Who’s Blooming Today? April 15, 2011
Posted by Jennifer Schlick in reptiles, spring, wildflowers.4 comments
Squeezed in a quick walk yesterday afternoon.
I’m sure I missed plenty, but here are a few things I did see:
Spring Beauty
Hepatica
Toothwort Buds
Broadleaf Sedge
Leatherwood
Round-leaved Violet
Then there was this little cutie, with colors so bright he (or she?) must have just shed:
Garter Snake
Can you see just the tiniest tips of the tongue?
Hepatica Hunt April 9, 2011
Posted by Jennifer Schlick in hiking, spring.5 comments
Beautiful weather today. So, I went to look for spring wildflowers… other than Skunk Cabbage and Colt’s Foot. But, I didn’t find any. Sigh.
Here’s what I did find, though!
Watercress
Shelf Function
Moss
Leeks
A Different Moss
Hepatica!!! (but no flowers… yet.)
Vernal Pool Pilgrimage April 5, 2011
Posted by Jennifer Schlick in amphibians, spring.5 comments
Morning Staff Meeting. Live Animal Report. “Everybody’s fine.”
“But hey, speaking of live animals, do you think tonight might be the night?”
“Could be. Rain. Temps near sixty.”
“It’s supposed to get cold again, though. And snow.”
Later in the day, we check the hour by hour forecast. Temperatures aren’t supposed to drop until 11pm or midnight. I send an email to the Spontaneous Naturalist list, post a notice on Facebook, and call Wanda. “Tonight’s the night. Dig out your rain gear and your strongest flashlight. I’ll pick you up at 7:30.”
Wanda - dressed for the weather, flashlight ready!
We arrive just as the light is fading. Peepers are singing. Rain is steady, but not unpleasant. We walk out the maintenance road, along the big field, into the woods and find two friends on a bench, clad in rain gear, also waiting for the migration.
We chat a bit, then head for the pond.
We pick our way around the edge, shining flashlights into the water.
All our old friends are here, all anticipating spring, as are we.
Wood Frog
Leopard Frog
Spotted Salamanders
Snapping Turtle
There is also evidence that the reason for coming the pond has already started, if you know what I mean…
Wood Frog and Jefferson/Blue Spotted Salamander Eggs
Jefferson/Blue-spotted Eggs
Spotted Salamander w/ Spermatophores
The amphibians were not as plentiful as I have sometimes seen them, bit it was relatively early when we headed home. We did not hear Wood Frogs singing on the way to the pond, but on the way back to the car, we did. So perhaps it got “busier” at the pool after we left.
I love to visit the vernal pools in spring. It has become a tradition.
Dave’s Been at it Again January 17, 2011
Posted by Jennifer Schlick in blogs, photography, spring, wildflowers.3 comments
Check out Dave Bonta’s latest poems. Notice at the bottom of this one – Red Trillium, he has added navigation – so you can click back to Spring Beauties and forward to Painted Trillium.
http://www.vianegativa.us/2011/01/red-trillium/
I’m just so excited about this collaboration that I’m going back to my photos to see if I have more! (Poor Dave… I’ll work his poetry-writing brain cells to exhaustion!)
So Excited January 15, 2011
Posted by Jennifer Schlick in blogs, photography, spring, wildflowers.5 comments
Sometimes, all you have to do is ask.
I had this vision of a book – hand made by my friend Deb Eck -
containing my photos of wildflowers
punctuated with poems by poet Dave Bonta.
Prim pink pinstripes
beckon from the wet soil
beside the creek. But like
most beauties, they’re choosy
about their suitors,
unmoved except by just
the right bee visiting
in just the right order:
one day they hokey-
poke their stamens out;
the next, it’s the anther’s turn.
Petals close even for a cloud.
And when flowering’s done,
they do their best
to pass for grass.
Who wouldn’t be wary
with such a large
& edible heart?
And so it begins!…
Deb’s blog: http://dryadart.wordpress.com/
Dave’s blog: http://www.vianegativa.us/2011/01/spring-beauties/
Happy Earth Day April 22, 2010
Posted by Jennifer Schlick in spring, wildflowers.4 comments
Early Meadow-rue
Thalictrum dioicum
I loved this flower even before I found out it is dioecious.
(I love that word!)
It means the male and female flowers appear on different plants.
Staminate Flowers (male)
Pistillate Flowers (female)
It would be really easy to walk right past this small, inconspicuous member of the buttercup family. But try not to! It’s a lovely little flower that deserves your attention.
