7-31 Great Blue Lobelia

7-31Great Blue Lobelia is both a native wildflower and, often, a garden escape. Most of the ones I see can be attributed to human sources.
New York Asters are starting to flower.
John

Great Blue Lobelia

New York Aster

7-30 Orange Grass

7-30
Orange Grass, AKA Pineweed, a tiny member of the St. Johnswort family grows best in sterile often sandy soils. A dragonfly, probably one called the Calico Pennant, posed nicely on a rock this afternoon.
John

Orange Grass

Calico Pennant

7-29 Green Wood Orchid

7-29
Green Wood Orchid is a plant of wet woods.
Culver's Root favors dry woods and meadows. These were along a Newfane roadside.
A Monarch caterpillar fed beside Green Mountain Camp Rd. this morning.
John

Green Wood Orchid

Culver's Root

Monarch caterpillar

7-28 Partridge Pea

7-28
Partridge Pea is flowering in sandy, thinly vegetated areas.
The Turk's-cap Lilies in my garden are attracting Silver-spotted Skippers.
Black and Yellow Millipedes are adding a bit of color to the leaf litter.
John

Partridge Pea

Turk's-cap Lilies and Silver Spotted Skippers

Black and Yellow Millipede

7-27 Great Golden Digger Wasp

7-27
Great Golden Digger Wasps are nectaring on Wild Clematis.
Black and Yellow Argiopes (AKA Garden Spiders) are spinning webs in weed patches.
Whorled Milkwort is starting to flower, albeit obscurely.
John

Great golden Digger Wasp

Black and Yellow Argiope

Whorled Milkwort

7-26 Cottontail

7-26
A rather foolish, young Cottontail let me approach to within 8 - 10 feet before it hopped off into a cornfield.
One Monarch Butterfly nectared on Joe Pye Weed and another laid eggs on Black Swallowwort. Swallowwort is closely related to Milkweed but Monarch caterpillars probably can't survive while eating it. Therefore Black Swallowwort is a bit of a black hole for Monarchs.
John

Cottontail

Monarch on Joe Pye Weed

Monarch on Black Swallowwort

7-25 Wild Clematis

7-25
Wild Clematis is climbing through thickets. The feathery hairs of its fruiting stage are called Old Man's Beard.
Carpetweed sprawls across disturbed ground. Tiny long stalked white flowers grow from its leaf axils.
A small but colorful Scarlet and Green Leafhopper proved photo worthy.
John

Wild Clematis

Carpetweed

Scarlet and Green Leafhopper

7-24 Pinesaps

7-24
Pinesap is a saprophyte of pine or oak woods. They may be tan, yellow or red and each talk has multiple flowers.
As might be expected, a Sumac Leaf Beetle posed on a Sumac leaf.
John

Pinesap

Sumac Leaf Beetle

7-23 Pale Touch-me-not

7-23
Pale Touch-me-nots are flowering. Look for them in damp, shady places with rich soil.
What was once a Baltimore Oriole feeder has been taken over by Honey Bees and other nectar lovers.
John

Pale Touch-me-not

Oriole feeder and Honey Bees

7-22 White Turtlehead

7-22
White Turtlehead is flowering in ditches and wet meadows. Its flowers turn pinkish with age. There is also a garden variety Pink Turtlehead that occasionally escapes.
John

7-21 Indian Pipes

7-21
Saprophytic Indian Pipes are pushing up through the leaf litter. Its flowers are nodding at first but turn upright when fruiting.
One of the Sunflowers is brightening thickets and weedy roadsides. Newcomb's Wildflowers lists 11 sunflower species, many of which are very similar.
John

Indian Pipes

Sunflower

7-20 Canadian burnet

7-20
Along the banks of the West River Canadian Burnet's dense flower spikes rise over thickets. Surprisingly burnet is a member of the rose family.
John

7-19 White and Blue Vervain

7-19
The interrupted flower spikes of White Vervain wave over dry thickets. The denser flower spikes of Blue Vervain rise over moist thickets, meadows and shores.
John

White Vervain

Blue Vervain

7-18 Bull Thistle

7-18
Bull Thistles are starting their flowering and a large fungus, tentatively identified as Berkley's Polypore, loomed large beside a local road this morning.
John

Bull Thistle

Berkley's Polypore (tentatively)

7-17 Common Burdock

7-17
Common Burdock graces roadsides, old fields and will soon festoon haired dogs.
Indian Tobacco prefers open woods and weedy fields. I often find it on old logging roads.
John

Common Burdock

Indian Tobacco

7-16 Hatpins

7-16
In shallow water and on muddy shores Hatpins lift tiny white gemlike flowers.
John

Hatpins

7-15 Purple Headed Sneezeweed

7-15
Yellow three lobed rays surrounding a purple brown disk makes Purple Headed Sneezeweed easy to identify.
A deeply cut, green lip gives Ragged Fringed Orchid its name.
John

Purple Headed Sneezeweed

Ragged Fringed Orchid

7-14 Evening Primrose and moth

7-14
Common Evening Primrose is visited by a Primrose Moth and Teasel looms large along a local roadside.
John

Evening Primrose and Primrose Moth

Teasel

7-13 Wild Mint

7-13
Small lilac flowers clustered in its leaf axils make Wild Mint easy to identify.
White Wood Asters prefer dry woods and clearings.
A mostly white Bittersweet contrasted nicely with its dark green neighbors. Note that a few of the plants lower leaves are producing a chlorophyl patchwork.
John

Wild Mint

White Wood Asters

Albinistic Bittersweet

7-12 Showy Tick Trefoil

7-12
Showy Tick Trefoils are opening dense racemes of rose-purple flowers.
Wild Sensitive Plant's tiny yellow flowers and leaves that respond to human touch can be found along dry roadsides.
The nymphal husks of Dogday Harvestflies, our local cicada, hang long after the fly has flown.
John

Showy Tick Trefoil

Wild Sensitive Plant

Dogday Harvestfly Nymphal Husk

7-11 Spotted Wintergreen

7-11
Spotted Wintergreen, AKA Striped Wintergreen, is in flower. This species is relatively common in Dummerston but uncommon statewide.
Joe-Pye Weed is starting to open a few of its flowers. This plant has medicinal uses and was named after a Native healer.
John

Spotted Wintergreen

Joe-Pye Weed

7-10 Lady's Thumb

7-10
The tiny pink flowers of Lady's Thumb are opening. Dark leaf splotches make it easy to identify and it is very common.
On the river cobble Creeping Spearwort is living up to its name.
A Skipper - perhaps a Delaware Skipper - sat for a picture. Lepidopterists argue over whether Skippers are butterflies or should be classified in a group of their own.
John

Lady's Thumb

Creeping spearwort

Skipper

7-9 Wild Basil

7-9
Pink or purple flowers in bristly terminal clusters make Wild Basil easy to identify. Look for it in edge habitats.
Purple striped white or purple flowers and a hairy stem are identifiers for Hemp Nettle. It grows along roadsides and in waste places.
The purple or green flowers of Helleborine - an introduced orchid - pop up almost anywhere. Some call it the 'weed orchid."
John

Cheryl's moth  is a Virginia Creeper Sphinx. A beauty! It must have just emerged.

Wild Basil

Hemp Nettle

Helleborine