5-31 Spreading Dogbane and Common Speedwell

 5-31

Spreading Dogbane favors dry fields and thickets. Its nodding white or pink flowers are pollinator favorites.

Waste places and old log roads are habitat for Common speedwell, one of eleven speedwells found in our area.

John

5-30 Small Sundrops, Blue Flag Iris, Cow Vetch

 5-30

Small Sundrops - diminutive members of the Primrose family - are up in open woods and fields.

In marshes and meadows, Blue Flag Iris is having its day.

And along roadsides and in meadows Cow Vetch, AKA Tufted Vetch, is attracting an array of pollinators.

John

5-29 Common Flax, Maiden Pink and Yarrow

 5-29

Common Flax is an escape from cultivation or, sometimes, a component of conservation mixes. I find it in waste places.

Maiden Pink, another escape, has colonized fields and roadsides.

Yarrow has started its long flowering season which lasts into the fall! Like the previous two species Yarrow is an introduced alien.

John

5-28 Round-leaved Ragwort, Ox-eye Daisy and Sleepy Catchfly

 5-28

Round-leaved Ragwort can be found in woods and on sandy or rocky banks.

Ox-eye Daisy is very common in fields, meadows and waste places.

Sleepy Catchfly has a sticky insect deterring stem and is only open briefly in full sunlight - likes dry thinly vegetated areas. I see them on rip-rap and on sandy roadsides.

John

5-27 Star-flowered Solomon's Seal and Hairy Solomon's Seal

 5-27

Star-flowered Solomon's Seal is a habitat generalist found on sandy banks, sand dunes, moist meadows and shores. Its late summer fruits are pale red striped with black making this plant somewhat unique.

Hairy Solomon's Seal's paired on single dangling greenish flowers are also open. Look for it in the woods or occasionally along roadsides.

John

5-26 Bristly Locust, Black Locust and Yellow Iris

 5-26

The pink pea-like flowers of Bristly Locust are opening

as are the white flowers of Black Locust.

Along river banks Yellow Iris are in bloom.

John

5-25 White Campion, Spiderwort and Tall Cinquefoil

5-25

Fields and waste areas are home to White Campion.

Spiderwort is a frequent garden escape.

Rocky ledges are home toTall Cinquefoil.

John

5-24 Lesser Stitchwort. Yellow Goatsbeard, Common Blackberries, Common Hawkweed

 5-24

Lesser Stitchwort frost fields and meadows.

Roadsides and fields are home to Yellow Goatsbeard.

Dry fields and clearings - often old log landings - host Common Blackberries.

Waste places, roadsides and fields are yellowed by Common Hawkweed.

John

5-23 Hoary Alyssum, Wild Madder, Pagoda Tree

 5-23

Hoary Alyssum, a mustard relative, colonizes dry fields and waste places.

Wild Madder favors roadsides and fields.

And Alternate-leaved Dogwood, AKA Pagoda Tree, is a component of edge habitats and woods.

John

5-22 Birdsfoot Trefoil, False Solomon's Seal and Silvery Cinquefoil

 5-22

In fields and along roadsides Birdsfoot Trefoil is starting to flower.

False Solomon's Seal, AKA Wild Spikenard, can be found on wooded banks and roadsides.

Silvery Cinquefoil favors rocky or ledgy habitats and dry fields.

John

5-21 Two flowers, a moth and a bug

 5-21

One-flowered Cancerroot, AKA Ghost Pipe, is a parasite found in woods and thickets.

Blue-eyed Grass - an Iris relative - favors fields and meadows.

A pretty little moth called the Lemon Plagodis is airborne. Larval hosts for this moth include a number of deciduous trees.

And, a brilliantly green Six-spotted Tiger Beetle - a fierce predator - paused long enough for this picture to be snapped.

John

5-20 Wild Chervil, Tall Buttercup, Creeping Buttercup and Pineapple Weed

 5-20

Wild chervil is swiftly colonizing roadsides, old fields and waste areas.

Tall or Common Buttercups favor fields and can overrun pastures.

Creeping Buttercup is found on damp lawns, fields and meadows.

And sandy roadsides and waste places are home to Pineapple Weed - which, if crushed, is said to smell like pineapple.

John

5-19 Tall Buttercup, Bunchberry, Low-running blackberry

 5-19

Tall buttercup is starting to yellow fields and roadsides.

Bunchberry, AKA Dwarf Cornel, favors cool woods and bogs. Its petal-like bracts surround a dense cluster of greenish flowers.

And the large white flowers of Low-running Blackberry straggle through old fields, thickets and waste places.

John

5-18 White Clover, Blue Toadflax, Greater Stitchwort

 5-18

White Clover is a weed that grows happily in any grassy place.

Blue Toadflax favors sandy roadsides and railroad ballast.

Greater Stitchwort is a garden escape occasionally found in ditches and along roadsides.

John

5-17 Dame's Rocket, Virginia Waterleaf, American Bladdernut

 5-17

Dame's Rocket, AKA Dame's Violet, is a garden escape common in fields and along roadsides.

Rich woods are home to Virginia Waterleaf.

American Bladdernut - named for its inflated seed pods - can be seen in moist thickets and on river banks.

John

5-16 Bugle, Pink Lady's Slipper, Red Osier Dogwood

 5-16

Bugle, a garden escape of the mint family,  is coloring lawns and roadsides.

Pink Lady's Slipper, AKA Moccasin Flower, is showing its pouch-lipped blossoms.

Red Osier Dogwood is opening flower umbels in sunnier locations.

John

5-15 Common Barberry, Thimbleberry, Frosted Hawthorn

 5-15

Common Barberry, which shares the designation Class B noxious weed with its close relative Japanese Barberry, is opening its dangling flower clusters.

Dry or rocky soils are prime habitat for Thimbelberry, AKA Black Raspberry.

And one of the hawthorns - my references list as many as 50 species - is in flower. Perhaps Frosted Hawthorn, but this is a devilishly complex group to put names on.

John