At the near edge of Asnebumskit Pond, just after the access
road ends in a gate as the land berms upward toward the man-made dam, is a
large section of Phragmites grass. This grouping is along approximately 50 feet
of shoreline, with the reed stems situated just inside the shore.
They are easy to spot approaching the pond from the road, as
grass heads reach nearly 15 feet into the air all swaying together like summer
corn stalks caught in a breeze. The heads are sere brown, having dropped their
prodigious seed last fall, yet resilient in lasting until the new cycle.
It’s no mistake that the grass has successfully taken here,
since the prevailing winds blow the wave action to this berm shoreline, where
aberrant seeds can more easily colonize in abundance of sunshine and water.
The pond is an expanse of the purest white from the big snows
of two days ago, and the Phragmites are cast in a sharp relief of brown on
white with intermittent blue sky peeking through the heads as they sway back
and forth. Come spring, when seed and shoot go to new plant and the emergent
grasses begin to grow anew, the Phragmites gets lost amid the explosion of
greens and yellows that populate this pond.
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