Waiting for Trout Lilies

I've been really enjoying everyone's wildflower images. In northern Delaware County, things aren't quite as far along as they are in Ohio's great southern counties- I'll just have to wait a little bit longer.

Tom

Tricky Trillium

This is just too good not to share. I found it on the Ohio Governor's Residence and Heritage Garden site. Those trilliums really are tricky!

Tom

Dicentra cucullaria

Here you can see how the older, lower flowers on the Dutchman's breeches go to fruit more quickly than the upper flowers.  Watch how the "pants" wither away, revealing the ovary containing developing seeds.

Today I'm participating in the "Today's Flowers" meme, for more flower images, go here. 

For those of you from around the world that aren't familiar with this plant, it grows in rich woodlands mostly in the eastern North America, although there are disjunct populations in Oregon, Washington State, and Idaho. This flower blooms in the spring time before the trees towering above it get their new leaves.

Tom

The Floral Wonders of Lou Campbell State Nature Preserve

Although not intentionally planned, I have visited two of Ohio's most interesting botanical regions the last two Fridays of botanizing. Last week, it was the Adams County area, full of dolomite prairies and other cool things, and yesterday, I was in the Oak Openings at Lou Campbell State Nature Preserve, recently opened to the public. The commonality between the two areas? Butterfly milkweed, Asclepias tuberosa, was in full bloom during both my visits. Here in the Oak Openings, it just wasn't covered with great spangled fritillaries.


Wow, isn't that a great view? The fountainous big bluestem intermixed with the orange of the butterfly weed would make a gardener jealous. I'm always impressed by nature's arrangement of the landscape- we can only attempt to replicate this arrangement with hard work and dedication, but in natural systems, it just happens all by itself, with a little help from us via prescribed burns.

Speaking of grass like plants, during this trip, I found what our friend Jim McCormac has termed a "mega-rarity". An endangered sedge species, that until Wednesday, was only known from the most extreme northwest county in Ohio. Tim Walters discovered it somewhere in the Oak Openings on Wednesday. Ryan Schroeder and I found it on Friday at Lou Campbell preserve, just two days later. I'll detail the find in a future post, look for it soon.

But now, some of the showy early summer flowering plants from Lou Campbell State Nature Preserve.

White colic root, Aletris farinosa

Flowering spurge, Euphorbia corollata

Lythrum alatum, winged loosestrife, our NATIVE loosestrife that is also purple.

Virginia mountain mint, Pycnanthemum virginianum

Kalm's St. John's wort, Hypericum kalmianum

Swamp rose, Rosa palustris

and finally, a Pucoon, a Lithospermum species.

Even though we're entering summer, Ohio still has very interesting wildflower species in bloom. We're "in-between" the typical heights of the season- spring wildflowers and summer prairies, but Lou Campbell Preserve has plenty to offer. If you're in the northwest Ohio area, be sure to visit and check out the trail that Ryan and his staff have built. Wet prairies, oak forest, lupine savanna- it's all there. Just remember to bring your mosquito gear- if you aren't careful, they'll carry you away.

Tom

Today's Flowers- the Lily-Leaved Twayblade

I've had the opportunity to view and photograph this subtly colored, amazingly intricate orchid twice this year. It is native to the eastern deciduous forests. Isn't it quite stunning?

This is my contribution to this week's Today's Flowers meme.

Painted Trilliums and Pink Lady Slippers

Welcome to Maine. If you've been following my twitter updates over on the right, you'll know a little bit of what we've been up to. Yesterday, mostly, I searched for painted trilliums. I spent a few hours going through the various habitats and completely struck out. It wasn't until we loaded Weston into the stroller, covered it with a bug net, and rolled him down the back driveway, that I finally found my quarry. Only three flowering plants, but isn't this species stunning? Their range just barely nips extreme northeast Ohio. I've looked for them several times up in that region, but have struck out each time. Today, finally, I saw and photographed this beautiful trillium for the first time.


Although the bugs were crazy, and I had to wear a head net the whole time, photographing the sunset at Little Pond is always one of my favorite things to do here. Last night's show did not disappoint.



