It’s a Coup!

Posted on 10/19/2019 by chick

My blog seems to have been taken over by flowers lately, but I’m OK with that. I want to be able to name all the plants that I see as I walk. These blog posts give me a reason to do the research on these flowers, a way to remember what they’re called, and a use for the pictures that I’ve taken of them. Plus, flowers are better than almost everything else going on in the world right now. They’re a pretty way to escape from the daily news.

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White and Wild

Posted on 10/19/2019 by chick

Let me introduce you to another local wildflower.

Here is a large mass of this Mystery Flower. It doesn’t look that attractive from a distance.
Closer up, it has these pretty, delicate flowers.
And these lovely whorled leaves.

Based on my research, I’m certain that this plant is from the bedstraw family, which also includes bluets and partridgeberry. I believe it is specifically Galium mollugo, commonly called wild madder or white bedstraw. Wild madder is native to Europe but seems to be pretty common in North America. I found it mentioned on websites for wildflowers in Virginia, Illinois, Ohio, and all of the New England states.

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61 Degrees

Posted on 10/18/2019 by chick

I went downstairs one morning this week, and it was chilly (only 61 degrees!). The temperature outside was in the 30s, which meant the prospects for warming up naturally weren’t that great, so I turned on the furnace. Yup, I caved. I did. Usually it’s my hubby, but this year it was me. We all have our limits, and I guess 61 degrees is mine.

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Jewel of the Woods

Posted on 10/17/2019 by chick
Orange Jewelweed
According to the U.S. Forest Service website, in addition to the eye-catching orange flowers that draw pollinators to them for fertilization, this plant also has smaller, unobtrusive flowers that fertilize themselves. Who knew?
Unlike so many of the flowers I’ve researched recently, jewelweed is a native North American plant. It loves moist ground, and it thrives near streams.
The two things I love best about jewelweed are watching bumblebees get in and out of the flowers and, after the flowers are gone, the exploding seedpods. It’s so much fun to pop the pods. The pods in this picture were so obviously ready to go. I didn’t pop them, though. What was I thinking? Popping them helps to plant more jewelweed for the future. My parents popped jewelweed pods when they were kids. So did I. And now, so do my kids. Jewelweed is a gift that keeps on giving, from year to year and from generation to generation.


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Burdock, Not Thistle

Posted on 10/16/2019 by chick
When I see this plant, I want to call it “thistle,” but I looked it up just to be certain, and I think it’s actually burdock. This makes sense, since I would refer to the prickly seedheads as “burs.” Thistle is a related plant (both are from the aster family), but it has prickles on it.
It’s amazing the things I don’t notice when I’m taking pictures, like the fact that this plant was covered in ants. What do you suppose the ants were up to?
This picture, taken in 2017 at a farm in New York, is how I think of this plant: in a wild, sunny field, a giant plant with scary-looking flower heads, but strangely pretty.

Interesting facts from the Wikipedia article on burdock:

  1. Burdock is native to Europe and Asia, not North America (I continue to be shocked by how many plants that grow here are not originally from here).
  2. Parts of it are supposedly edible and in some areas of East Asia it has its own culinary niche.
  3. In the UK, there’s a soft drink called “dandelion and burdock,” based on a traditional brew made from fermented dandelion and burdock roots.
  4. Burdock was the inspiration for the invention of Velcro.
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Summer Gold

Posted on 10/15/2019 by chick
Goldenrod is late summer’s yellow paint.
It’s unruly, and it keeps some bad company, such as ragweed, but it’s so cheerful that I forgive it everything.
Plus, insects love it.
All sorts of insects, and all types of goldenrod.
Love, love, love.
Goldenrod in clusters.
Goldenrod in lazy fronds.

Goldenrod standing tall and proud in the field.
Goldenrod in the woods by the stream.
Golden, until it’s gone to seed.
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Time for Trees

Posted on 10/13/2019 by chick

I took a walk in the woods late today. I didn’t bother to bring my camera. Not only was the light failing, but I didn’t want to pause to take pictures, because pausing gives mosquitoes a chance to bite. I don’t like mosquito bites at any time, but I like them even less when the EEE virus is a concern, as it is now (but not for much longer, because it’s been getting cold at night).

