New Flowers Everywhere!

Late May, and the wildflowers are blooming just everywhere, coming on so fast I can hardly keep up with them.  Here's just a sampling of some of the more interesting ones I found and photographed this week.


In Congress Park:

Common Fleabane may be "just" a common weed, but it sure is pretty in pink, especially when backed by bright blue Ground Ivy.

 Several Horse Chestnut trees in the park are laden with large floral clusters.  I've heard that Ohio Buckeye grows there too, but I wouldn't know how to distinguish that tree from this one.

In the Skidmore Woods:

Orange-fruited Horse Gentian stalks are ringed with little red flowers that will later yield bright orange fruits the size of cherry tomatoes.

Some of the oak trees are ringed with Squaw Root, which is parasitic on the tree's roots.

Perfoliate Bellwort, named for the way the stem appears to pierce the leaves, is the last of our three native bellworts to bloom, after Sessile-leaved and Large-flowered.

Bog Meadow Nature Trail:

Water Avens may look like it's still in bud, but this is as open as its flowers will get. Look for this interesting flower in shady damp spots.

I found only two Nodding Trillium in bloom in an area where they used to abound.  I have heard that this trillium is disappearing from parts of its established range, but I hope that this is just an anomalous year for the patch at Bog Meadow.

Roadsides everywhere:

 Both Red-osier Dogwood and Sweet Viburnum (Nannyberry) are blooming with snowy clusters along the roads  this week, but the Nannyberry clusters can be told from a distance by their more rounded tops.  Up close, you can see that each floret has five petals, while dogwoods' florets have only four.

Golden Ragwort is usually found where the ground is damp and can often be seen in roadside ditches.

The same can be said for Ragged Robin.  Sometimes whole fields will be filled with their vivid pink.

SURPRISE!!!

 When I woke up this morning, I could see from my window that the beautiful Cecropia Moth was still there, in the bush outside my kitchen door.  So I went out to capture it, intending to return it to the river bank where I'd found its cocoon last winter.  I feared that it might not find a mate in my downtown Saratoga neighborhood.

I needn't have worried!

Turns out, I needn't have worried, either, about the adult moth finding food plants in my neighborhood, since Cecropia Moths don't even have mouth parts for feeding.  They emerge to mate and lay eggs and then die after about a week.  Their larvae, however, DO need to eat, mostly maple leaves, and we've plenty of those in downtown Saratoga.  In fact, there's a Box Elder tree, a species of maple, directly above this mating pair.  So maybe I'll have a chance to meet the subsequent generation right in my own backyard. The first instar of larvae are small and black, but later instars are huge and spectacularly colored.  I'll be on the lookout for them now.

A Day of Many Moths

I found this Cecropia Moth cocoon last December and brought it home to hang on my screened porch, exposed to weather and light conditions similar to where I found it.  I'd almost given up on it, it looked so dry and lifeless.  So imagine my surprise when I walked out on the porch this lovely sunny afternoon, and this was what I saw!  What a spectacular creature!

Afraid that my cats might capture and kill it if I left it on the porch, I carried it gently outside and placed it on a Mountain Azalea shrub to rest until it was ready to fly.   If it's still there tomorrow, I think I will return it to the place I found it along the river, where its chances of finding appropriate food and, most importantly, a mate, are probably better than in my inner-city neighborhood.

Wow!  Aren't they something, those furry red legs?!

Many other kinds of moths DO find my neighborhood quite to their liking.  This Bumblebee Moth was hunting for nectar among Ground Ivy flowers just a block from my home in Congress Park.  Yes, I know it's a blurry photo, but that moth was on the move!  There were great big Bumblebees searching the same flowers, and this moth's resemblance to them was really uncanny.

Then, close by, I spied this vivid black, white, and orange moth flitting among the Black Raspberry blossoms.  It, too, would not sit still for its portrait, but I did manage to capture an image of those furry orange tufts on its legs.  This is an Eight-spotted Forester.

Here's an older photo I took of this same species of moth, revealing its beautiful symmetry.  And just look at those orange leg-warmers and ermine epaulets!

A wonderful day for moths.  And for me, too.  My daughter Jane and her family surprised me tonight with a birthday party at Pennell's Restaurant here in Saratoga, where my son Phil is the chef.  Phil sent out wonderful dish after wonderful dish for us all to enjoy, followed by a delicious and beautiful cake that my daughter made.  I am such a lucky lady, to have such a loving family.

UPDATE:  I needn't have worried about a mate finding the female Cecropia Moth I put out on my Mountain Azalea bush.  He found her!

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.

Saratoga Waters, Beautiful Rain or Shine

A rainy Monday evening at Moreau Lake

A sunny Sunday afternoon on the Hudson River at Hadley/Luzerne

Woods Hollow's Four Habitats

Who would think there was anything alive in this sandy patch of dead oak leaves and brown grass at Woods Hollow Nature Preserve in Balston Spa?  But, believe it or not, this is just exactly the kind of severe habitat Wild Lupine loves, and sure enough, just a few steps further on, masses of this showy blue flower were coming into bloom.

I'm always struck by the diversity of habitats when I visit Woods Hollow, especially when I enter the preserve through the sand-pit area right off the parking lot on Northline Road.   This area may appear to be sterile, but it supports a marvelous sequence of plants throughout the growing season, starting with these spectacular lupines.

Then, just a short hike up a sandy bluff, the shady woods begins, and it's here that stands of pines and mixed hardwoods produce the more fertile, acidic soils that a whole other class of plants can thrive in, including Pipsissewa, Pyrola, Pinesap, and Checkered Rattlesnake Plantain.

 The most spectacular plant of this pine-woods habitat is the Pink Lady's Slipper, and hundreds of these lovely native orchids were budding in the woods today, including a few whose maturing flowers were starting to blush with pink.

Then there's the pond and its small feeder streams that create an entirely different habitat for plants that prefer the damp.  There were blueberry shrubs hanging over the water that had already dropped their flowers and were forming new fruits, and a patch of Sheep Laurel was showing the buds that will open into lovely pink flowers in just a few weeks.

I love to take a path that follows the edge of the pond around several bays.  Today, the path was edged with masses of magenta Fringed Polygala and also a whole firmament of bright-white Starflowers.

I often see Starflower plants with two or three flowers on them, but today I found one with four!

Making a circuit through the preserve, I return to my car past a wide-open sunny wet meadow, which provides yet another distinct habitat for those plants that need both sunlight and wetness.   Today, Yellow Rocket was adding its vivid color to the meadow, but as the summer progresses we'll find Milkweed, Boneset, and Slender Gerardia here, as well as the dreaded but lovely Purple Loosestrife.  Even later, masses of one of our native orchids, Nodding Ladies' Tresses, will fill a corner of this meadow.

Well, here was a little surprise!  A rather small Snapping Turtle was making its way across the path, so I stopped to say hello.  (When I say small, I mean about as big around as an 8-inch birthday cake.)

Oops!  I guess the turtle didn't want to be greeted today.   I promptly got out of its way and it trundled on.