Time for the 2009 Spring/Summer Flower Thread

[carole]

Nice pictures on this thread. Anyone know what these are?

Wild columbine. Nice shots.

 

[NeoAkela]

Nice photos from everyone here! Saw this one yesterday hidden away - not the usual color I see around here in the Whites

 

[arghman]

Nice photos from everyone here! Saw this one yesterday hidden away - not the usual color I see around here in the Whites

ooh, ahh, Cypripedium parviflorum. If in NH consider reporting location to NH Natural Heritage (see the link in my signature) -- the occurrence is probably documented already, but you never know.

 

[Neil]

 

[NeoAkela]

Love the water droplets on those, Neil!

 

[w7xman]

Zealand Traverse...Crazy Mutant

On the hike from Zealand Road to Willey House yesterday, I hiked through many stages of the spring bloom, depending on aspect, terrain and soil. Some areas, the hobblebush was just beginning, others the lady slippers were out. Saw many species of flowers along the trail, including:

Goldthread, wild oats, both trilliums, lady slippers, rhodora, rose twisted stalk, a few different violets, canada mayflower, hobblebush, shadbush, blueberry, bunchberry, strawberry, and many others that I'm sure I'm missing.

The highlight was certainly the thousands upon thousands of painted trilliums that lined most of the path. I saw a few clumps of mutants out of those thousands, including two separate pairs of quadrilliums, and two clumps of strongly pink morphs.

Then I found these (sorry no macro lens, but you get the idea). My mutant of the year for sure!!

 

[The Feathered Hat]

Yesterday, just off the Gordon Pond Trail: Zebra-striped jack-in-the-pulpit:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/99682097@N00/3585373824/sizes/l/in/set-72157619007922067/

(Don't know why this photo won't load within the post, but it won't. So apologies for the necessity of a link.)

 

[Jason Berard]

cotton grass

ragged robin

what kind of caterpillar is this!?

 

[arghman]

cotton grass

Eriophorum sp., and you may have enough there to ID.... either Eriophorum viridicarinatum or Eriophorum angustifolium, I think. (note the separate seedheads on separate substalks -- there's only 4 species in this area, the other two have single seedheads I think... gotta check my books when I get home)

 

[Jason Berard]

I checked both of those out after seeing your thoughts, and I'm having a hard time telling how you would tell them apart from each other!

The caterpillar seems to be a Baltimore Checkerspot.
http://bugguide.net/node/view/5294/bgimage

I eagerly await your identification of the cotton grass!

 

[erugs]

I'm finding that none of my books are as good as the info I get here. Now to put all of this into a book. Just a thought...

 

[arghman]

I'm finding that none of my books are as good as the info I get here. Now to put all of this into a book. Just a thought...

(I know, not what you meant...)

 

[Jason Berard]

Is this a cultivated variety of columbine?
It was in a spot where it is possible to have been planted, but not likely.

Also,is this possibly a Showy Lady's Slipper? There was no bloom yet...it looked like an unfurled False Hellebore, but the leaves were fuzzy.

thanks!

 

[arghman]

Is this a cultivated variety of columbine?

I would guess so, the native one in the northeast is red&yellow, smaller, blooms earlier, likes rocky areas.

 

[arghman]

ok, my New Britton & Brown (Gleason, 1950) says there are 8 species of Eriophorum in eastern North America. (all but 2 widespread in New England)

3 species have solitary spikelets, 5 species have multiple spikelets. (each fuzzy seedhead is one spikelet, your photo shows maybe 9 of them?)

of the ones with multiple spikelets, 2 species have only one bract, the other 3 species have 2 or 3 bracts. (the pointy green things at the top are the bracts, clearly 3 in the photo)

At this point we're stuck in the key, which refers to scales and midveins which require closeup-examination, so we're down to E. virginicum, E. viridi-carinatum, and E. angustifolium.

The bristles of E. virginicum are tawny brown/copper, clearly not what you photographed.

From here all we have to go on is geography and geometry.

Under E. angustifolum the book says: "Bogs, Greenland to Alaska, s. to Me., N.Y., Mich., Ia., and Wash.; also in Eurasia" and "Spikelets to several, on stout or slender, drooping, spreading, or ascending peduncles up to 5cm long."

Under E. viridi-carinatum the book says: "Swamps, bogs, and wet meadows, Nf. to B.C., s. to Conn., n. O., n. Ind., and Minn." and "Spikelets 3 - many, some of them drooping, on peduncles up to 5cm. long."

for geography, usually it doesn't skip over states where ambiguity would be possible -- E. angustifolium would say "s. to Me., N.H., Vt., N.Y." if common in NH/VT -- but USDA Plants says it includes NH/VT.

So I'd probably lean a little more towards E. viridi-carinatum, but it could be E. angustifolium.

Learn to Accept Ambiguity.

 

[Jason Berard]

arghman, cool stuff! I may have to get another book or two....

I saw a stand of young locusts growing on the bank of the Connecticut River among some sumac next to the RR tracks..... The blooms were beautiful! I couldn't get a better shot than this because the poison ivy was profuse along the roadside.

 

[Puck]

Botany in a Day: The Patterns Method of Plant Identification - Paperback (Jan 2004) by Thomas J. Elpel


I thought that this book is great to get a good understanding of the botanical families. It helps to build a framework on which other knowledge is then easily organized.

 

[RickB.]

From last week on the Four Soldiers Trail:
A mere Trillium, but they're so photogenic

Lapland Rosebay, Mt. Monroe, 6-4-09

 

[Jason Berard]

Botany in a Day: The Patterns Method of Plant Identification - Paperback (Jan 2004) by Thomas J. Elpel


I thought that this book is great to get a good understanding of the botanical families. It helps to build a framework on which other knowledge is then easily organized.

Another book for the wish list.

I saw this Indian cucumber on the AT heading to the summit of Cube. I didn't see the spider until I loaded the photos onto my computer. Anyone know what kind of spider?

Is this mountain cranberry?

rhodora? yet to bloom, or gone by?

three-toothed cinquefoil?

I lost my plant ID book.
thanks for the ID help!

 

[w7xman]

Another book for the wish list.

Is this mountain cranberry?


rhodora? yet to bloom, or gone by?

I lost my plant ID book.
thanks for the ID help!

93% that your 'mountain cranberry' is actually wintergreen berry...edible and delicious...

Also 90% that your 'rhodora' is a sheep laurel...which blooms a few weeks after rhodora and is fun to shoot!