Native Beautyberry

October 1, 2025

American Beautyberry (Callicarpa americana). Native to the southern United States, from Virginia south to Florida, and west to Texas. Please use caution if you are interested in getting this native shrub from a nursery. There sometimes 4 species of Beautyberry sold at your local nursery. The one you want has the scientific name of Callicarpa americana on its tag. That is the one you want.

There is a difference visible in the autumn when these shrubs have berries on them. The native species has its berries tightly clustered at the stem, much like a well clipped French Poodle, while other species’ berries are held away from the stem.

Many birds enjoy the berries and will come to eat them well into winter including but definitely not limited to the American Robin, Gray Catbird, Northern Cardinal, Northern Mockingbird, and Eastern Towhee.

What a spectacular color these berries are!

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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, stream banks, and floodplains. 

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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 Central and South America to Argentina, including the Greater Antilles. They are not able to survive freezing weather so migrate to warmer locations during the winter and back north in the warmer months.

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Sky Blue Asters And A Monarch

September 28, 2025

A Monarch (Danaus plexippus) stopping by on a sunny afternoon in autumn for a meal of nectar from the many blooms of Sky Blue Asters (Symphyotrichum oolentangiense), as it travels south. Asters are an autumn blooming plant that provides an important source of energy for their incredible migration.

These Monarchs that are migrating, live for 8 or 9 months which enables them to make the journey. Members of the summer generations live for only for a short, 2 to 6 weeks.

Wishing them a good trip.

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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 balls.

A couple weeks later in the season, the fruit will take on a brighter rich orange color and then on to an orange-purple color and begin dropping to the ground. Look for that color to know that they are ripe.

The native range of these Persimmons is from southern Connecticut clear south to Florida, and west to Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Iowa.

These are not the larger Persimmons that you see in the grocery store. Those are Asian Persimmons (Diospyros kaki) which grow to 3 to 5 inches in diameter.

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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 native range.

They are certainly abundant up here. Providing many splashes of red, yellow, and orange in the woods.

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Autumn Decorations

September 25, 2025

Mother Nature has begun working on the season. Just the start. Greens turning to many warmer shades, pumpkin orange, lemon yellow, scarlet and crimson red, with a little bit of a cooler shade – purple scattered here and there. This, a prime example of her work. Virginia Creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia) draped over thick branches deep in the woods. Just the beginning of decorations to celebrate autumn.

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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, arranged in a daisy-like appearance. There are ray florets which are lavender, light blue, or white. In the center are disk florets that are off-white, yellow, purple, or brown. Native to northcentral and northeastern North America.

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Monarchs Coming Through

September 23, 2025

A Monarch (Danaus plexippus) taking a quick break during its long migration, getting a sip of nectar this afternoon.

They’re coming through on their way to their winter home, the high-altitude fir forests of central Mexico.

The journey for the eastern segment of the Monarch population can involve traveling up to 2,500 to 3,000 miles, or even more. They travel, at the most, from Canada and the northern United States to Mexico. The western segment travels fewer miles, most of them spending the winter months along the southern California coast.

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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 five off-white seeds. The seeds that germinate the following spring create seedlings with just a single, round leaf. Those seedlings will need three years, or more, to become mature enough to produce a flower.

Jack-in-the-pulpit, a plant of spring, summer and autumn.

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