Botanizing and Bug-watching and Other Pleasures

Whenever I lead a flower walk, I never have time to take good photos.  That was the case yesterday (Tuesday) when I led a group from the Environmental Clearing House of Schenectady on a hot and steamy hike around Woods Hollow Nature Preserve in Ballston Spa.  But perhaps it's best I didn't get a photo of the disappointed faces when we found the Wild Lupine and Pink Lady's Slippers long past their prime.  Those were exactly the two flowers we'd hoped to see when, sometime last winter, we set the date for this walk.  But how were we to know that almost every flower would bloom weeks early this spring?  At least we did get to see the lovely Sheep Laurel, a flower that normally doesn't bloom until well into June.

 Because the laurel was leaning way over the bank of a pond,  members of our group were not able to get close enough to look into the heart of the flowers and see their very interesting method of ensuring pollination.  So I violated my personal prohibition against picking any wildflowers and I scrambled down and plucked a single bloom to pass around, showing the group how the stamens were curved back to tuck the pollen-bearing anthers into little pits in the petals.  When a potential pollinator lands on the flower, those anthers pop out of their pits and bop the pollinator on the back.  After a while, the stamens curve back again and recock their springs in preparation for the next opportunity.  If you click on this photo, you may be able to see the single stamen that has already sprung on this central flower.



We were lucky to have scheduled our Woods Hollow walk early yesterday, before the heat became suffocating, as it did by late morning.  Then a huge thunderstorm came raging through the region in the afternoon, ripping branches and toppling trees, but also bringing cooler weather after it.  So it was perfectly delightful this morning (Wednesday) when my friend Sue and I visited the Warren County Bike Path to see what we could see.

One of the first things we saw was this very friendly Catbird, who followed after us for a while, flitting from shrub to shrub, as if it were as delighted to see us as we were to see it.

While I was leaning on a bridge over one of the little streams that run along the bike path, this black and white Bald-faced Hornet landed on the wooden railing and proceeded to chew away, gathering material for its big papery nest, paying not the slightest attention to me poking my camera at it.  Thankfully!

We had hardly started our walk along the bike path when we came to a patch of Blackberries in bloom, the white flowers throbbing with the traffic of many different flying creatures -- bees, flies, butterflies, and moths, all busily sipping nectar and gathering pollen.  One of those creatures was this little Skipper (species unknown to me), the only butterfly that sat still long enough to have its picture taken.

I felt very fortunate when this Beefly stopped to rest from its constant activity, so I could get a good look at its little furry body and long proboscis.

Here's that fly again, sipping nectar from the Blackberry blossom that also attracted a beautiful Eight-spotted Forester Moth.

Creeping carefully up on the moth, trying to get a clear shot, I got closer and closer until I nearly touched it, then, surprised that it did not fly away, I discovered its rather mangled appearance and saw that it was in the clutches of some other creature.

Aha!  What other culprit could it be but a Goldenrod Crab Spider, who adjusts its coloring to lurk undetected among the flowers?

Well, I suppose it could have been one these predaceous critters, too, although I'm not sure that Brown Crab Spiders can change their coloration the way the Goldenrod species can.

Searching the internet, I could not find a name for this crab spider, with its beautiful vivid coloration.

Speaking of vivid coloration, the Purple-flowered Raspberry was just opening its brilliant pink rose-like flowers.

The River Grape is about as far from vivid showiness as a flower can get, although its fragrance tops the chart for deliciousness.  As we walked along the trail, we would enter zones of perfume on the air that nearly made us swoon with pleasure.  Or maybe we were just hyperventilating from drawing such deep breaths to savor that fragrance.

But then we would enter zones of odor that nearly made us gag, and we knew that Carrion Flower must be blooming somewhere.  As the grape flower with its perfume, the Carrion Flower releases its stench from some of the most insignificant flowers imaginable, so it took some searching to find it.

