Category Archives: Plants & Fungi

plants & fungi

Toadshade

Phenology, Plants & Fungi

This flower never cares if it rains or snows because it never opens.

Toadshade or Sessile trillium (Trillium sessile) has a stalkless flower of three, small, dark red petals that always remain in the closed position.

Sesslie trillium is usually found in clumps because the plants sprout from rhizomes.  Its true leaves are papery coverings on the rhizomes.  What we call “leaves” are actually three bracts.  Sometimes they are mottled with dark spots as in the photo at this link.

Those in the know say Sessile trillium smells foul to attract its fly and beetle pollinators.

I have never approached close enough to smell it, but I wonder…  Do toads wait in the shade beneath sessile trillium to nab an unsuspecting fly?  Is that why it’s called toadshade?

(photo by Dianne Machesney)

Cream Violet

Phenology, Plants & Fungi

Here’s a beautiful flower you can find in the wild.  It goes by many names — Pale Violet, Cream Violet or Striped Cream Violet — but it has only one scientific name:  Viola striata.

Dianne Machesney found it blooming at Buck Run last weekend.

 

If you live in Pennsylvania go look for it early today.  The weather will soon become awful.   I heard the word “snow” for tomorrow!   🙁

(photo by Dianne Machesney)

 

p.s. Fill your bird feeders!  The birds will need extra energy to wait out the storm.

Carpet of Flowers

Plants & Fungi


When Blue-eyed Mary (Collinsia verna) is at its peak the forest is carpeted in snowy blue.

The tops of the flowers are white, the lower lips blue.  Up close they’re pretty, too.

These photos were taken last year at Braddock’s Trail Park in Irwin, Pennsylvania.   Tomorrow you can go see them with the Wissahickon Nature Club.  Judy Stark is leading an outing there on Thursday April 19 at 10:00am.  See the details below.

I wish I didn’t have to be at work…  🙁

 

April 19 – Thursday – 10:00am – Braddock’s Trail, Irwin , PA.
Judy Stark – Cell: 412-327-9537

Directions from Pittsburgh :  Take 376E to Exit 78A to US 30E/Ardmore Blvd. toward
Forest Hills , go 11.0 miles.  Pass Norwin Town Centre.  At the next stoplight, take a
sharp Rt. on Robbins Station Rd.  Follow it carefully for about 3 miles (it makes several
right and left turns) until it dead ends in the park.

The Blue-eyed Mary’s are spectacular here, as well as other Spring flowers.  Bring a
bag lunch and a chair or blanket.  There are 2 picnic tables and a porta-john.
The road through the park should be wheelchair accessible under a yellow gate.

(photos by Judy Stark, April 2011)

Now Blooming: Wild Blue Phlox

Plants & Fungi

Last weekend Dianne and Bob Machesney visited Buck Run in Washington County and saw 36 species of flowers and 13 butterflies.

One of the prettiest flowers was this Wild Blue Phlox.  I found it blooming at Raccoon Creek Wildflower Reserve in Beaver County last weekend, too.

I had feared that March’s summer weather would give us an April without flowers, but two weeks of cold weather slowed things down a bit. The flowers are lingering after all.

Good!

 

(photo by Dianne Machesney)

New Leaves

Phenology, Plants & Fungi, Trees

Over the weekend I hiked in both Greene and Allegheny Counties where I concluded there are more leaves on the trees near Pittsburgh than in the rural areas south of us.

I suspect that’s because Allegheny County is more densely populated, has more pavement and heated buildings, and thus is slightly warmer.

Sugar maple leaves in Greene County were still in the bud on Saturday but I found these newly unfurled leaves at Barking Slopes on Sunday.  They’re four weeks ahead of schedule.

I love how red and wrinkled they look.

It won’t be long before they’re green.

(photo by Kate St. John)

Now Blooming: Squawroot

Plants & Fungi, Schenley Park

Squawroot (Conopholis americana) is a plant in the Broomrape family that produces no chlorophyll and has no leaves.  Instead it’s parasitic on the roots of trees, especially oaks.

The only time I notice squawroot is when it blooms in the spring.

I found these flowers on Monday in Schenley Park.

 

p.s. The green leaves on the left are an invasive plant unrelated to squawroot.  Anyone know its name?  (See the comments for the plant’s identity.  It is not invasive.)

(photo by Kate St. John)

A Little Late, A Lot Early

Migration, Phenology, Plants & Fungi

Pennsylvania birders were treated to a surge of ducks last weekend when Friday night’s storm forced migrants to stop in our state to wait for better weather.  The migration fallout was especially large on Saturday.

A day late, I went to Moraine State Park hoping to see a few stragglers.  There weren’t as many ducks on Sunday but I found a nice variety:  ruddy ducks, buffleheads, horned grebes and five long-tailed ducks.

My own notes indicate that long-tailed ducks usually come through our area about a week earlier, approximately March 25.  This group was a little late, but I was too, so our paths crossed.

Meanwhile, the plants and insects are still early even though our weather has moderated.

A week ago, on March 25, I found this large-flowered bellwort blooming at Barking Slopes.  It usually blooms around April 25 so it was one month ahead of schedule.

A little late.  A lot early.

What will happen next?

(photo of long-tailed ducks by Steve Gosser, photo of large-flowered bellwort by Kate St. John)

 

Blooming Early: Trailing Arbutus

Phenology, Plants & Fungi

Trailing arbutus (Epigaea repens) is a rare evergreen plant that usually blooms in April in our area.  This year it’s blooming early, just like everything else.

Both of the plant’s first names — trailing and epigaea — refer to its woody, hairy stems that trail on the earth in a dense mat.  The leaves are oval and leathery, smooth on top and hairy below.

The plant is unremarkable until it blooms.  The flowers are tubular, 5-lobed, pink or white, and usually in clusters at the branch tips.  They’re quite fragrant with a spicy smell.

I’ve seen trailing arbutus on Arbutus Trail at Bear Run Nature Reserve.  Dianne Machesney photographed them last week at North Park.

(photo by Dianne Machesney)

Juxtaposition: Too Early Spring

Phenology, Plants & Fungi
Bloodroot, Barking Slopes, 25 March 2012 (photo by Kate St. John)

26 March 2012

Yesterday I hiked at Barking Slopes to see what was blooming after 11 days of June-like weather.

So many flowers had opened that the ground was carpeted with them. Squirrel Corn (Dicentra canadensis), Dutchman’s Breeches (Dicentra cucullaria), Spring Beauties (Claytonia virginica) and Cut-leaved Toothwort (Cardamine concatenata) were all at their peak.

So were Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis, above) that normally blooms in late March and Large-flowered Trillium (Trillium grandiflorum, below) that normally blooms in late April.

It was an odd juxtaposition of two flowers that never bloom at the same time.

Large-flowered Trillium in bloom, Barking Slopes, 25 March 2012 (photo by Kate St. John)

Tonight we’ll have a killing frost. The March flowers may be able to cope but I doubt the April flowers will survive.

(photos by Kate St. John)