HERB - Serpentine Barrens?

[Warren & Meredith Harmon]

Greetings, and sorry!

Totally forgot that the only serpentine barrens are in our section of the
U.S.  Sorry about that!  Shoulda thought first.

Serpentine is a mineral, with only a few chemical differences between it
and jade.  (A lot of the "jade" on the market is really serpentine, but
you can't tell without a spectrometer - but I digress.)  Serpentine
creates an *extremely* alkaline soil, and only a few specialized plants
grow in it.  As I alluded to, hardly any calcium is found in this soil,
so you can imagine what a change it is walking onto the barrens!  The
difference between growth zones can be cut with a knife.

So, as we were walking around this strange landscape, we came across one
tree (the rest was scrub only) - a dogwood tree.  How it had taken hold,
we'll never know!  But as the tree sucked up calcium (my teacher alluded
to the fact that the leaves can pull it right out of the air as dust blew
by, but I have no proof of this), it deposited it into the leaves.  When
the leaves fell in the autumn, it created a microenvironment right around
the trunk.  Some plants from the "normal" growth zone populated it, but
only those with shallow roots, since there was still serpentine under the
decomposed leaves.  *Weird!!!!*

We pulled some soil from the barrens, from the dogwood vicinity, and from
the "normal" zones and planted peas to see which grew best and how.  The
poor peas in the serpentine soil! - they were so spindly and thin!

The barrens that we visited were right around Philadelphia, and that
particular ridge dips into Maryland.  I want to re-visit, so I have to
dig out my geological maps and sniff around.  This time, I'll take
pictures!!  I'd like to re-create the experiment, but widen it to include
various herbs...some which like alkaline soil, etc etc.

If you have any more questions, feel free to ask!  (Road trip, anyone??)
-Caro


>Can you explain and further describe what you are referring to here?  
>It sounds fascinating, but I can't quite get your whole meaning.  What 
>are serpentine barrens, where are they, what happened where dogwood 
>leaves had fallen, etc, etc, etc.  
>(If Ras was here he would say "Recipe and documentation, please?")
>Christianna

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