Eastern Towhees are here in the mountains of central Virginia year round. Their diet is primarily insects, seeds and berries and during the summer they tend, of course, to eat more insects. True bugs, beetles, ants, caterpillars, moths, millipedes, spiders and snails are all on the menu. But there’s something special to me, which I share with them. Those blueberries. This fellow is watching over them. Watching how they are growing. Watching and waiting for them to ripen. Just like I am. I wholeheartedly enjoy sharing the blueberries with the birds. For me, the berries mean pies, pancakes, muffins. For them it means breakfast, lunch and dinner. Glad to share.
For more years than I can count we’ve grown Christmas trees in two large fields here, below the cabin. Trees that we’ve planted.
Norway Spruce (Picea abies), White Pine (Pinus strobus), Scotch Pine (Pinus sylvestris), Concolor Fir (Abies concolor), and my absolute favorite Colorado Blue Spruce (Picea pungens).
That Blue Spruce, needs care in handling, and care in decorating. Those needles are Oh! So sharp! But still, that marvelouscolor, that perfect shape. And those strong branches to hold ornaments that would make other branches sag way down. Yes. A wonderful tree.
Watching them grow from year to year. Watching the bears come and snap some of the trees in half in pursuit of the ants that go after the aphids that love Christmas trees. Seeing them develop into – perfect for the living room – trees.
Such joy in growing Christmas trees. Such pleasure in growing them right here. More need to be planted and soon. More trees for more Christmases.
Seems every day I’m seeing another of my winter birds. This one, my treasured Hermit Thrush (Catharus guttatus). A medium sized bird with a magical, flutelike song which it doesn’t bring along on its winter visit. It saves those lovely notes for summer, choosing to blend in and not make too much of a noticeable presence while in the black and white landscape of winter.
Out of necessity it also changes its diet, going from being an active hunter of yummy crawly things such as beetles, ants, caterpillars, true bugs, grasshoppers, crickets, spiders, and earthworms to what winter offers up to birds of winter, berries.
You can see in these pictures that the Hermit Thrush enjoys Smooth Sumac berries to dine on. Other berries they enjoy include Elderberries, Pokeberries, Serviceberries, Grapes, and Mistletoe berries. These are plants that I have in my yard or would certainly consider adding, just to invite more winter birds to come visit for the winter.
I’m constantly learning things as I dig through my books and page through various sites on the internet. One of today’s new things is the word to describe the color quality of the abdomen of a male Common Whitetail (Plathemis lydia). That word: pruinose, which means frosted in appearance. Makes me think of blueberries which have this same color quality.
But back to this fascinating dragonfly. It can be found across much of North America, including all 48 of the contiguous United States. They eat flies, midges, gnats, termites, mosquitoes, ants, small butterflies and moths, bees and other insects. And they in turn will become a meal for birds, spiders, praying mantises, robber flies and bats.
Remarkable agility, astounding to watch. Four wings that can each move independently, allows the insect to fly up, down, sideways, forward, and backward without changing its orientation. I am so fortunate to be able to see such things.
Within just a few weeks this is what Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) will look like up here. It’s a great plant that benefits many insects. Flies, beetles, ants, bees, wasps, and butterflies will all gather ’round to join in the dinner buffet.
A cute little creature that I see climbing on the cinder block foundation of my cabin on occasion. An Eastern Fence Lizard (Sceloporus undulatus). With golden eyes that stare back at me wondering what I am.
Fence Lizards grow to be between four, and seven and a quarter inches long. Usually females are gradations of gray and males are various shades of brown, both with keeled scales. Their native range is from New York to northern Florida west to Ohio and Arkansas.
Predators of Eastern Fence lizards include snakes, birds, cats, and other reptiles. When confronted they will seek a tree, running to the opposite side circling to stay out of sight.
Eastern Fence Lizards dine on invertebrates including beetles, ants, moths, grasshoppers, spiders, and stink bugs. Oh little lizard friends, please eat lots of those Brown Marmorated Stink Bugs!
If you’ll bear with me, I’m going to start calling this plant by its scientific name largely because I had misidentified it and want to make it clear to me what it is. That’s why I’m reposting about this precious little plant. Getting things straight in my mind.
A couple weeks ago as the earliest of the early spring plants were just peeking their noses up out of the earth I noticed one in particular. It had the look of what, maybe Fringed Bleeding Heart (Dicentra eximia)? Something at the back of my head said “yellow flowers” though. Sure enough it is Corydalis flavula.
Today I checked on these guys coming up in the woods. I’m seeing more of the leaves reaching to the sky. They remind me of an intricate Pennsylvania Dutch scherenschnitte. Though they seem to be reaching to the sky, they’re not going to grow much taller. They’ll top out at around ten inches high.
Corydalis flavula is an herbaceous perennial ephemeral native to the eastern United States. It contains many alkaloids that make plants distasteful and can be toxic to livestock and pets. I am truly astounded at how many plants fit into this toxic category.
