What in the Woods Is That?

Play our biweekly guessing game!

Whatever draws us into the forest—be it birdwatching or logging, hiking or hunting—all of us are unified by the sense of wonder we feel in the outdoors. The forests, fields, and streams of our region are full of mystery, and if you stop and look closely, you’ll see all sorts of oddities.

Below find a picture of one such woodlands curio. Guess what it is and you’ll be eligible to win a Northern Woodlands woodpecker magnet designed by artist Liz Wahid. A prize winner will be drawn at random from all the correct entries. The correct answer, and the winner’s name, will appear when the next column is posted and in our newsletter (sign up here!).

Mystery in Maine

This plant was growing near the ocean on a tree farm in Addison, Maine. What is it?

Answer

It’s Vaccinium vitis-idaea, but we also accepted mountain cranberry, wild cranberry, redberry, partridgeberry, mountain bilberry, cougarberry, lowbush cranberry, bearberry, red whortleberry, beaverberry, quailberry, foxberry, and csejkaberry. This is a circumboreal plant, meaning it grows above a certain latitude all around the globe, so as you can see it’s picked up a lot of different names.

This week’s contest winner was Effie Elfer of Johnson, VT