Wild Cucumber & Milkweed Seed Pods

Wild Cucumber

Concombre Grimpant

(Echinocystis lobata)

[ak-in-oh-SIS-tiss   low-BAH-tuh]

Common Milkweed
Asclépiade Commune
(Asclepias syriaca)
[ass-KLE-pee-us    seer-ee-AK-uh]

Four Phots from Yesterday . . . . (and what ever happened to September?)

Catching Up

            
            Again, like usual, I need to catch up a bit. Following are a few of the photos that were special for me in the past week or so. 

            During the last week of July, Fleur-Ange and I went on a Dragonfly Walk. In addition to the dragonflies seen, or not seen by me as I seemed to have difficulty picking them out from the background, we saw flowers. The Moth Mullein in the photo below was the tallest that I have ever seen!

            A "normal" Moth Mullein would be about up the waist of the man in the photo instead of being almost twice his height. We were in a river bottom field that was too wet this spring for any crop to be planted so it went to wild flowers.

            Speaking of wild flowers, I had been watching a White Trillium on our property all spring and summer. On July 28th when I went to check on it, the seedpod fell off exposing the seeds. I thought, briefly, about collecting the seeds and trying to plant them in the small forest next to our driveway but the instructions for planting were rather daunting and the seeds would have had to overwinter for one or two years so I was afraid I would not be able to keep track of them. In any case, it took a day or so for me to get back to the plant and by then the seeds and pod were gone so I will just have to watch the area where the original plant was to see if they come up there in a year or two. Below is the photo of the pod with the seeds coming out.

                       Capturing photos of butterflies is always a lucky affair. Below is a Summer Azure that I had the good luck to get.

             Some moths are easier to photograph as a few tend to fly at night and then stop and stay where they land for the daylight hours. Our barn is always a good place to look for moths. Below is a False Crocus Geometer Moth that I have seen many times over the years in our barn and finally have a name to attach to it.

Cicada, Cicada, Cicada

            According to various sources, there are over 3000 species of Cicada's in the world. I watched one come out of it's shell many years ago. If I had been more patient this morning, and if there were a few thousand less mosquitoes around, I could have watched this one come out. As it was, I saw it emerging and thought, mistakenly, that it had got stuck and died as it did not move when I touched it. However, I did go back a few minutes later just to check and found that it had emerged and was drying before taking off to look for a mate. These photos will have to do this time.

Lots of Blooms - So Little Blogging

            As usual, I think of blogging everyday and don't take the time to actually do any. Following are some of the flowers, and other things, that I have put up on other platforms in the last week or two.

Canada Sanicle

aka Canada Black-snakeroot

aka Short-styled Snakeroot (Newcomb's WF Guide)

Sanicle du Canada

(Sanicula canadensis)

Found on the Grand Valley Trail near Hardy Road

in Brantford, Ontario
July 8, 2019.

Wolf Milk Slime Mold

Lait de Loup

(Lycogala epidendrum)

Found on an old log

in the RBG's Hendrie Valley, Hamilton, Ontario
July 12, 2019.

Wild Yam

Igname Velue

(Dioscorea villosa)

Female flowers on a female vine

found in RBG's Hendrie Valley

on the left.

Male flowers on a male vine

found in RBG's Capt. Cootes' Trail

in the wilderness section of the Arboretum

Hamilton, Ontario

on the right side of the photo;
July 12, 2019.

Pale Jewelweed
aka Pale Touch-me-not
Impatiente Pâle
(Impatiens pallida)
found in the RBG's Hendrie Valley Trails
Hamilton, Ontario
July 19, 2019.

Hoary Alyssum

Berteroa Blanc

(Berteroa incana)

found on the outer "wild" edge

of the RBG's Rose Garden 

on July 19, 2019.