The Soldiers Delight Natural Environment Area - is located in Baltimore County, Maryland, USA. This environmentally sensitive area consists of 1900 acres (770 ha) of land, plus a visitor center, that is owned by the state of Maryland and managed by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. This tract of land consists of both serpentine barren and upland forest. Chromite was mined at Soldiers Delight NEA until 1860 by Isaac Tyson, and some of the old mine shafts are still present. Four marked trails transverse the area and are a favorite hiking place for both humans and dogs.
The most distinctive feature about Soldiers Delight NEA is the number of rare and endangered plants that occur on the serpentine barrens. (See: Wildflowers of Soldiers Delight) Some of these endangered species include the Sandplain Gerardia, Serpentine Aster, Flameflower and Fringed Gentian.
Lichenology began at the Soldiers Delight NEA in 1976, when Allen C. Skorepa, Arnold Norden, and Donald Windler were awarded a grant from the Power Plant Siting Program of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources to survey the lichens of Maryland. They surveyed the lichens from many areas throughout the state; one of which was Soldiers Delight. In 1977, they published their results and reported one location for each species of lichen that they identified. Thus, while they may have collected a particular species from numerous places they documented only one. So while they found numerous species of lichens at Soldiers Delight, only a few got recorded in their publication.
Dr. Elmer G. Worthley of Baltimore County also had an interest in lichens and collected throughout Maryland and New England, but the Soldiers Delight Area was one of his favorite places.
All of the lichens collected by Skorepa, Norden and Windler were deposited in the herbarium at Towson University, Baltimore, Maryland. And all of the lichens in Elmer Worthley's herbarium were sent to the Lichen Herbarium at the New York Botanical Garden in 200l.
The following list of lichen species found at Soldiers Delight is based upon:
(1) the 1977 publication by Skorepa, Norden and Windler
(2) the species of lichens from Soldiers Delight in Elmer Worthley's personal herbarium
(3) my (Ed Uebel) observations
Famous quotes containing the words lichens, soldiers and/or delight:
“so for your arrogance
and your ruthlessness
I am swept back
where dead lichens drip
dead cinders upon moss of ash....”
—Hilda Doolittle (1886–1961)
“... children do not take war seriously as war. War is soldiers and soldiers have not to be war but they have to be soldiers. Which is a nice thing.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
“Imagination, the supreme delight of the immortal and the immature, should be limited. In order to enjoy life, we should not enjoy it too much.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)