Yellow jewelweed flower and seed pod (photo from Wikimedia)

26 August 2026

It’s seed-popping time in Schenley Park. On Friday my friend Andrea and I found a large stand of yellow jewelweed (Impatiens pallida) along the Upper Trail with seed pods in pop-ready condition.

The outer skin of ripe, swollen seed pods is spring loaded so that a mere touch is enough to make the casings curl and fling the seeds.

One of my favorite activities is to gently touch a seed pod from below, testing to see how light a touch will pop the seeds into my cupped hand. I try this experiment on just a few seed pods and leave the rest for Nature or for my own a later visit.

Popped! Yellow jewelweed seeds and opened seed pods, Schenley Park, 21 August 2026 (photo by Kate St. John)

Last Friday’s pops were extra special because deer had eradicated this activity from Schenley Park for 10 years. Since 2016 the deer population had been so high that they ate all the easy-to-reach jewelweed.

Yellow jewelweed eaten by deer, Schenley Park, 20 July 2016 (photo by Kate St. John)

By 2024 there were no more stands of jewelweed near the trails and the few plants I could find were in impossible-to-reach locations. This lone flower was protected by thorny wineberry stems in August 2023.

Yellow jewelweed protected by wineberry thorns, Schenley Park, 18 August 2023 (photo by Kate St. John)

Thanks to the City of Pittsburgh’s Deer Management Program, which began in Schenley Park in fall 2024, the number of deer in Schenley has fallen enough this year that jewelweed is once again abundant along the trails.

This is visual evidence that hunting pressure makes a difference but it doesn’t mean the city deer population is low. Far from it! Enough deer have left Schenley in the run-up to hunting season that jewelweed can grow in August. However more deer are in adjacent neighborhoods (City Deer at the Highrise). Fortunately the Deer Management Program adjusts the plan every year based on deer statistics.

Meanwhile the jewelweed thrives. I think I’ll go pop some seeds.