Another tree with, yes, red fruit. This is one of several hawthorns (
Crataegus spp.) located at the southwestern corner of Sunrise Valley Drive and Barton Hills Road, near the tennis courts. There are also two hawthorns on the west side of North Shore Drive just opposite its intersection with Charter Oak Court, right next to the bus shelter there (it is from there that I catch the 552 to work in the morning).
This image makes clear why the tree is called hawthorn - those thorns or spikes are quite sharp! Compare the
Virginia Tech fact sheet. Apparently there are a number of hawthorne species that are very difficult to distinguish; note that Virginia Tech only has a fact sheet on the genus as a whole.
Just off the sidewalk on the south side of Sunrise Valley Drive, west of its intersection with Cross School Road and just east of where the dirt path descends into the woods, is this beautiful wildflower with its conspicuous eight-rayed flower. The leaves are pinnately compound with serrated leaflets, so it is not a coreopsis. The closest match in
Newcomb's Wildflower Guide is tickseed sunflower (
Bidens coronata), but according to the Digital Atlas of Virginia Flora, that species does not occur in Fairfax County. Instead, it may be the very closely related Midwestern tickseed sunflower (
Bidens aristosa), which does occur widely in Virginia, including Fairfax County. Compare this
Connecticut description and this
Illinois writeup. The only potential discrepancy is that all sources state this
Bidens species prefers moist to wet habitats, while this location along Sunrise Valley Drive is on a rise and not particularly swampy - though there may be concentrated rain runoff from the sidewalk and a nearby garden at this particular spot.
