Author Archives: Brenda Clements Jones

About Brenda Clements Jones

Brenda is a certified Virginia Master Naturalist, a Habitat Defender for Shenandoah National Park, and a devoted fan of Mother Nature. She lives in a cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains near Shenandoah National Park, and hikes up to the higher elevations of her mountain often to see what nature is up to. Her constant hiking companion is a camera that captures nature as it unfolds through the seasons. It’s her goal to share the natural world around her through her photographs.

A View Of Autumn

September 26, 2025

Dappled sunlight reaching down through the leaves. Reds and greens being spotlighted. Red Maple (Acer rubrum) just beginning to add scarlet to the landscape.

Red Maple trees are incredibly common in eastern North America, and can easily be found from Newfoundland and Manitoba in Canada, down to Florida and Texas in its native range.

They are certainly abundant up here. Providing many splashes of red, yellow, and orange in the woods.

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Autumn Decorations

September 25, 2025

Mother Nature has begun working on the season. Just the start. Greens turning to many warmer shades, pumpkin orange, lemon yellow, scarlet and crimson red, with a little bit of a cooler shade – purple scattered here and there. This, a prime example of her work. Virginia Creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia) draped over thick branches deep in the woods. Just the beginning of decorations to celebrate autumn.

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Crooked-stem Aster

September 24, 2025

So many species of Asters decorating the roadside coming up the mountain. This one is Crooked-stem Aster (Symphyotrichum prenanthoides). It gets its common name from its stems which change direction at each node, where a leaf emerges.

Like other Asters, this one is made up of many many tiny flowers called florets, arranged in a daisy-like appearance. There are ray florets which are lavender, light blue, or white. In the center are disk florets that are off-white, yellow, purple, or brown. Native to northcentral and northeastern North America.

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Monarchs Coming Through

September 23, 2025

A Monarch (Danaus plexippus) taking a quick break during its long migration, getting a sip of nectar this afternoon.

They’re coming through on their way to their winter home, the high-altitude fir forests of central Mexico.

The journey for the eastern segment of the Monarch population can involve traveling up to 2,500 to 3,000 miles, or even more. They travel, at the most, from Canada and the northern United States to Mexico. The western segment travels fewer miles, most of them spending the winter months along the southern California coast.

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Happy Astronomical Autumn!

September 22, 2025

This afternoon we have gone from summer into autumn. I adore living in an area that has four seasons, getting to experience each one’s splendors.

This is a picture of Jack-In-The-Pulpit berries (Arisaema triphyllum). They turn this brilliant shade of scarlet in early autumn.

Each of the berries generally contains one to five off-white seeds. The seeds that germinate the following spring create seedlings with just a single, round leaf. Those seedlings will need three years, or more, to become mature enough to produce a flower.

Jack-in-the-pulpit, a plant of spring, summer and autumn.

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Yucca Gloriosa

September 21, 2025

A thunderstorm overnight, with the tiniest bit of much needed rain. Here a few of those raindrops still on blooms of Yucca Gloriosa (Yucca gloriosa). This is a species of Yucca that is native to the southeastern United States which blooms in late summer, early autumn for me.

Yuccas have a special place in my heart since I adore the state of New Mexico, and the state flower of New Mexico is actually not a single species but instead is the genus Yucca. This flower is also honored as the national flower of the central American country of El Salvador, the birthplace of a dear friend. In that case the specific species of Yucca gigantea is honored.

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Texture Against The Sky

September 20, 2025

The end of summer and the leaflets of Black Walnut trees (Juglans nigra) are one by one turning yellow and dropping to the ground. Also dropping to the ground are the “nuts” which are not true nuts but are actually drupes. What a surprise to discover that.

Something that I really enjoy about these trees is the beautiful texture, the gorgeous patterns, that they create against the sky. It’s particularly lovely at this time of year before many of those yellow leaves have dropped to the ground.

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Spicebush Berries

September 19, 2025

Drupes (berries) on Spicebush (Lindera benzoin) turning to their lovely crimson coloring, as autumn approaches.

As autumn further advances, these drupes will all turn their bright red, and the leaves will become a rich yellow. Those leaves, when crushed emit a luscious spicy aroma. Thanks to that spicy aroma, deer tend to avoid munching on these bushes, unless of course they are very hungry.

Spicebush is a deciduous shrub in the laurel family (Lauraceae) which is native to the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, and the Midwest. It is dioecious, meaning it has separate male and female plants. In the autumn female plants will have those red drupes, and male plants will not produce any fruit.

A lovely plant to spot in the woods.

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White Flowers In The Genus Solidago

September 18, 2025

There are only two species of plants in the genus, Solidago (Goldenrod), that produce flowers that are white, all the others, as you might guess have rich, bright yellow flowers. This is one of those plants with white colored flowers, Silverrod (Solidago bicolor) which grows up here on my mountain, and is in bloom right now.

It’s native to most of eastern North America, found from Manitoba to Nova Scotia in Canada, and in every state east of the Mississippi River with the exception of Florida.

The other white flowering, Goldenrod (Solidago), is White Flat-top Goldenrod (Solidago ptarmicoides). It is native to central and eastern Canada, and portions of the US, including the Great Lakes area, the Northeast, the Ozarks, and the northern Great Plains, with solitary populations in Wyoming, Colorado, Oklahoma, and other scattered spots in the Southeast.

Who would have guessed that there are any white goldenrods?

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Common Rockcap Fern

September 17, 2025

A surprising fern that grows on large boulders and smaller rocks, ledges, decaying logs and tree roots, sometimes in a location that has no soil at all. Its roots aid in breaking down rocks to create soil.

This evergreen fern is Common Rockcap Fern (Polypodium virginianum), native to the eastern United States and Canada. Its fronds are 10 to 12 inches long. Along with its ability to live where there is no soil, it also can lose most of its water content during a dry spell by going dormant. Once the dried out plant gets rained upon, it will unfurl, and turn green again.

Quite the plant!

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