Amaranth in an unusual spot at Phipps Conservatory, 30 Oct 2021 (photo by Kate St. John)
Colorful leaves at Schenley Park, 30 Oct 2021 (photo by Kate St. John)
On 4 November the leaves glowed yellow as the sun gained altitude at Frick. When the sun melted the frost, leaves quickly loosened and dropped from the trees.
Sun through golden trees on a frosty morning at Frick Park, 4 Nov 2021 (photo by Kate St. John)
On Saturday morning at Yellow Creek State Park the frost was beautiful, ephemeral and cold. Hoarfrost decorated the weeds in the parking lot.
Hoarfrost on a grassy weed, Yellow Creek State Park, 6 Nov 2021, 9:39am (photo by Kate St. John) Hoarfrost at Yellow Creek State Park, 6 Nov 2021, 9:39am (photo by Kate St. John)
Frost remained in a tree’s shadow but not for long.
Frost in the shadow, Yellow Creek State Park, 6 Nov 2021, 9:49am (photo by Kate St. John)
Last week I re-learned how to dress for winter. This week will be warm with highs in the 60s, lows in the 40s, temperature inversions and bad air in Pittsburgh.
Roger Day captured these views of the Mon Valley yesterday morning, 7 November, from Frick Park’s Riverview overlook. The Allegheny County Health Department has issued an air pollution warning and the state DEP has issued a Code Orange warning. Read more here.
Edgar Thompson Works in Braddock pouring smoke, seen through smog at Frick Park, morning of 7 Nov 2021 (photo by Roger Day) Inversion: Edgar Thompson Works in the distance, Frick Park, morning of 7 Nov 2021 (photo by Roger Day) Inversion: Kennywood seen through smog from Frick Park, morning of 7 Nov 2021 (photo by Roger Day)
Barrel cactus with fruit, Reach 11 Recreation Area, Phoenix AZ, 24 Oct 2021 (photo by Kate St. John)
1 November 2021
Most intriguing on my daily walks last week in Phoenix were the barrel-shaped yellow fruits atop fishhook barrel cactus (Ferocactus wislizeni). I missed the flowering (click here to see) but the fruits may persist for more than a year after the flowers fade into dried brown tufts on top of the fruits.
A closer look shows a few seeds remaining where each fruit broke off.
Seeds underneath barrel cactus fruit, Reach 11 Recreation Area, Phoenix AZ, 24 Oct 2021 (photo by Kate St. John)
There were no fruits on the ground near this specimen at Reach 11 Recreation Area, probably because the park has so many javelinas. I saw the footprints of these peccaries (not pigs) but didn’t see any of the animals. Here’s what one looks like in a photo from Wikimedia Commons.
Javelinas and squirrels eat the lemony-flavored fruits and some websites say we can eat them too, but sparingly. The fruit is mucilaginous like okra. The cactus contains oxalic acid, a poison that causes nausea and diarrhea in low doses and death in high doses …
… which might explain the other evidence left behind by the javelinas. Were the javelinas sick to their stomachs?
“That meal was great,” said the javelinas, “but I feel a little whuugh.”
Some things are naturally black and orange like Halloween, often because they are poisonous. This is especially true for milkweed bugs (above) and monarch butterflies (below). The colors say “Notice me and stay away.”
Monarch butterfly on swamp milkweed, July 2014 (photo by Steve Gosser)
Red admiral butterflies are orange-red and dark brown, almost black. Their host plant is nettle. Are they poisonous?
Red admiral, Germany (photo from Wikimedia Commons)
Jack-o-lantern mushrooms in Schenley Park, 25 Sep 2021 (photo by Kate St. John)
Pumpkins are native to Central America while goats are native to southwest Asia and eastern Europe. Here the domesticated versions meet up. The goats win.
American snout butterfly on desert broom, Box Bar Recreation Area, Arizona, 23 Oct 2021 (photo by Kate St. John)
30 October 2021
While visiting Arizona I noticed that one plant in particular attracted lots of butterflies. The plant above was covered in snouts (Libytheana carinenta) though only one shows up in my photo.
Eventually I learned that the plant is desert broom (Baccharis sarothroides), a dioecious shrub with very different male and female flowers (male on left, female on right below). The male flowers get all the attention from butterflies.
Male and female flowers on desert broom, Box Bar Recreation Area, Tonto National Forest, 23 Oct 2021 (photo by Kate St. John)
It’s hard to imagine how the female flowers become pollinated when nothing seems to visit them.
Next month after the flowers are fertilized the seeds will be ready to disperse. I’m sorry I’ll miss the period when the brooms look fluffy.
Turtleheads at Westinghouse Memorial, Schenley Park, 4 Oct 2021 (photo by Kate St. John)
9 October 2021
White turtleheads (Chelone glabra) are widely distributed in eastern North America while pink ones (Chelone lyoni) have a narrow range in the Blue Ridge Mountains. These showy flowers were planted at the Westinghouse Memorial in Schenley Park.
Arrow-leaved tearthumb (Persicaria sagittata) has very tiny white flowers enclosed in a pink bud. I used to think the flowers were pink until I examined this one.
Arrow-head leaved tearthumb, Moraine State Park, 6 Oct 2021 (photo by Kate St. John)
Purple passionflower (Passiflora incarnata) is so fancy that it must be tropical, right? Actually, it’s native to the southern U.S. This vine was blooming on 3 October on Phipps Conservatory’s garden fence. Wow!
