Where are they? It’s mid-July and I have heard only one cicada – just one – on July 10th. By now they should have been “singing” for more than a week in western Pennsylvania, but they’re noticeably absent.
The crickets are silent too. What’s going on?
Is this an unusually “bug-less” year or is this absence only happening in my neighborhood?
Let me know if you’ve noticed it too.
(photo of cicada on swamp thistle by Chuck Tague)
Here’s a plant worth going out of your way for: Button Bush or Cephalanthus occidentalis.
Button Bush is shrub that grows in sunny, wet places. It prefers to have its feet in or near water, so it’s found in swamps, along ponds and in wet stream beds.
The flower ball is fascinating up close. To me, it looks like a TV satellite but is actually many small flowers, each with a tall pistil that stands out far from the ball. When you take a close look you’ll notice another nice thing about the plant. The flowers are very fragrant.
If you decide to look for Button Bush, check near ponds and rivers. I found it pre-bloom next to the Youghiogeny River at Ohiopyle. Dianne Machesney found this one at Independence Marsh in Beaver County.
(photo by Dianne Machesney)
Here’s another butterfly pleaser in the milkweed family: Asclepias incarnata or Swamp Milkweed.
I found it blooming last week at Raccoon Creek State Park’s Wetland Trail – which is no surprise. This flower’s favored habitat is wet ditches, wet meadows and shorelines.
Swamp Milkweed flowers have a pretty two-tone effect. The top is white and the lower petals are rosy purple. They’re especially beautiful when Great Spangled Fritillaires are sipping their nectar.
(photo by Marcy Cunkelman)
This stunning flower is not only beautiful, it’s big. Lilium superbum (“superb lily”) is well named, standing 3-7 feet tall with a flower 3-4 inches wide and many flowers per plant. Unlike the non-native Tiger Lilies you see blooming by the road, the leaves of this plant are whorled around the stem and the petals curl back in the Turk’s cap shape that gives it its name. This picture shows two flowers, one behind the other.
Turk’s Cap Lilies are not common so when you find one you remember it. The first one I ever saw was blooming along the banks of the Youghiogeny River at Ohiopyle, July 1994. I’d love to see one this year.
(photo by Dianne Machesney)
It’s a red flower with a Bad Hair Day. It’s a favorite in gardens, it’s a favorite with hummingbirds and it blooms in July.
It’s Monarda didyma, otherwise known as Bee Balm.
Native Americans used it as an antiseptic and made it into tea, hence its other name: Oswego tea.
See the shape of the nectar tubes? Chuck Tague says they fit a hummingbird’s face like a glove.
Click the photo above for a more distant look, so you can identify them from afar.
(Cover photo by Chuck Tague. Click-through photo by Dianne Machesney.)
If you’ve never been to Pennsylvania’s mountains in early July, here’s a surprise for you. The Rhododendron is in bloom.
Rhododendron maximum comes from a large family of flowering plants that includes azaleas. There are over 1,000 species and 28,000 cultivars. In early May our cultivated azaleas and rhododendrons bloomed. Now it’s time for the natives to get into the act.
There’s an added bonus when you’re surrounded by beautiful, blooming rhododendrons in the Laurel Highlands. You’re likely to see a bird that loves to nest among them — the black-throated blue warbler.
(photo by Chuck Tague)
If you’ve never looked at milkweed up close, this is the month to do it.
All across western Pennsylvania a wide variety of milkweed is blooming and with it come the insects who depend it, most notably monarch butterflies.
What else can you expect to see this month? Here are some highlights for July.
(close-up of Common Milkweed by Marcy Cunkelman)
I almost missed my chance this month to show you the most beautiful flower I’ve ever found in the woods. The last time I saw one was in late May of 2006. They bloom in June as well.
This is Pink Lady’s Slipper, a member of the orchid family that’s so rare it’s listed as endangered in some states. That’s because it grows very slowly, deer love to eat it and people dig it up for their gardens. Sadly, transplanting kills this plant because it won’t grow without a special woodland fungus in the soil around it. If left alone these plants can live for 20 years.
Pink Lady’s Slipper is my secret plant. Even where not endangered, I don’t tell the world its location because I’m afraid someone will steal it. It’s a treasure in the woods.
(photo by Dianne Machesney)
“This flower has your name on it,” said Chuck Tague when he sent me this picture of Common St. John’s wort, Hypericum perforatum.
St. John’s wort was imported from Europe where it got its name because it blooms in June and was traditionally harvested on St. John’s Day, June 24, to adorn homes and ward off evil. It’s also an herbal treatment for depression and has been planted nearly worldwide.
Unfortunately St. John’s wort has gone wild and is often considered a noxious weed. It’s called Klamath weed out west and is known to poison livestock, making them photosensitive and causing restlessness, skin irritation and – ironically – depression before it kills them. Too much is bad for people too. Don’t go out in the sun if you consume a lot of it!
I’ve never seen an overabundance of St. John’s wort so I think of it as a pretty plant that shares my name.
I even like the play on words it affords me. I have a box of St. John’s wort herbal tea in my office labelled “St. John’s Good Mood.” 😉
(photo by Chuck Tague)
Moth Mullein, Verbascum blattaria, is blooming now in waste places and along roadsides in western Pennsylvania.
Though non-native this biennial doesn’t tend to invade natural areas because it prefers disturbed soil. Its five-petaled white or pale yellow flowers grow on a tall showy spike 2-4 feet high that blooms from bottom to top. When blooming it’s hard to miss.
This month I’ve seen moth mullein in my neighborhood, in Schenley Park and along roadsides. A big crop must have seeded two years ago.
(photo by Dianne Machesney)