Recently, while visiting Forks of the Credit Provincial Park, I encountered a plant that I had never seen before.

I took a few, not very precise photos and hoped that I could identify it at home. No luck and even the iNaturalist App was unsure.

Bursting with curiosity, I undertook the two hour round trip journey and returned to the park this morning to have a closer look.

Using the Newcomb’s Wildflower Guide, you need three bits of information to settle on an identification.

• number of petals.

The flowers are numerous but tiny. This photo shows that there are 4.

• type of leaf

The leaf is so toothed that it is considered “divided”.

• alternate or opposite leaves

The leaves are alternate on the stem.

This leads to page 145 in Newcomb’s. The plant is Marsh Yellow Cress (Rorippa islandica).

Other botany:

Some birds:

NATURE POETRY

Black bees on the clover-heads drowsily clinging,
Where tall, feathered grasses and buttercups sway,
And all through the fields a white sprinkle of daisies,
Open-eyed at the setting of day.                                    – Abba Gould Woolson (1838–1921)

Miles Hearn