And Pink Lady Slippers too? Yes, I surely wasn't expecting to find this species in full bloom, surely not at the same time as painted trillium, but here in Maine, the phenology seems to be compressed compared to our long springs in Ohio. I just happened to notice two beautiful slippers in the dim light as I was heading back up to the house, and captured this image with flash. More today hopefully with natural light.

So much to see here, so much to photograph.

Tom

Endangered Species Day- Lakeside Daisy

Have you seen Ohio's rarest wildflower? The Lakeside Daisy, Tetraneuris herbacea, a federally threatened species that we have right here in Ohio, has occupied quite a bit of my time lately. I'm part of a team that is censusing this rare wildflowers population in abandoned and active quarries in Marblehead, Ohio. I'll be heading up north early tomorrow morning once again. It is quite a plant, and if you can make it to Lakeside Daisy State Nature Preserve this weekend, it should still be blooming.

For more about endangered species day, visit the National Wildlife Federation.

Around the Office with the Point and Shoot

It has been one of those weeks. I'm still sick, unfortunately. Megan is pumping me with meds, but I've definitely got a virus that has been really hard to shake. Its tough because I'm pretty much worthless around the house- she has to do more work with Weston. I'm typically full of energy, but this week, not so much.

My coworker says he thinks I have tuberculosis. You've got to know him, some of you do, but I just think that is hilarious. He is completley kidding. Well, as you can imagine, I've been taking it easy, but that didn't stop me from capturing a late sky watch image Friday evening which I posted at TA Photography.

As for here, I took fifteen minutes yesterday with my point and shoot camera, a nice little Panasonic number (more specifically, the LZ-8) I picked up from Big Lots for 100 bucks. It pays to always have a camera ready. And even if its a point and shoot- don't forget about composition. Make everything in the frame count, always, before you hit that shutter every time. Does that little branch really need to be in the frame? Can I use a different focal length? Can I get closer? Analyze your scene critically before you hit the button, and if you do that you'll always get better images. It doesn't matter if your camera is a Canon 5d Mark II or a Kodak disposable film thing you picked up because you forgot your camera battery.

Mosquito on Crab Apple

Red Maple Samaras

Eat your heart out Redbuds...I drool over this plant. These things are all over calcareous Ohio, not so much in the acidic N.E. part of the state where I grew up.

Ant on a sandbar willow flower.

The recently cut stump of an ash tree, spared from death by the EAB, but not spared from death.

Umm, Ok, wait a minute here...how did my head pop in that picture? Wasn't I just ranting about good composition? :)


And there you have it....Ok, I'll admit, sometimes it is fun to just point the camera at see what you get. For the last image of the Virginia bluebells, that is just what I did. I actually had the camera laying on the ground, pointing straight up, and I think this is a fairly neat perspective. It shows how we've integrated native plants around our office buildings. And that is great for a guy who's been sick all week and just needed a quick native plant rush.

Tom

You Never Know What You'll Find in the Backyard

Not exactly what you were expecting? Part of the fun about buying a new home in summer is that there is some mystery involved. You don't get to see what spring plants you've just bought until long after you have signed on the dotted line. I knew there were plenty of common blue violets (Viola sororia) in our backyard, especially around the bur oak, , but I wasn't expecting this.

This flower, however, has taken me by surprise this spring. Look at those freckles. Aren't they cool? I have seen a light blue, almost white form of Viola sororia in lawns, but never one with spots. A little internet searching, and I do believe that this is Viola sororia "freckles", quite an appropriately named cultivar. A few places even sell it online. I'm lucky to have a little patch at the far back of our yard. Isn't spring great?

Tom

Wildflowers and Sunshine- Highbanks Hike Continued

As I drove to work this morning, as I was curving around the off ramp and stopped at the traffic light, rain drops began to hit my windshield. I then realized that mixed in with the liquid water was semi-frozen slushy snowflakes. They were gone as soon as they came, but is was no-doubt-about-it snow.