The lemon yellow flowers have quite an unusual shape and the name, Corydalis, comes from a Greek word that means “crested lark.” I’ve put these flowers on my list of photos to get. I want more close-ups!
The seeds that form in Corydalis flavula’s mini seed pods have that appendage, that some seeds have, called an elaisome. Another one of those plants that get ants to bring the seeds to their larvae. The larvae are fed the elaisomes and the seeds are thrown into the ant’s “trashroom” which is the perfect place for those seeds to grow. Wait for it again in the next growing season and thank those ant farmer’s.
I’ve written about Wood Poppy (Stylophorum diphyllum) before but I enjoy the native flower with its happy yellow so much I’d like to tell you more about it.
The deeply lobed green-blue leaves of Wood Poppy are poking up from the surface of the soil here in the Blue Ridge now, as the month of March approaches its midpoint.
By the beginning of April, I expect I’ll be seeing some woolly buds ready to reveal their four golden petals.
As the flower opens the two pale green sepals that protect the bud soon fall away.
The flowers of Wood Poppy provide pollen but not nectar to their visitors. Those flowers have many stamens that are topped with rich yellow anthers surrounding a pistil, style and stigma.
After insect or self pollination a seed capsule is formed which eventually hangs below the leaves.
Many seeds are released from the capsule. Seeds which are distributed in a process called mymecocory, or in simpler terms, seed dispersal by ants. These seeds have nutrient rich appendages called elaisomes. Ants collect the seeds so that their larvae can be fed the elaisomes and the remains of the seeds are tossed away in the ant colony’s “trash room.”
That trash room in an underground ant colony is the perfect place to start growing seeds. Of course the ants aren’t aware of it, but they are perfect little ant farmers. Starting a new cycle of Wood Poppies.
It’s hard for me to believe since I’ve still got snow on the ground, but spring is nearly here. At least meteorological spring. It arrives on March 1. The weather here is assuredly unpredictable. We’ll see what the month of March brings forth. Spring or more winter? But plants will be sprouting no matter. One of the plants I expect will greet me later in March is Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis). A plant that’s native to eastern North America.
Take care when you’re out hiking, particularly when you aren’t on a well established trail. These little first sprouts of spring are not necessarily obvious.
Bloodroot emerges from the soil, stem carefully wrapped in a deeply veined dark purply leaf.
As the bud grows the leaf unfurls and turns to a rich green with a silvery-green ventral side. With each flower there is a single deeply lobed basal leaf. A leaf with five to seven lobes that grows to be three to five inches across.
The flower is a burst of eight to sixteen snow white petals centered with an oval yellow-green pistil which is topped by a pale yellow stigma. The pistil is surrounded by bunches of stamens with glowing yellow anthers. The blooms don’t provide any nectar but the pollen on the anthers brings bees, flies and beetles that pollinate the flowers.
And that pollination allows the seed pod to expand. Filling with seeds that have appendages called elaiosomes. Ants bring those seeds to their larvae. The larvae is fed the elaiosomes and the still intact seeds are discarded to the nest’s “trash room” which is the perfect place to start these seeds growing. This process which happens in many cases throughout the plant world is called myrmecochory. A weird/fun word which has become one of my favorites.
Jeffersonia (Jeffersonia diphylla). In 1792 the botanist Benjamin Smith Barton named this plant after Thomas Jefferson. In 1807 Jefferson had Jeffersonia growing in one of the oval flower beds of Monticello. I’m proud to have something in common with my neighbor Thomas.
Within a matter of four weeks I’ll be searching for these little signs of life. Hints of spring sprouting up from the garden’s soil.
It took missing the arrival of Jeffersonia for a few springs before I etched into my memory to be on the alert. They arrive when there is still snow around. In my gardens generally mid to late March.
Jeffersonia is native to eastern North America but is listed as a threatened or endangered plant in Georgia, Iowa, New York, and New Jersey because of habitat destruction and invasive species.
The flower of Jeffersonia is atop a bare stalk. It’s composed of eight white petals which as a bud were protected by four sepals. Two of those fading sepals can be seen here drooping below the flower, a washed out pale purple with a slight hint of green.
The petals surround yellowish stamens and in the center a green ovary. Quite the fleeting bloom, the petals fall after just a couple days.
A common name for Jeffersonia, Twinleaf, comes from the shape of the leaf. Open butterfly wings. Each pair, one leaf nearly split in two.
The flowers as they decline produce a fruit. A fruit that brings a smile to my heart. Is it a fruit or actually a smiley outer space alien?
The seeds inside this capsule each have an appendage called an elaiosome which attract ants with its lipids and proteins. The ants carry the seeds to their underground nest where the elaisomes are fed to their larvae. After the feeding, the seeds are discarded in the ant’s nest to their “trash room.” The perfect place for seeds to grow. ANT FARMERS! If you would like to add a fancy word to your vocabulary, this whole process of “ant farming” is called myrmecochory.