Passion flower blooming along the fence at Phipps Conservatory, Schenley Park, 3 Oct 2021 (photo by Kate St. John)
Did you know these asters close at night? I didn’t until I saw them opening in after dawn on Friday.
Asters opening when morning light reaches them, Schenley Park, 8 October 2021 (photo by Kate St. John)
And here’s a curiosity that looks like a pinecone, but it’s not. Willow pinecone galls are made by the willow to protect itself from an insect. Inside each gall is the larva of a midge whose mother laid eggs at the tip of the branch. The larva will overwinter here and emerge as an adult in the spring … unless a bird hammers the gall and eats the insect.
Willow pinecone galls, Moraine State Park, 6 Oct 2021 (photo by Kate St. John)
Tiny purple and white flowers are blooming this month on stems that stand a foot tall in the woods. Unless you know where to look for them, though, you’ll probably never see them. These brown plants match the ground.
Beechdrops (Epifagus virginiana) have no chlorophyll because they are parasitic on the roots of beech trees (Fagus grandifolia). To find the flowers, I find a beech tree(*) then put my head close to the ground and look sideways near the roots.
Beechdrops (Epifagus virginiana) bloom from July to December, producing self-pollinating flowers at the base of the plant and cross-pollinating flowers at the top, though some of the top flowers are sterile.
The top flowers are pollinated by the winter ant (Prenolepis imparis) that aestivates underground when its hot and only comes out in cold weather. I imagine that’s why the July-blooming flowers are self-pollinating.
Beechdrops are so dependent on the American beech that their seeds don’t germinate until they detect a chemical signal from the tree.
Beech is really in their name. The genus Epifagus is Greek for epi = On + fagus = Beech.
Literally, on the beech.
p.s. (*)Find a beech tree: American beeches have very smooth pale bark. See this blog post for tips on how to identify them: Winter Trees: American Beech.
(photos from Wikimedia Commons and Flickr Creative Commons license; click on the captions to see the originals)
Oriental lady’s thumb is an Asiatic smartweed, Schenley Park, 10 Sep 2021 (photo by Kate St. John)
13 September 2021
Today’s article began with a question asked three times: What is that weed? I couldn’t remember the name even though I knew each was in the knotweed family (Polygonaceae) and that a similar native species was named for Pennsylvania.
On the first question I took a picture in Schenley Park, above. On the second question, Claire Bauerle took a picture at Duff Park, below. My plant and Claire’s plant are both alien but not the same species.
Lady’s thumb (photo by Claire Bauerle)
Claire’s plant shows its name on its leaves, a shadowy thumbprint in the center of the leaf.
Lady’s thumb (Persicaria maculosa) is a Eurasian smartweed that first appeared in the Great Lakes region in 1843, has spread across the continent, and is sometimes invasive. The dark thumbprint is a simple way to identify the plant.
My plant is similar but lacks the thumbprint. Not the same species but my photo is not detailed enough for a complete identification. My guess is Oriental lady’s thumb (Persicaria longiseta) a common weed in Asian rice paddies introduced to North America near Philadelphia in 1910 and now found across eastern North America.
The third question was answered on Sunday’s Botanical Society walk on the South Side where we found the smartweed named for Pennsylvania.
Pinkweed or Pennsylvania smartweed (Persicaria pensylvanica) now grows in waste places around the world. Gangly-looking compared to the lady’s thumbs, it has longer stalks, thinner leaves, and fatter, shorter, paler flower heads.
Pinkweed or Pennsylvania smartweed mixed in with other weeds, 12 Sep 2021 (photo by Kate St. John)
Here’s a single stalk.
Pinkweed or Pennsylvania smartweed, 12 Sep 2021 (photo by Kate St. John)
It has no flower bristles like those found on Oriental lady’s thumb P. maculata.
Flower heads of pinkweed (photo by Kate St. John)
All three smartweeds have stems that connect to the stalks at knot-like ochreas. Two of them, P. longiseta and P. pensylvanicum have bristly ochreas, shown below.
Bristly ochrea on pinkweed, P. pensylvanicum (photo by Kate St. John)
Identifying smartweeds is much trickier than I’ve described so I may have misidentified the first two plants.
If I was smart I’d know what to look for and take better pictures to key them out.
(photo taken at Moraine State Park 2 Sep 2021, by Kate St. John)
3 September 2021
Seven of us retired ladies went birding yesterday morning at Moraine State Park. After a flurry of warblers we found this pink fleshy thing on the ground, the size an index finger.
As we tried to identify it someone suggested a fungus called devil’s fingers. Linda uploaded a photo to iNaturalist and the answer came back right away: the devil’s dipstick.
Umm, yah. “Small devil.” We dissolved in laughter.
After we’d wiped the laughing tears from our eyes we googled for more.
Mutinus elegans, a member of the Phallaceae family, is also known as elegant stinkhorn or headless stinkhorn.
As the egg-shaped fruiting body matures it ruptures and the spongy spore-bearing stalk emerges; fully grown, it may be from 0.4 to 5.9 inches long and 0.6 to 0.8 inches thick. The stalk is hollow and strongly wrinkled overall; its shape is cylindrical below, but it gradually tapers to a narrow apex with a small opening at the tip.
The one we found was an old specimen. When new, the stalk stands up and the upper third is coated with a stinky greenish-brown spore-containing slime that attracts flies to bear away the spores. Here’s a newer specimen, photographed in Florida.