And then just as I accelerated up the ramp to I-71, on my way home this afternoon, the heavens opened up once more, this time releasing wind driven heavy rain, and mixed in, big, wet, slushy snowflakes. With the high clouds that let quite a bit of light through, it was a strange sight. I'm just glad we're not going to receive the 6-12" of snow our local weatherman Jim Ganal predicted for my homeland, Northeast Ohio. Tom (fishing guy), have fun with this one, can't wait to see pictures.

With all this talk of snow, why not head back to last Thursday, a glorious spring day bursting with native wildflowers? I can't think of any reason not to, so here we go.

The other Tom (Mon@rch) that we all know and love apparently needs a baby fix, so why don't we give him one?


Here's Weston and Mom, wearing a wonderful little cap made by his Aunt Rachel. She's studying to be a nurse practioner in Virginia, so we'll have two advanced practice nurses in the family soon. Thanks Rachel, he wore this hat well.

Here we are at the trail head, near the nature center at Highbanks. We picked up on the pileated woodpecker trail, which winds through beech-maple-oak forest ravines, eventually down to the floodplain of the Olentangy River, and back up again. There were plenty of bloodroots, as you saw from yesterday's post, but several other interesting things were blooming as well.



Like this little guy, which I think is long spurred violet (Viola rostrata) but I looked at it only to take the picture. I remember way back when, 10 years ago, when I saw my first spurred violet at Eagle Creek State Nature Preserve. Ohio has over two dozen species of native violets, and this is one of them. Compare this one to the violets in your yard, and you'll see that they don't have this long spur.



The first flower I typically see each spring, without fail, is spring beauties. Although I had seen some by the time I had taken the violet image, it wasn't until I caught a few Dutchman's breeches just beginning to unfurl that I got both species in a picture. Look carefully, the breeches are the solid over exposed white flowers in the top right with feather divided leaves, while the spring beauties are in the lower left, with linear spongy leaves.



And what is spring without an early blooming sedge? I believe this is Carex pensylvanica, Pennsylvania sedge, which is a common early bloomer in mesic to dry woods.



As we walked, the trail dropped down to a small head water stream that cuts down to the bedrock of the area, the Devonian aged Ohio Shale. Same bedrock here that is in Cleveland that they find gigantic armored fish fossils called Dunkleosteus in. It also is the source of Central Ohio's home radon issues.



After leading us down, the trail led us back up the ravine on the other side. From this location, I could see the opposite eroding bank, and I spotted one of the concretions that I have blogged about before, even comparing Megan's pregnant belly to one of these round rocks. This shot was at full telephoto from about 100 feet away, and I would estimate the boulder to be about 3 feet in diameter. The jury is out about how these round concretions formed in rather flat, finely bedded shale, but my sister agency has put out a great fact sheet that is well worth a read. Would you believe that one of these concretions found at highbanks metropark actually had a devonian aged fish jaw fossilized in the center of it? They've got a picture of it at highbanks. Obviously, I'm finding it more interesting now than when we were there, or else I would have photographed the fossil!

Thanks for joining us on part two of our Highbanks adventure, tomorrow we'll make it down to the river, see what's inhabiting the upper reaches of the floodplain, and find out what bird species are already building their nests.

Tom

Highbanks Metropark

Megan, Weston and I went on a hike Thursday to Highbanks Metropark, and it was a glorious spring day, warm, sunny, and perfect for the first splash of color throughout the maple-oak-beech forests there. Perhaps "the flower" of the day was bloodroot, Sanguinaria canadensis, which we seemed to catch at the peak of bloom. A few more days, and the white petals will be a pile on the ground at the base of the plant. Named for the orangish red sap in this plant's underground tubers, bloodroot is perhaps my favorite spring wildflower. This wasn't the only thing blooming, and I'll have the rest of our hike soon.

Tom

A Photographic Journey to and through Slate Run

A few mile west of the park entrance, we came across this lovely field of dairy cows. This even brought Megan's camera out. She loves cows.


And then it was on to the park, first a trip through wetlands, then fields, and to the farm, and back again.

This week's Sky Watch Friday Image