Noticing Natives and One Non-native

This week I was driving a local highway with the windows open in the car and was overcome with the sweet scent of flowers invading the car. Scanning the sides of the road revealed tall trees draped in white panicles of full flowers of black locust trees.

Black Locust Tree in Flower

Robinia pseudoacacia is the Latin name for this once a year proliferation of beauty and fragrance. Its bark is handsomely striped with interlacing furrows and rope-like ridges along its mature 50 to 70 feet tall trunk. Black locust is native to the central and southeastern United States, and not native to the northeast, but has happily made itself at home here. It spreads into colonies via underground roots and by seed, becoming naturalized in minimalized care areas. It is not a recommended tree to plant here due to its aggressive spread and its sharp spines. Black locust is considered an extremely aggressive spreader here and not recommended to plant in our area. It is listed on many states’ invasive plant lists, including Connecticut. I will slow down a little on the highway to take in the olfactory pleasure during this one week of the year it provides beauty while recognizing its negative attribute of invasiveness.

Another pleasant surprise was finding three native wildflowers while tending to grandchildren right in their own backyard. The flowers were going unnoticed next to the climbing gym and at the edge of the lawn in a wetter area of the yard. A teaching moment was offered to the children to look and love, but not pick the flowers, allowing them to completely their life cycle and find again next year.

The Pink Lady’s Slipper (Cypripedium acaule), is a wildflower of special concern as its numbers are dwindling due loss of habitat and deer finding them a tasty treat. It is not illegal to pick them, but highly discouraged as they take many years to grow to a mature plant from a seed. Pink Lady’s Slipper needs a certain species of Rhizoctonia fungus to break the seed coat before germination can happen. This same fungus is needed it the root zone for the plant to survive, making transplanting to a new spot unsuccessful. It is a look and enjoy and leave it where you found it situation.

The second native find was a Jack-in-the Pulpit flower shooting up above the poison ivy. We did not get a close look due to the hazard of reaching it. Jack in the Pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum) is so named as it resembles a person covered with a hood. The maroon and green stiped spathe is held up and over its dark colored spadix covered with tiny flowers, once pollinated will turn into bright red berries in the fall.

Canada Mayflower

The final find of the day was a patch of Canada Mayflowers (Maianthemum canadense). They are a low-growing native wildflower with a spike of dainty white flowers. It spreads via root rhizomes into large colonies on roadsides and at the edges moist forest floors. It has a pale, red fruit in the fall eaten by a few species of birds.

Back at home in my garden I found the peonies had opened just in time for the much needed rain, which always seems to be the case every year. I chose to cut some and enjoy these beauties inside before the weather trampled them.

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-Carol Quish

 

Outdoors in Late Spring

A striped Jack-in-the- pulpit just off a bike trail

“Nature gives to every time and season some beauties of its own.”

-Charles Dickens

As we move into late spring, especially after the rather gray, wet spring we have had so far, the sunny, warmer days of late bring a little excitement to both gardeners and hikers alike. Plants are starting to provide lush green backdrops for their flowers, while insects, animals and birds are increasing their activities. Gardens centers are providing bountiful selections for everyone, and there are new cultivars every year to provide interest in the landscape. As we move into a more outdoorsy mode of life, we can have encounter pleasant surprises wherever we may go in our travels.

For instance, at this time of year, female turtles of many species are commonly seen as they leave their normal adult habitat and go off searching for egg- laying sites. For the past two years, I have found two different spotted turtles in almost the exact same place, at almost the same date as they travel back from laying eggs. These are different turtles, though, as the spotting patterns are remarkably different.

Spotted turtle on the move- May 30 2018

A surprise discovery for me this year was when I noticed a number of tiny, barrel- shaped leaf rolls on a small oak sapling. Some insect had cut the lobes and then rolled them up tightly while still attached by the midrib. After some research, these structures were found to be called a nidus (Latin for nest) formed by the female leaf- rolling, or thief weevil Homoeolobus ssp. An egg is laid within the leaf before the third roll is made.

Work of the leaf-rolling weevil

Plenty of plant galls can be seen now, especially on oaks. One interesting gall is called the wool sower gall, which is formed on oaks by the larval feeding of the certain wasps. The gall resembles a toasted marshmallow, with white fibrous masses that at first have a yellow- seed like capsules though out the gall.  Each capsule contains a wasp larva.

Gall formed on an oak by the wool sower gall wasp

In the town where I live, there is an unusual tree growing in a woodland wetland area. I noticed it several years ago only because of the striking white flowers that stood out amidst all the green foliage of native trees and shrubs. It was identified by a tree expert as a Fraser magnolia which is native to the southern Appalachians. He thought it was probably brought here in the late 1800’s or early 1900’s by people who had a homestead on this site, who perhaps came from that area of the country.

Fraser Magnolia in the wild in Manchester, Ct.

Insects are more noticeable now as more species increase in both numbers and activity, including, unfortunately, the notorious lily leaf beetle. Check Asiatic day lilies for eggs and larvae now. And the giant silkworm moths are emerging from their cocoons now. I had the impressive eyed click beetle land near me the other day, and shortly after that encountered the first gray hairstreak butterfly of the year. Always a positive experience for me to see any butterfly- except maybe the cabbage white…?

eyed click beetle

Gray hairstreak spotted in late May

Deer are looking a bit scraggly as they lose their winter coats, and early June is the time that fawns are born. Raccoons also have their young this time of year, as well. Fox kits should already be accompanying  their parents of hunting forays.

Baby raccoons- maybe two weeks old

Lady slippers, wild geraniums, columbine, black cherry and other native plants are blooming now. And if that isn’t enough, you can always get some interesting flowers to enjoy at home. An unusual offering from the Tri-county Greenhouse in Mansfield Depot is the bat-faced heather. And a Thunbergia alata cultivar called “Tangerine slice’ is striking if you are looking for a good vining plant.

Wild columbine and Geranium maculatum by a roadside

Bat-faced heather

Tangerine slice Thunbergia– Pamm Cooper photo

You never know what things of interest you may see, whether in the great outdoors or a good garden center. Image the unexpected pleasure of seeing a couple of ducks who were enjoying being taken for a walk on an airline trail. That was the best surprise for me on that particular day in the great outdoors!

Crowley and Dean out for a walk

 

Pamm Cooper