Anyway, walking nonstop gave me a chance to think about trees. I’ve been too busy identifying wildflowers to give the trees any love, and that’s not right. They deserve more attention. I should learn to identify them reliably, especially the ash, so that I can enjoy it while it lasts. The emerald ash borer is here, and nothing can be done to stop it. All of our ashes are going to die.

As I walked on the path, I looked for trees that might be ashes. My guess was that they were the trees with leaves shaped similarly to beeches and birches, but arranged differently on the branches. They don’t have the silvery-smooth bark of a beech or the horizontal marks that birch bark does. I found several such trees out there. Looking at my New England field guide now, my guess is black ash.

Browsing through the guide, the other trees and shrubs I believe I’ve seen here include red maple, sugar maple, Eastern white pine, sweet birch, American beech, Northern red oak, a whole lotta other oaks, some type of cedar, sassafras, shagbark hickory, blueberry, arrowwood, spicebush, multiflora rose, and sweet pepperbush. Now is a good time for taking pictures of foliage, and in some cases, fruit and nuts, so I will try to devote more time to that and to identifying our local trees.

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Local Plant Catalog

Posted on 10/13/2019 by chick

Here is my late-Summer/early-Autumn plant catalog so far.

Still left to be covered:

  • Winterberry
  • Clubmoss
  • Spicebush
  • Horse balm
  • Rose hips
  • False Solomon’s seal
  • Japanese barberry
  • Witch hazel
  • Sassafras (leaves)
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Happening Around Here

Posted on 10/12/2019 by chick

Earlier today I overheard my daughter telling her brother to do something like “a real man would do.” I wondered what she thought a “real man” was, but I was almost afraid to ask. Society pushes some harmful views, and sometimes it seems that the more harmful they are, the worse they stick. I did ask her, though, and she admitted that she didn’t really know, but then added, “He was just being annoying. A real man isn’t annoying, right?” Ha-ha! One day she will learn the truth: all men are annoying. 😉

We went rollerskating as a family last night. My kids, who had only been skating once before, began the evening as wall-huggers, but by the time we left, they were bravely skating along with everyone else. I hadn’t been rollerskating since I was a teen, or on any type of skates since before the kids were born. It all came back to me, though. I skated recklessly fast and barely avoided collisions several times, but it was so much fun. I also enjoyed trading war stories with my hubby. We talked about how hard it was to skate with the kids, how idiotically everyone else was skating, how much harder it was than rollerblading, and the toll it was taking on various muscles and joints.

It is October, and it’s starting to get cold. My husband and I have talked several times about turning on the heat, but like we do every year, we have been stubbornly trying to hold out as long as possible (“No heat ’til Trick-or-Treat”). We’ve been layering up to keep ourselves from shivering. Meanwhile, my son still insists on wearing shorts. It’s about 50 degrees outside, and I had to badger him to bring pants and a sweatshirt with him when he was packing to spend the night at his vovos’ house. Boys! They’re every bit as difficult as “real men.” 😉

The kids are staying at their vovos’ tonight so that my hubby and I can go out to celebrate our anniversary. We have been married 11 years. It’s pretty amazing that we made it this far. No one is more surprised than we are. 😉

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Continuing the Catalog: Part 2

Posted on 10/12/2019 by chick
Asiatic Dayflower

This plant grows in my backyard. I love its blue color, but the flowers always look a little odd to me, like sad little faces that don’t have chins.
Silver-Rod

Growing up, I thought goldenrod was just goldenrod. Now I know there are many kinds. Silver-rod, sometimes called “white goldenrod,” is one of them. Goldenrods belong to the aster family. In this picture, the silver-rod is growing near its cousin, blue asters.
Yellow Woodsorrel

Yellow woodsorrel is an old friend. It grew in my parents’ yard when I was a child. I remember chewing on the leaves occasionally, just to see if they really tasted lemony, as they are said to do. I don’t remember exactly what it tasted like, only that I was a little disappointed by the flavor.
Sweet Everlasting (or one of its cousins)

I first found this interesting flower a few years ago. It was growing alongside a path, as was the one in this picture (moss and lichens in the background). Sweet everlasting is another member of the aster family. Asters really are the thing this time of year.
Sweet everlasting has since started growing in my yard. Here is a picture of it after it has started to go to seed (hostas and house in the background).
Violet

Silly violet, this is not your time of year!
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