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Virginia Sweetspire
September 30, 2025 Virginia Sweetspire (Itea virginica) showing off its colors of autumn. This Sweetspire is native to the southeast United States, blooming in May and June with fragrant, cylindrical, brushlike inflorescences that attract many bees and butterflies. Next come seedheads that attract songbirds. Growing to 4 or 5 feet tall, often found in swamps,…
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Variegated Fritillary Enjoying Aster Blooms
September 29, 2025 A medium sized butterfly ranging from 1.75 to 2.75 inches, with males being smaller than females. A Variegated Fritillary (Euptoieta claudia) enjoying nectar of White Heath Aster (Symphyotrichum ericoides). Found in Nova Scotia and southern Manitoba into New England, also southern California to the southern Great Plains on to Florida, and also in…
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Persimmons
September 27, 2025 Persimmons (Diospyros virginiana) are quite common up here. That is in part because this fruit is a favorite of Black Bears (Ursus americanus), which helps in the distribution of its seeds. The fruit looks like this right now. I generally see them growing to be 1 to 1.5 inch diameter little round…
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A View Of Autumn
September 26, 2025 Dappled sunlight reaching down through the leaves. Reds and greens being spotlighted. Red Maple (Acer rubrum) just beginning to add scarlet to the landscape. Red Maple trees are incredibly common in eastern North America, and can easily be found from Newfoundland and Manitoba in Canada, down to Florida and Texas in its…
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Crooked-stem Aster
September 24, 2025 So many species of Asters decorating the roadside coming up the mountain. This one is Crooked-stem Aster (Symphyotrichum prenanthoides). It gets its common name from its stems which change direction at each node, where a leaf emerges. Like other Asters, this one is made up of many many tiny flowers called florets,…
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Happy Astronomical Autumn!
September 22, 2025 This afternoon we have gone from summer into autumn. I adore living in an area that has four seasons, getting to experience each one’s splendors. This is a picture of Jack-In-The-Pulpit berries (Arisaema triphyllum). They turn this brilliant shade of scarlet in early autumn. Each of the berries generally contains one to…
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Yucca Gloriosa
September 21, 2025 A thunderstorm overnight, with the tiniest bit of much needed rain. Here a few of those raindrops still on blooms of Yucca Gloriosa (Yucca gloriosa). This is a species of Yucca that is native to the southeastern United States which blooms in late summer, early autumn for me. Yuccas have a special…