The eFloras website listed below claims that Native Americans made various concoctions from the roots to treat heart palpitations and other conditions. Henrietta’s herbal page reports otherwise… Whether it has medical properties or not, it’s a cool plant. Look for it in moist woods. And don’t forget:
Love your Mother (Earth)!
Happy Earth Day.
Learn more:
Motivation April 12, 2010
Posted by Jennifer Schlick in spring, wildflowers.14 comments
It took me a while to motivate myself to get off the couch and into the woods to see what might be blooming yesterday. My sore throat had gotten worse, and the nose was running, eyes tearing, etc… Thankfully, the sunny skies, lack of wind, and eager dog got the better of me and off I went.
Trout Lily (Erythronium americanum)
Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis)
White Trillium (Trillium grandiflora)
Cut-leaved Toothwort (Dentaria laciniata)
Dutchman’s Breeches (Dicentra cucullaria)
Red Trillium (Trillium erectum)
Blue Cohosh (Caulophyllum thalictroides)
Sharp-lobed Hepatica (Hepatica acutiloba)
I love spring wildflowers… They make me forget I have a cold…
Still Waiting April 9, 2010
Posted by Jennifer Schlick in amphibians, insects, spring.14 comments
It had been so warm for so many days. Finally, rain. But when the rain came, the temperatures dropped… into the 40s… too cold, according to the experts, for the Spotted Salamanders to migrate to the pools. I knew there was little hope of finding them, but I ventured out anyway with camera, flashlights, cell phone, and the list of people who are as anxious as me to see them.
The sound of the peepers ws deafening as I passed the ponds along the old farm road.
When I got to the pond, I heard plenty of Wood Frogs… but they stopped singing when I shone my flashlight into the water. I searched and searched for salamanders, but saw nothing. Just the eggs that the Jefferson’s had left a week or more ago… and a few Wood Frog eggs. The frogs stopped singing when I turned on my flashlight.
After searching, I decided to turn off the flashlight and get quiet so the Wood Frogs would sing some more. I planned to get out my camera and capture their songs, as I had the Spring Peepers. But they wouldn’t sing.
Then I heard a rustling in the leaves near the path. I thought there was an animal visitor… perhaps a deer, or a raccoon. A strange noise came from that direction – like the noise people make when they are “talking to” red squirrels… I decided to get my cameral out so I could try to capture this strange sound…
Then it turned into giggling and a flashlight went on. Pat and Denny! Together we searched the pond and finally saw a few Spotted Salamanders… probably males that made it to the pond a while back… Denny captured one so I could photograph it.
Not much activity in the pond on this cold night. On the way back, though, we saw plenty of Glowworms:
Hard to believe this critter will turn into a Firefly, isn’t it?
Eastern Leatherwood April 4, 2010
Posted by Jennifer Schlick in spring, wildflowers.3 comments
You would think that eventually your walk over familiar paths would offer up nothing but the familiar… but such is not the case… there is always something new for observant eyes. For me, yesterday, it was a shrub.
I followed the trail I have walked hundreds and hundreds of times looking for spring wildflowers in the places I know they will eventually appear. I wasn’t finding much… Leaves… but nothing blooming… I decided to walk as far as the little dribble of a creek that has a sunny, protected bank where flowers often bloom earlier than in the rest of the woods… There might be Spring Beauties, or maybe even some violets?…
No such luck (at first)… But there was a wonderful moss-covered log creating a bridge of sorts over the creek!
While I was taking several dozen pictures of the moss, something caught my eye a little further upstream… A shrub covered with yellow-green blossoms… rather fragrant yellow-green blossoms!
I surfed around, read what few books I have laying around at home and learned these things:
- The bark is very tough and was reportedly used by Native Americans for a variety of things, including the weaving of baskets.
- The berries are narcotic. (another source says “toxic”)
- Deer won’t eat it – according to one source… and another source says both deer and moose eat it…
I think I want some of these at Audubon in our Native Woodland Wildflower garden… Wouldn’t that be cool?
After photographing the Leatherwood for quite some time, I turned to head back up the path and noticed the bank of the creek was covered with Spring Beauties. I swear they weren’t there when I first arrived. They must have bloomed while I was otherwise occupied, right?
Learn More:
- Dave’s Garden
- USDA Plant Database (has a picture of the fruit, too)
- University of Connecticut Horticulture Page
- Kurt Schulz – Southern University of Illinois Edwardsville
