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Tithonia
Tithonia rotundifolia. Native to Florida, Louisiana, Mexico, Central America, and the West Indies. NOT native to Virginia but it is a well behaved annual which I try to plant every year. I thoroughly adore it for the many butterflies, including Monarchs, and the hummingbirds that the dazzling orange flowers attract. A bright orange magnet in…
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Giant Puffball Mushroom
Giant Puffball (Calvatia gigantea). Easily, of all the many mushrooms that I have seen growing along the trails I hike, this species of mushroom is the coolest one I have ever seen. They look to me like something that has arrived from outer space, sitting there observing the humans of Earth. It also brings to…
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More Nesting Activities
It pleases me greatly that Carolina Wrens (Thryothorus ludovicianus) chatter around the woods near my home all year long. And nearly every year a pair will choose some strange object in which to build their nest and raise a family. Of course I provide the strange objects, hanging them from the front and back porch…
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Spring Blooms of Sweetspire
Sweetspire (Itea virginica) in the rain. A shrub native to the southeast United States. Bees and butterflies love the blooms. And in the autumn Sweetspire gets my nomination for best color of the season. A great alternative to the exotic invasive Burning Bush (Euonymus alatus).
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A Busy House
The female Chickadee (Paridae) has built her nest. I expect by now the eggs have hatched and both the male and the female are out searching for caterpillars, spiders and insects for their young. A bit of a timeline: One to two days after the female builds the nest, her eggs are laid. She incubates…
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Female Indigo Bunting
When I see a male Indigo Bunting (Passerina cyanea), I immediately know what I’ve seen. No doubt about it. The female of the species though is another story. Plain brown, with just the very slightest suggestion of maybe wing bars. No eye ring. From allaboutbirds.org, “Females are basically brown, with faint streaking on the breast,…
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Sentimentality
My aim is to have nearly all native Virginia plants surrounding my cabin. I stick with that quite strictly but I have a stumbling block to that goal, sentimentality. Each year, at the end of May into the beginning of June I’m reminded of that part of my personality as the Rose Campions (Lychnis coronaria)…
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Fourleaf Milkweed
Fourleaf Milkweed (Asclepias quadrifolia). Blooming in the palest of pink, along the trails up here in the mountains, May to July. Providing nectar for bumble bees and other bees, flies, ants, wasps, butterflies and moths. One of the larval host plants of Monarch Butterflies. A perennial herb with a single stem emerging from a rhizome. Not…
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Woolly Dutchman’s Pipe
Woolly Dutchman’s Pipe (Aristolochia tomentosa). A vine that grows vigorously with a mind of its own. A vine with a funny looking flower. It’s native to southeastern Canada and the eastern United States. This is a plant in the genus Aristolochia. Plants in this genus are larval host plants of the Pipevine Swallowtail Butterfly. I…
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Butterfly Weed
An incredibly beautiful Zebra Swallowtail (Eurytides marcellus) on the aptly named Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa) which provides nectar to many pollinators. Native to much of the United States, from Maine to South Dakota to the desert southwest to Florida. Another pollinator that nearly matches the color of the Butterfly Weed, Great Spangled Fritilary (Speyeria cybele).…