Category Archives: Plants & Fungi

plants & fungi

Wild Columbine

Plants & Fungi


The big splash of spring wildflowers is over but there are some treats out there if you know where to look.

Last weekend Dianne Machesney visited the Butler-Freeport Trail and found wild columbine blooming.  It’s also blooming at the Magee Marsh boardwalk in northwestern Ohio, the first time I’ve ever seen it there.

The hot weather in March put the plants ahead of schedule in Ohio just as they are here. Maybe I’ve finally seen what Magee Marsh vegetation looks like just after the warblers — and birders — are gone.

(photo by Dianne Machesney)

April Apples?

Phenology, Plants & Fungi, Schenley Park


Mayapples (Podophyllum peltatum) got their name because they bloom in May.

Last Wednesday, April 25, I found the first ones blooming in Schenley Park.  This feels very early but my records on Mayapple blooming times are sparse and unreliable.   🙁

The ones in Schenley may be three weeks ahead of schedule.

Perhaps they should be called April-apples this year.

(flower closeup by Dianne Machesney)

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)