Take in the wonderful fragrance of the flowering Black Locust trees adjacent to the footbridge entrance. The air is redolent with the scent of orange blossoms and honey, along with the Rosa rugosa blooming nearby.
The stand at Good Harbor Beach has been increasing in size and I don’t ever recall the scent quite as potent as it is this year. You can smell the flowers halfway down Nautilus Road!
Black Locust are native to the Appalachian Mountains. The leaves are a host to over 67 species of Lepidoptera, including Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Mourning Cloak, Red-spotted Purple, Viceroy, Giant Leopard Moth, and the Elm Sphinx Moth. A host plant is a caterpillar food plant. And they offer nectar to pollinators, including Ruby-throated Hummingbirds.
Introduced for use as rot-resistant fence posts. I often think of how man has altered the landscape and the ecology of Cape Ann. Joe Garland wrote about how an ancestor of mine, High Rowe, probably altered Good Harbor Beach by cutting the trees that once forested the beach area, allowing for a hurricane to create the creek that used to be on the other, Brier Neck and Witham Street side of the beach.