Plant oddity

Dear friends, I have so many posts cooking in my brain right now that it's really not funny. A floral oddity caught my attention yesterday, though, and it begs immediate sharing with you, my curious readers.

There is a large population of Wingstem (Actinomeris alterniflora) plants in the woods across the road from my house. They won't be in bloom for another couple of months, but they are easily identified by their stem which looks to be, well, winged - thus the common name. I'll show you the stem shortly. But first you have to look at the leaves!

What the heck? An albino plant? Is that even possible? Apparently it is, but I had no idea - until now.

Yup, it's pretty much just white...

... except where it's green. Note the white ridges along the sides of the stem. Those are the "wings" that give the plant its common name. Normally, of course, those wings would be green, along with the rest of the plant. I am perplexed about the fact that the central portion of the stem is still green. All of the green leaves in the background belong to other, non-albino, Wingstems.

Not only is the center of the stem still green, but parts of some of the leaves are, too. This was the largest patch of green that I found on this plant. Most bizarre.

Aside from the fact that the lack of chlorophyll will likely hinder much more growth from this plant (no chlorophyll means no nutrients for the plant), it seems that the plant is potentially structurally weak, as well. The leaves are paper-thin, with an almost transparent quality, and if you look carefully, you can see my fingers right through the leaf.

I love it when nature throws me curve balls like this. Always keeping me on my toes, and making me ask questions. I'll keep an eye on this one - I'll be interested to see if it makes it to the flowering stage. I predict that it won't, though. Never a dull moment out there!

Asters aplenty

These days I'm enjoying all of the asters that are blooming in the woodlands, meadows, fields and roadside ditches. They seem to be everywhere. The aster family (also known as the composite family) is a large one, and contains many flowers that we may not immediately identify as asters, such as Dandelions, Chicory, Ironweed, Joe Pye Weed, and yarrow to name a few, as well as various coneflowers, sunflowers and daisies (the family is also called the daisy or sunflower family). But come fall, I think many of us could look at a plant and correctly conclude "That's an aster."

As to what species in particular, I can only readily identify the showiest of them all, the New England Aster, shown here:




In the same field I found this specimen...

... and this one that is similar, but obviously not the same.


In our woods we have lots of these, which I believe to be White Wood Aster.

It seems to change color from white and yellow to pink and purple with age.
If anyone out there knows of a good guide to asters, I'd love to hear about it!

Marvelous mallow

I've got such a backlog of photos to share, it's shameful. One flower that I finally got photos of this year was a lovely, large, showy hibiscus-looking flower that grows out in the middle of one of the fields on our road. It grows down in a low spot that tends to have its feet wet, so to speak, when we go through spells of rainy weather. It stands out not only because it's so gorgeous, but because it's pretty much the only flower of its kind in that immediate area.


I am still trying to determine if this is Common Rose-Mallow or Halberd-leaf Rose-Mallow. One way to differentiate between the two is to look at the leaf shape, but both types could have 3-lobed leaves. I didn't get great shots of the leaves, but they are definitely 3-lobed. I need to go back and see if the leaves are hairy or not - if they are hairless, then the ID is most likely the Halberd-leaf species (at least according to my handy-dandy National Wildlife Federation Field Guide to Wildflowers of North America).


A not-so-great shot of the mallow leaves and blossoms
The seed pod can also aid in identification, but both rose-mallows have "many-seeded capsules," so that doesn't really narrow it down.


These dried out seed pods are from last year's flowers, mixed right in with the new flowers from this year. I guess I could snag a few and try planting them somewhere else closer to home.
They both prefer similar habitat (wet, marshy areas), so again, no help there. For now I will be content to simply admire how beautiful they are, but my learning antennae will be up to find the key to lead me to a positive ID.



Nice pollen. I have to wonder what evolutionary purpose these large petals, which can catch pollen, might serve? Is it to be a "landing pad" of sorts for the insects that are meant to pollinate it?

