This series of mystery caches is meant to teach you more about local flora and fauna, specifically the wildflowers of the Adirondacks. It is also meant to serve as a winter friendly geoart, as there are not a lot of winter friendly hides in the area. A little less than half of the caches (A-J) in this series will also allow you to make the TL geoart I am creating and introduce you to the James Frenette Sr recreational trail system. This dog friendly trail system is located next to the Tupper Lake Country club and golf course and has close to 4 miles of trails available mainly for cross country skiing, snowshoeing and fat biking during the winter but are also available for your exploration during the rest of the year as well. See the gallery for trail map and trail names.This series of caches is easiest to do in alphabetical order as this will take you on a big loop through 4 different trails (golf course loop, cranberry lake loop, little logger loop and the skidder trail. All caches are placed just off the trail system in either small or medium lock and lock containers (aside from 1, which is an old nut container). Minimal bushwhacking required.
THIS CACHE IS NOT AT THE PUBLISHED COORDINATES. To get the location of this cache you must figure out the common name of the wildflower below. Once you know the answer, enter it into the puzzle checker and the correct coordinates for the cache and potentially also a hint, shall be revealed. Hope you enjoy this series as well as learning a bit more about the local wildflowers!
Scientific Name: Symphyotrichum novi-belgii
Family: Asteraceae
Color: blue/violet
Flowers: July-September
Habitat: This plant is usually found growing in slightly brackish and tidal fresh marshes, occasionally borders of salt marshes and inland marshes, shrub marshes, shores and other moist areas. This plant requires well-drained soil and prefers sandy, loamy and clay soils.
This native wildflower is valuable to wildlife for many reasons: It serves as the host plant for the Pearl Crescent butterfly. It's flowers are attractive to bees and butterflies, so much so that it has been deemed to have special significance to native bees by the The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation. Songbirds and small mammals also eat the seeds.
This flower has served many uses to people throughout the years as well. It's roots have long been used in Traditional Chinese Medicine. Native American people harvested it for a multitude of uses. The roots of the plant were used in soups and young leaves were cooked lightly and used as greens. The Iroquois people combined this plant with bloodroot and other medicinal plants to make a laxative. The Ojibwa used an infusion of its root topically to aid with headaches.
symbolically this flower represents love, wisdom and faith.
The common name for this flower is ___ ____ _____?
To check your answer use the puzzle checker below:
