Canada Violet (Viola canadensis). Yellow centers, purple stripes accenting the lower petals with the two side petals having smaller purple stripes. The backs of the petals have a wash of purple. Leaves are heart shaped with a long slender base with bluntly toothed edges.
Violets are the host plant of Fritillary butterflies.
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Lovely Trilliums growing in the woods up here in the mountains. Depending where you are, you might come upon a huge patch of them. A community of White Trillium (Trillium grandiflorum).
These white blooms will slowly turn pink after being pollinated. This has confused me because occasionally I see pink buds opening. In the image directly above, the pink bud is just right of center, below the other three flowers already open. The same bud is in the top photo. This pink bud is a Trillium grandiflorum forma roseum. From start to finish this bud stays pink.
Not something that is usually mentioned when discussing aging of the White Trillium petals.
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The Ruby-throated Hummingbirds have arrived, and now I’m pleased that another of the many birds that spend the summer here has arrived. The American Redstart (Setophaga ruticilla), like many of the birds that spend the summer here are stunning.
The top image is a male Redstart and in the image directly above is a female Redstart.
They eat mostly insects and spiders making it unlikely that I’ll see one at my feeder. They love the birdbath though.
I try to keep at least one birdbath full whether it is summer or winter. I get to see many birds that way, that I wouldn’t see otherwise.
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A stunning butterfly. Just look at those colors. Black and white, rich purplish-blue, and that red (orange?). This, the dorsal side (or top side) of the butterfly.
This is a Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta) which has an impressive range including North and South America, Europe and Asia. And of course because of its vastly different homelands it also has many, many different host plants. Here in Virginia their main host plant is Stinging Nettle (Urtica dioica).
Here is the ventral (underside) side of the Red Admiral. Quite a different look.
As an adult the Red Admiral has a life of about 10 months during which they consume tree sap, the juices of rotting fruit, and the moisture from bird droppings. If these choice liquids aren’t available they’ll resort to drinking the nectar of Milkweed, Clover, Aster, and Alfalfa flowers.
One of so many butterflies to make our world beautiful!
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Carolina Allspice (Calycanthus floridus). Keep that scientific name handy since I discovered if you Google “Carolina Allspice” you will get all sorts of things that are not this shrub.
Carolina Allspice grows to 6 – 9 feet tall, and is native to the southeastern US, where it is found at woodland edges and openings. Its blooms are about 2 inches across. Those blooms have a pleasant fruit scent which varies from bush to bush.
The leathery leaves grow to 6 inches long and turn yellow in autumn. Deer don’t find Carolina Allspice tempting. Amazing. Surely if they’re really hungry they’ll nibble on it.
Oh spring! You bring delight! To roam the woods. Slowly. Taking in all the beauty. Here, one of those treats. Red Trillium (Trillium erectum). Those incredible petals, some so dark that they are nearly black.
It is said that the rotting meat scent of this flower is intended to attract flies and beetles. Reflected in another of its common names, Stinking Benjamin. Though normally I have no problem picking up scents, I was unable to detect the smell of these flowers.
Perhaps I should be pleased about that!
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A beautiful bunch of Red maple (Acer rubrum) samaras, or helicopters, or keys, or seeds. Reflecting its name. But then there are red flowers, red twigs and in the autumn red leaves. Choose what you want that “red” to stand for.
You may notice though that in autumn those leaves don’t necessarily turn red. Some Red Maple trees, perhaps trees with a rebellious demeanor won’t turn red but will become yellow or orange to make the season even more gorgeous.
No problem which color the tree choses, autumn is always a lovely season, paving the way for SNOW! 🙂
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This East Coast gal has learned a lot about the states of New Mexico and Arizona. One of the things I’ve learned about in my many many trips out there is, this is a Saguaro (Carnegiea gigantea) and it is only native to southern Arizona and western Sonora, Mexico (old Mexico – not New Mexico). No wild specimens of Saguaro have been found in Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Colorado, Utah, or in northern Arizona.
But the biggest surprise to me is that these intriguing cacti BLOOM! In the picture above the flowers are a bit hard to see, but look closely and you’ll see flowers and buds on the top of each of the arms. Blooming in May.
And here a closeup of the flowers which are pollinated by insects, birds and bats. What an amazing thing to discover.
After I figure out all the plants here in Virginia, I’ll have to go back out to the Southwest and investigate the plants (and animals) out there.
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Look at those incredibly tiny feet! The middle toe is just 1/4 inch long. Surely Hummingbirds are students of yoga, since they’re able to scratch their heads and necks with those feet.
Years ago the goal was to put out the Hummingbird feeder by Mother’s Day. This year I put out the feeder on April 15th and on April 17th two or three Hummingbirds were seen migrating through. I’m only guessing that they were migrating through since they arrived at the feeder and gulped down the syrup as if they had been flying for miles. This went on, two and three at a time every few hours, for many days.
Now the steady flow seems to have stopped but there is a male Ruby-throated Hummingbird (Archilochus colubris) that keeps returning to my feeder. He takes a quick sip and disappears. I’d like very much to have all of them wear little name tags so I can tell one from the other but I haven’t figured out how to make that happen.
Hummingbird season has begun! Let the crazy circus begin!
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Obolaria (Obolaria virginica) is a small plant that’s native to the eastern United States. The purplish green of some of its leaves helps the plant blend in with the leaf litter where it emerges. It spends much of the year underground emerging as the weather warms and the arrival of leaves overhead encourages it to return to its subterranean home.
A plant that is mycoheterotrophic, meaning it gets a large part of its nutrition from other plants’ fungal systems. This same thing takes place with some of our native orchids. Move one of those orchids to a new location and it is likely that it won’t survive since there won’t be the necessary fungal system to support it. The green of the Obolaria leaves indicates that the plant contains some chlorophyll in its leaves.
Have you seen it lately? Enjoy it while it’s there.
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