This milkweed is a tall native plant which is usually found in swamps, near rivers, and wet meadows throughout most of the United States (It is not native to the western states). It reaches 3 to 5 feet and is now producing clusters of small, pinkish flowers. These flowers are an important food source for […]
Archive for July, 2011
Asclepias incarnata (swamp milkweed)
Posted in Flora, Plant bio on July 12, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Asclepias syriaca (common milkweed)
Posted in Edible, Flora, Interesting, Plant bio on July 12, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
It’s nice to see these milkweeds popping up everywhere, alongside roads and in meadows. The plants don’t require much tending – they prefer dry well-drained soils and full sun, and will do fine in poor soils as well. Common milkweed is quite drought tolerant. The plant can be grown from seed, and will readily self-seed. […]
Do you know who I am? Some kinda wintergreen, perhaps?
Posted in Flora, Interesting, Plant bio on July 11, 2011 | 1 Comment »
Myco-heterotrophy, the relationship described in an earlier post about the indian pipe plant, is not so uncommon, and can be found in several different groups of plants. The monotropes, the liverwort Cryptothallus, and non-photosynthetic orchids are full-time myco-heterotrophs. Some plants are partial myco-heterotrophic, and others can switch back and forth, or are myco-heterotrophic at one […]
Rudbeckia hirta (blackeyed susan)
Posted in Flora, Interesting, Plant bio on July 11, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
This plant is spectacular when it is doing well. I’ve had mixed results. None of the plants survived from last summer. True – they can be annual or biennal plants, but in some cases or situations they are perennial. I think the drought did them in last year. This year, I had some good strong […]
Monotropa uniflora (indian pipe)
Posted in Flora, Interesting, Plant bio on July 10, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
This is one of the more interesting plants on Cape Cod – it has no chlorophyll, and therefore no green leaves, so it cannot obtain energy from sunlight. Instead, it gets nutrients as follows: In the leaves of a nearby tree, or photosynthesizing plant, carbon dioxide is turned into sucrose, which is transported to the […]
Are you a member yet? Join the club mosses
Posted in Flora, Interesting, Plant bio on July 10, 2011 | 3 Comments »
So what are club mosses anyway? They are flowerless and seedless plants in the family Lycopodiaceae, that belong to a very ancient group of plants. they were the dominant plants during the Coal age (360-286 million years ago) and many were shrubs or large trees. We are very likely consuming these plants in the form […]
Beauty of the beast
Posted in Fauna, Interesting on July 8, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
The beauty of this hairy caterpillar is quite astounding. Unfortunately, in this case beauty belies the true nature of this animal. This is a gypsy moth caterpillar, and these pests have been ravaging the white oaks in my yard for many years now. Eventually they may become just too much for the trees. Huge areas […]
Meet the original potato beetle
Posted in Fauna, Interesting on July 8, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
The three lined potato beetle (Lema trilineata) has been pushed out of the limelight by the colorado potato beetle, wich moved eastward from the Rockies in the 1850s. The larvae of these species do quite the job on cultivated potato, tomato and eggplant foliage. I grow none of those in my garden, and none of […]
from the invasives dossier: Verbascum thapsus (common mullein)
Posted in Flora, Interesting, Invasive, Plant bio on July 7, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
The leaves of this European plant are a grayish-green color with soft, velvety hairs. Common mullein is a biennial. In its first year, it grows leaves in a basal rosette It sends up a flower stalk and produces seeds in the second year. Most of the flowering mullein plants I’ve seen have been a respectable 3 to […]
From the non-native dossier: Achillea millefolium (yarrow)
Posted in Edible, Flora, Interesting, Invasive, Plant bio on July 7, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
There is some disagreement on whether this plant is native or not. Achillea millefolium is a plant omnipresent in Europe and Asia, and most think that it was introduced in North America in early colonial times. Others seem to think that there is a native species, although it is indistinguishable from the Eurasian plant. I’ll consider […]