Sue found the Carrion Flower cluster above, while I followed my nose (and a couple of carrion-seeking flies) under an overhanging shrub to discover this green globe of flowers that looked quite different from that white-tufted one.  Well, of course!  Those white-tufted ones are the staminate flowers and this green globe is made up of pistillate ones that will later turn into blue-black berries.  I had not known that this plant bore male and female flowers on separate  plants,  so I learned something new today.  (I also learned, in my google search about Carrion Flower's sex life, that the berries are quite edible and make a tasty jam.  Hard to believe that something edible could come from this stinking plant!)

We could have spent the rest of the day just sitting in a Blackberry patch watching the buzzing busyness going on in there, but Sue had to go to work, so after stopping for lunch, we parted ways.  On my way home I took a detour to Spier Falls Road in Moreau to walk the powerline clearcut in search of Frostweed and Wood Lilies.  The Frostweed had shed its petals for the day, and the lilies were nowhere to be found, not even a stem, but I did come across a puddle filled with these little bright-orange fingers.

Ooh, I remember finding these a couple of weeks ago on a hike to Round Pond with Evelyn Greene.  These are Swamp Beacons, a little fungus that likes to grow in puddles. A nice find to top off a wonderful day's adventures.

A Great Day for Flower Finds

We had a brief break in the rain this morning, a couple of hours that gave Sue and me just enough time to make the rounds of some wonderful flower sites in Warren County.  We started out in Queensbury where Sue lives,  and first thing, we pulled off the road to listen for Meadowlarks in a meadow near her home.  There, spread before our feet was a carpet of Bird's-eye Speedwell of the most marvelous blue.  I wish I could say the flowers were mirroring the blue of the sky above, but no, that sky was still low and gray and misting us with a very fine rain.  But not wet enough to stop us.

Our next destination was a roadway near Glen Lake where we count on finding a generous patch of Yellow Lady's Slippers every year about this time.  And sure enough, there they were, glowing like yellow lamps against a damp dark bank.

I already have so many photos of these beautiful orchids, why did I want to take more?  Well, I just can't help it, I can't get enough.  And today, the overcast sky provided a shadowless light that perfectly illuminated every feature of this gorgeous flower.

Next stop was the Warren County Bike Path where it runs north from Glen Lake.  Here, the path follows a sweet little babbling brook whose music perfectly complemented the sweet birdsong that surrounded us on all sides.   We heard Common Yellowthroat and Chestnut-sided Warblers and others that even Sue could not identify. (That's Interrupted Fern in the foreground, with its darker spore-bearing structures "interrupting" the leafy growth of its green fronds.)

A jungle of plant life pressed close on both sides of the bike trail, and all that lush green was made even more beautiful by its decoration of sparkling drops.  Here's Sensitive Fern.

And this is Field Horsetail.

We had come here specifically to look for Nodding Trillium, a flower that's becoming ever more scarce over its original range, but which seems to thrive in this location.  We did find a few, but it seemed there were fewer than we'd found in other years.  But it is a plant that likes to hide, and it's easy to pass them by without seeing them.  Especially that lovely flower, tucked away underneath the leaves.

You can't miss Glaucous Honeysuckle when it's in bloom, even if it is crowded around by invasive Tartarian Honeysuckle.

 The flower clusters are as brightly colorful as a handful of confetti: red buds that open into orange trumpets sprouting yellow anthers, all encased in a cup made of its terminal leaves.

On the other hand, the small greenish flowers of Mountain Maple would be very easy to miss if they weren't borne in clusters that are held straight up from their large-leaved boughs.

While peering closer at those maple flowers, I came nose to nose with this tiny spider and its delicate web.   I think it may be a Marbled Orb-weaver, and it was no more than half the size as it's pictured in my photograph.  Very cute, with its mottled abdomen and tiger-striped legs.

We sure didn't have to search to find the Early Azalea blazing away high up on a bank.  Even if we'd been blind to its vivid coloring, we could have located it by its sweet spicy scent alone, carried toward us today on the warm humid air.

