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Winter at ChicoryLane
by Catherine Smith
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ChicoryLane lies in Penns Valley, Centre County, between Brush Mountain and First Mountain
in central Pennsylvania’s ridge and valley region. Photo credit: Bill Rathfon
| | What’s happening with plants in the February winter scene at ChicoryLane? More than you might think. Take native shrubs and herbaceous plants, for example. While trees usually get the most attention, all plants have life stories. I want to understand what winter means in the lives of smaller vegetative beings like shrubs and weedy herbaceous plants. | | |
Dormancy
Walking ChicoryLane’s paths in winter, I can see desiccated leaves, shriveled fruits, and dead-appearing stalks. Usually, I don’t watch closely enough to observe dormancy happening in stages, leaves first, fruits and seeds next. Also, I can’t see what’s happening with the roots below ground. In dormancy, roots take in essential chemicals and hormones from mycorrhizal networks in leaf litter, decaying wood, soil and store them. When conditions are right for regrowth, roots deliver these resources to stalks, leaves, and buds.
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Images, above
Left: Highbush cranberry viburnum (Viburnum trilobum) Photo Credit: Bill Rathfon
Right: Winterberry (Ilex verticillata) Photo credit: ChicoryLane Collection
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Bud Break
When temperatures rise and days lengthen, buds swell and break into flower, signaling the beginning of a new growth season. But not at the same time for all plants. ‘Plasticity’ and ‘native to site’ mean that plants vary by species, sometimes within species, in combining temperature and light to break bud. Location can matter, too. At ChicoryLane, two pussy willows, possibly different species, grow on opposite sides of a stream, one side sunnier than the other. Those willows break bud at different times, I’ve noticed.
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Images, above: Pussy willow (Salix discolor) Photo credits: ChicoryLane Collection (left),
Bill Rathfon (right)
| | Why do seasonal changes matter? For people, seasonal change matters in literature, religion, art, farming, gardening, health (allergies) and more. But how does seasonal change matter to plants in a living landscape where everything co-exists? To think about winter changes from a plant’s perspective, I find Owen Scholes' description of goldenrod and spiders helpful: | | |
In winter, goldenrods are brown or pewter gray, the seeds lingering or gone, the [flowers] dead, with no gold or green remaining . . . Once it becomes sufficiently warm (a warmth that you might consider cold), spiders will emerge from their winter dormancy and use the bare branches of dead goldenrod flowers to build their webs . . . small orb weavers (spinners of stereotypical spoke-and-spiral spider webs), and inconspicuous dictynids (spinners of mishmash, bowl-shaped webs) . . .
There is another advantage for being on dead stems. They don’t attract one of the major enemies of spiders: spider-hunting wasps. Some wasps grab spiders and paralyze them with a sting. Then they store the helpless spiders in nests or cells where the wasp’s young will feed on the defenseless prey. Quite a few spiders live on goldenrod flowers, and the wasps also feed on nectar, so blooming goldenrods provide one-stop shopping for the wasps.
But dead goldenrods have no nectar, and few spiders. They are likely to be overlooked by the wasps. That’s a good thing if you’re a small spider.
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Images, above:
Left: In ChicoryLane's pollinator field, among the thistle, Queen Anne’s lace, and echinacea, are nine varieties of goldenrod. Photo credit: ChicoryLane Collection
Right: Dried goldenrod stalks and flowers are winter homes for spiders and more. (Solidago canadensis) Photo credit: Bill Rathfon
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ChicoryLane Symposium
MAY 15 - 17, 2026
Understanding and Engaging the Natural World
Keynote by Doug Tallamy
Friday, May 15, 7:00 PM
Wyndham Garden Hotel, Boalsburg, PA
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ChicoryLane is an ecological reserve near Spring Mills protected by a Conservation Easement held by Clearwater Conservancy. Its 68 acres are actively managed for conservation.
The landscape is natural and scenic. It includes wetlands and meadows, streams, remnant and successional forests, and a grassland. This diversity of habitats is especially inviting to birds and butterflies. A system of mowed trails makes most of the property accessible to walkers.
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