6-30 Virginia Stickseed

6-30
Virginia Stickweed and Pointed-leaved Tick Trefoil are both in flower.
Red Baneberry has set fruit.
John

Virginia Stickseed

Pointed-leaved Tick Trefoil

Red Baneberry

6-29 Pokeweed

6-29
The young shoots of Pokeweed are edible. The root is poisonous, the berries suspect. Look for it in damp areas.
Tubercled Orchids favor river banks and wet meadows.
John

Pokeweed

Tubercled Orchid

6-28 Hedge Nettle

6-28
Hedge Nettle is starting to flower. Look for it in low meadows and in other damp places.
Spotted Knapweed prefers roadsides, weedy places and, in this case, railroad ballast.
This Cottontail was one of two seen this morning near Dummerston Landing.
John

Hedge Nettle

Spotted Knapweed

Cottontail

6-27 Heart-leaved Umbrellawort

6-27
Heart-leaved Umbrellawort, AKA Wild Four-o'clock, crops up occasionally in waste places and along roadsides.
Monkey Flower can be found in wet places. To some its flower resembles the face of a monkey.
Northern Pearly Eye butterflies are airborne. They are woodland specialists, feeding on sap and animal scat and shunning flowers.
John

Heart-leaved Umbrellawort

Monkey Flower

Northern Pearly Eye

6-26 Shinleaf

6-26
Shinleaf - the commonest Pyrola - is lifting nodding, white, waxy flowers over the fores tfloor.
The little shrub known as New Jersey Tea is flowering profusely.
And the beautiful, but invasive, Purple Loosestrife is starting to open its dense spikes of showy flowers.
John

Shinleaf

New Jersey Tea

Purple Loosestrife

6-25 Cow Wheat

6-25
Parasitic Cow Wheat is a woodland plant. Wild Radish crops up in fields and waste places. Common St. Johnswort - once an agricultural pest, but now kept under control by an introduced beetle - is flowering in fields and on edge habitats.
John

cow Wheat

Wild Radish

Common St. Johnswort

6-24 Yellow-rattle

6-24
Yellow-rattle and Yellow Sweet Clover are both in flower. Both are alien.
A rather mud caked Painted Turtle was on the move early this morning.
John

Yellow-rattle

Yellow Sweet Clover

Painted Turtle

6-23 Everlasting Pea

6-23
Everlasting Pea is an escape which crops up on roadsides and in waste places.
Dogbane Beetles are starting to emerge. Although only about 3/8 of an inch long they are hard to overlook!
John

Everlasting Pea

Dogbane Beetle

6-22 Queen Anne's Lace

6-22
Queen Anne's Lace and Bristly Sarsaparilla are both opening a few florets.
Red-spotted Purple and White Admiral butterflies are closely related and hybridize at this latitude making exact identification problematic.
John

Queen Anne's Lace

Bristly Sarsaparilla

Red-spotted Purple

White Admiral

6-21 Bittersweet Nightshade

6-21
Bittersweet Nightshade  - a species described as somewhat poisonous - is draping moist thickets.
Hedge Bindweed can be found in the sam habitat.
John

Bittersweet Nightshade

Hedge Bindweed

6-20 Partridgeberry

6-20
The paired white or pinkish flowers of Partridgeberry can be seen in the woods.
Roadsides and waste places host Chicory which can be either blue or, occasionally, white.
Venus' Looking-glass, so called because of the shape of its seeds, is opening flowers. It seems to favor recently disturbed areas.
John

Partridgeberry

Chicory

Venus' Looking-glass

6-20 Dummerston Closed

6-20
Despite what it says, this sign refers only to Dummerston Landing.

6-19 Meadowsweet

6-19
Meadowsweet is starting to flower along river banks and in other damp habitats.
Barred Owls have fledged young. Two or three were in a patch of woods I went through this morning. Although somewhat flighted they still expect to be fed.
John

Meadowsweet

Barred Owl

6-18 Common Milkweed

6-18
Common Milkweed and Four-leaved Milkweed are both opening flowers. Common Milkweed favors fields and roadsides. Four-leaved Milkweed is found on dry, wooded slopes.
Common Mullein is sending up its spikes of yellow flowers in fields and thickets and dry roadsides.
John

Common Milkweed

Four-leaved Milkweed

Common Mellein

6-17 Moneywort

6-17
Moneywort, a low creeping plant of wet areas, is opening its paired yellow flowers.
White Avens favors dry open woodlands and thickets.
In rocky woods and thickets the showy flowers of Purple Flowering Raspberry loom large.
John

Moneywort

White Avens

Purple Flowering Raspberry

6-16 White Beardtongue

6-16
White Beardtongue, AKA Foxglove Beardtongue, is starting to flower.
Black-eyed Susans are opening opening in old fields and along roadsides.
Tall Meadow Rue is rising above damp ditches and sunny swamps.
John

White Beardtongue

Black-eyed Susan

Tall Meadow Rue

6-15 Motherwort

6-15
The fuzzy pink flowers of Motherwort are open. Motherwort was used medicinally and is often found around old homesites.
Galinsoga, AKA Quickweed, is a weed of cultivated ground.
Lesser Toadflax often appears in railroad ballast and cinders.
Red Milkweed Beetles, true to form, are busily consuming milkweed leaves.
John

Motherwort

Galinsoga

Lesser Toadflax

Milkweed Beetles

6-14 Knawel

6-14
Knawel - a low, matted plant that grows in hard packed dry gravel parking lots - is flowering.
Rabbit-foot Clover is furring roadsides.
And Selfheal is coloring damper grassy areas.
John

Knawel

Rabbit-foot Clover

Selfheal