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Summer Azure
August 10, 2025 Another butterfly in a popular spot, at the Apple Mint (Mentha suaveolens). Yesterday’s was a medium sized butterfly, a Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta). This one is on the small side, a Summer Azure (Celastrina neglecta), measuring in at about 1 inch. It’s ventral or underside, as you see in this picture, is…
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Ready To Enjoy Blooms Of Apple Mint
August 9, 2025 A Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta), thinking about checking out the nectar of Apple Mint (Mentha suaveolens) blooms. Red Admiral adults don’t eat, but only drink. Seeking out the moisture of flower nectar, tree sap, rotting fruit, bird droppings, and wet soil to get minerals and electrolytes. Plants in the nettle family (Urticaceae)…
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Just Right For A Dollhouse
August 8, 2025 Inflated Lobelia (Lobelia inflata), a plant with minuscule flowers, just right for a dollhouse. They’re 1/4 to 3/8 inch wide in colors of blue-violet, lavender or white. Native to eastern North America. Popping up in random places here on the mountain. There is something called a calyx at the base of many…
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Common Evening Primrose
August 7, 2025 I’m seeing this biennial, herbaceous plant, now in many places along my dirt road coming up the mountain. It’s Common Evening Primrose (Oenothera biennis), which grows quite tall, sometimes to 6 feet. The Evening Primrose flowers look nearly identical to Sundrops (Oenothera fruticosa) but that plant blooms in the spring, while Common…
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Northeastern Hammertail
August 6, 2025 Northeastern Hammertail (Efferia aestuans), in the Robber Fly, Asilidae family, modeling for me on the hood of my truck. They measure in at between 11/16 and 7/8 of an inch. These are predatory insects, even going after insects larger than themselves. They will perch on vegetation to fly out and catch their…
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Butterfly Pea
August 5, 2025 Butterfly Pea (Clitoria mariana), a herbaceous, perennial vine up to three or four feet long. Though it is a vine, it generally stays close to the ground. Usually the plant has only one flower but on occasion it will have two or three blooms. Leaves are alternate, and trifoliate (divided into three…
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Snakeroot
August 4, 2025 White Snakeroot (Ageratina altissima). Like many plants that grow around us, this is a plant that is poisonous, containing tremetol. If you don’t know the plants in your gardens and in the woods around you, really really well, don’t eat them. This Snakeroot can grow to 5 feet tall with single or…
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Usually Tall, Joe Pye Weed
August 2, 2025 Joe Pye Weed (Eutrochium). In the genus Eutrochium there are five species of Joe Pye Weed native to North America and Canada; including Spotted Joe Pye Weed (Eutrochium maculatum), Appalachian Joe Pye Weed (Eutrochium steelei), Coastal Joe Pye Weed (Eutrochium dubium), Hollow-stem Joe Pye Weed (Eutrochium fistulosum), and Sweet-scented Joe Pye Weed…