Does the stamen of this flower look like an elephant's trunk to anyone else?
P.S. A big thanks goes out to Dave, who mowed a path with the tractor so that I could get to these flowers. They are amidst very tall grass and dicey terrain, wherein I worried that I might encounter snakes or other surprise animals hiding out. I wasn't too crazy about the possibility of bushwhacking my way to said flowers, so my man helped me out. He's pretty nice like that. ;)

Colors of summer - a memoir

I've been obsessed with color lately. The fact that paint colors need to be determined for the rooms in the guestudio could have something to do with that. I think I made my final decisions tonight, though. To celebrate, here's a sampling of some colors I captured during our vacation to northern Michigan in early July. Nature's palette can't be beat.

Getting a grip on plants

Want to get a grip on wildflower identification?  All it takes is an expert in the field, like David Brandenburg, to help you along a little.

First you start in the "classroom" with the basics of flower anatomy as explained via overhead projector.

Then you get some expertly-collected samples of plants from various families to go with your handouts.

Next you make some comparisons of live examples to what you find in the field guide.  Yup, that's a match!

Finally, the instructor lets you determine the direction of the field work by encouraging you to point out what you notice and asking you to make your best guess about what it might be, all the while offering background info and random expertise about everything you might stumble upon.

Here are just a few examples of the wildflowers that we encountered during our 2-hour field excursion at Killdeer Plains...

Sullivant's Milkweed, a rarity for this part of the state. This is pretty much the eastern-most part of its range.


The bee is pretty happy with the Sullivant's. This milkweed is distinguished from its common cousin by the red/pink midrib in the leaves (see bottom right of photo on left); photo on right shows the Sullivant's going to fruit.


Wild Parsnip, member of the Carrot family


Flower of the Hour, in the Mallow family (you may have guessed from the characteristic shape that this is in the genus Hibiscus)


Even though this is an introduced (i.e. non-native) species, I think it is quite striking.


Swamp Milkweed, one of the more dainty of the native milkweeds in Ohio


Another rarity for the state, this is an Umbrella Sedge. See why this is such a cool place to visit? Two rare plants in one restored prairie, and I'm sure there were others that we didn't see.


Virginia Mountain Mint. The leaves are strongly flavored.


Gayfeather/Prairie Blazing Star/Liatrus (in the Aster family). The "Blazing Star" part is a misnomer, as there is an actual Blazing Star family, of which this plant is not a member.


American Germander (mint family) - also called Wood Sage.


Meadow Rue (Waxy-Leaf? my notes don't specify)
Hedge parsley, a correction I received from a wise botanist

I still have a few more shots from Killdeer left to share. There are some more pressing things that might come first, but I'll try to get them up soon.

Blooming whites

White seems to be a dominant color of wildflowers in this part of the state at any time of the year when flowers are in bloom. There's Trilium, Dutchman's Breeches and Squirrel Corn early on in the season, and Mayapples, too. Clover, Queen Anne's Lace, Foam Flower and Black Cohosh start popping up in late spring. Right now the Oxeye Daisies are in full flower, lining roadways and filling fields with their bright white petals and sunny yellow faces. This year was also a stellar year for the blooming of Penstemon Digitalis, aka Foxglove Beardtongue. I don't recall it being so vigorous and ubiquitous in years past. Most examples that I have seen near the homestead are done blooming now, but I certainly enjoyed them for the several weeks that they were so showy.



Foxglove Beardtongue, Penstemon Digitalis


I love the little hairs on these flowers for some reason...


The rain drops really show off the presence of those hairs in this photo.
As I mentioned above, the Oxeyes are really showy right now, and are readily found in many locations near our property. I took some fanciful shots of them last weekend, one of my first days on a photo safari in weeks. It was a soothing exercise.



This dainty clover caught my eye, too. Something about it's pink coloring stood out as being very girly and appealing to me.


For a more artistic and impressionistic treatment of the daisies, please see Impressions of a Daisy on my photo blog.