Here's a closer look at those beautiful blooms.   If you click on this photo you might be able to see the glandular hairs on the flower tubes.  These hairs and the delicious fragrance they produce are keys to distinguish this native azalea from the equally beautiful, but fragrance-free, Pinxter Azalea.

We could have stayed on the bike path the rest of the morning, but Sue wanted to show me the Rose Twisted-stalk that she had found growing in Cole's Woods, in nearby Glens Falls.   Because of heavy lumbering and extensive trail-widening occurring in Cole's Woods this spring, Sue was concerned that this unusual flower might be exterminated from this location, but we were happy to find it growing abundantly and, so far, undisturbed.  It would certainly be easy to overlook this flower, since it can't be seen by looking down from above (although you can see its zig-zagging "twisted" stalk).

  Update:  I have since learned from noted botanist Ruth Schottman that the "twisted" in this flower's name refers not to the leaf stalk but rather to the flowers stalks, a feature that is obvious when observing the live plant but is difficult to see in my photo below.

But if you lift up the leaf -- or lie down on the ground to peer underneath -- then you can see the pretty little speckled pink bells that dangle down from the stalk.  So dainty!

In contrast, Clintonia, also known as Corn Lily,  holds its yellow lily-like blooms well above its glossy-green basal leaves.

Here's another flower that's easy to miss if you're not looking for it:  Indian Cucumber Root, with a little flower as green as its leaves.

The colorful parts of Indian Cucumber Root flowers are the deep-red, oddly-elongated pistils and the apricot-colored anthers protruding downward.  But you do have to peer pretty closely in order to find them.

And then there was Wild Lupine!  Here's a flower that's about as showy as a flower can be, and we found lots of it growing in an open sandy area.  This is a favorite of bees and butterflies, and Sue is trying to get a shot of one of them here.
 

Be sure to check Sue's blog Water Lily to see what beautiful photographs she produced from our wonderful day of flower hunting.  It may take a while before she posts today's photos, but she has lots of other entries to enjoy in the meantime.

Flower Hunt Yields Hidden Treasure

We actually had a few hours today with no rain! My friend Sue and I made the most of this brief dry spell to go flower hunting along the Warren County Bike Path near Glen Lake. Sue, who lives nearby in Queensbury, had been checking the swelling buds on these Yellow Lady's Slippers all week, and today we found them in glorious full bloom. And lots of them. What a treat! Here's a perfect pair, just waiting for that Lady to Slip on her feet.

We even found twin flowers on a single stalk -- VERY unusual!

The bike trail near Glen Lake is a real hot spot for Nodding Trillium, a flower that is disappearing from parts of its range, according to the New York Flora Association, which last year put out a call to search for them. Well, we found lots of them. And as this photo demonstrates, they aren't that easy to find, with their flowers hiding under their leaves, and the whole plant hiding under other vegetation.

It's worth the effort to get down on the ground and peer up at the hidden flower, with its lavender stamens and curlicue styles.

Those two were the rarest flowers we found today, but we also encountered many other plants to delight us, even though they may have been as common as this grape vine, whose flower buds mimic the shape and color of the fruit yet to come.

When Staghorn Sumac first sprouts new leaves from its red-velvet stalks, it conveys an aspect of some exotic plant, seeming as out of place in this northern swamp as a tropical palm would be.

Striped Maple today was dangling its strings of dainty green flowers that swayed with the slightest breeze.

Such a pretty array of tiny mushrooms sprouted along a moss-covered log.

On my way home, I stopped off at Orra Phelps Nature Preserve in Wilton to look for Star Chickweed. One of our few native chickweeds and a rather uncommon one, this little white flower was sparsely blooming amid its masses of foliage along a high ridge. As with all chickweeds, each of its five petals is so deeply cleft, it seems to have ten petals, not five.