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Autumn
Creeping slowly. Beautiful warm colors. Trees preparing their shut down for winter. In just a few days it will become official. That calendar on the fridge will tell us so. Autumn will be here. As a tiny hint of what’s to come, this Virginia Creeper’s (Parthenocissus quinquefolia) compound leaf with each of its five leaflets…
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Obedient Plant
Obedient Plant (Physostegia virginiana). A lovely native to have in the garden. It’s native to North American in all states east of the Rockies but Florida, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. Obedient Plant can be found in the wild on river banks, wet ditches, prairies, swamps, and marshy areas. In moist sites it sometimes spreads aggressively. Sometimes…
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Monarch Migration Time
Such a delicate being. Monarch Butterfly (Danaus plexippus). A beautiful creature that lives a short life, two to six weeks unless it is fortunate enough to be the last generation of the year. Those of that lucky generation can live eight or nine months. They’re on their way. Escaping winter. They can’t survive a cold…
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Blackening Waxcap
On the way to a babbling stream. Among the browns and plentiful greens, a surprise color. Shiny orange with subtle yellow streaks. Blackening Waxcap (Hygrocybe conica). In the mountains outside Monterey, Highland County, Virginia.
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Blue Lettuce Revisited
Two dear friends within several months of each over have discovered what I think is this plant. The individual flowers look a good bit like Chicory, the rest of the plant? Oh what a difference. Blue Lettuce (Lactuca floridana). Blue Lettuce is an annual biennial herb growing from a taproot to a height of four to…
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Asia Dayflower
Asia Dayflower (Commelina communis). The wood’s edges now are dotted with flowers of azure. Two pure blue petals and an additional one, inconspicuous white. A native of Asia. Introduced in the U.S. as an ornamental. With a mind of its own, it has escaped cultivation. Depending on which source one reads it is either weedy…
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Honey Bees
I’ve been surprised to find Honey Bees up here on my mountain as I roam. Whether it is just around my cabin or as I traverse the trails. Honey Bees can travel five miles for food. Generally though a bee will travel about a mile from its hive. Surely there are no managed colonies within…
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Long-Bracted Tickseed Sunflower
All along the roadsides. Rich warm yellow greets the cars and trucks that pass. Long-bracted Tickseed Sunflower (Biden polylepis). It’s native to eastern and central United States and south-central Canada. The leaves of Long-Bracted Tickseed Sunflower are quite distinctive, with sharply toothed margin, opposite and pinnately compound. These flowers bloom from late summer to early fall. Attracting all sorts of…
