, Tillinghast

On one of the hottest days in recent years, I threw all elderly caution to the wind that wasn't blowing and went for a trek... and not just any hike: a journey of discovery sponsored by the Rhode Island Wild Plant Society at the Nature Conservancy's Tillinghast Pond Management Area in West Greenwich, RI. The jaunt was the last part of a quartet of excursions called Plants and Their Places, and I'd been unable to get to the first three, so, even if it killed me, I went this time. It was just wonderful, because, among the promised highlights, we saw a Cut-leafed Grape Fern, a species I'd never spotted and one whose spore holder (below) resembles clusters of light-colored grapes. Botrichium dissectum was an exciting new find for me, and spending a morning in good botanical company and learning more ferns, along with numerous other plants, from trees to sedges, wildflowers to rushes and grasses, was truly heavenly. And I didn't have to pass on to taste botanical paradise. Such a deal

Grape fern "grapes," Tillinghast