A funny thing happens in the fall sometimes. The occasional spring or early summer-blooming wildflower will throw out a last bloom - like this goldthread and bunchberry:
Meanwhile, the very last fall blooms were still hanging in there - wrinkle-leaved goldenrod and an aster. These are both groups I've paid little attention to and are almost certainly under-represented in my survey. Next year!
They can be hard to tell apart - the trick is to look at their branches end-on. As you might expect from the name, flat-branched tree-clubmoss (left) has its leaves/needles more flattened in cross-section, while prickly is more rotationally symmetrical (right):
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Note: this post was written long after the fact on Feb 26, 2023, but I've backdated it to October 30, 2022 which was the day of the visit so as to preserve the flow of the blog posts.