plants – A Thousand Acres of Silphiums

It’s Spring Again!

birds, macro, native plants, Nesting Birds of Missouri, wildlife, wildlife photography

As much as I love the change of seasons generally, nothing can beat the excitement and enjoyment of the arrival of spring. I simply can’t get out of doors enough during April and May. This past weekend Miguel and I had a great time in hunting newly arrived birds and newly emerged plants at a few of our favorite spots not too far from home. Here are a few photos from our day out.

First, a beautiful male Prairie Warbler from Weldon Springs Conservation Area.

Orange-crowned Warbler photographed at Bush Wildlife Conservation Area

A Worm-eating Warbler also found at Bush Wildlife C.A.

After a brick-fired pizza for lunch, we crossed the river to another favorite nearby location – Engelmann Woods Conservation Area. Here we were hoping to find the Wister’s coralroot orchid for Miguel to scratch off his list. During a good year, hundreds of flowering stems of this species can be found here. This year we found 15-20 stems just by looking along a mile or so along the trail.

*Corallorhiza wisteriana* (Wister’s coralroot)

Finally, we were able to find three stems of the parasitic Orobanche uniflora (one-flowered broomrape) mere inches off of the trail.

Hoping you find the time to get out and enjoy this wonderful spring!

-OZB

Orchid season is here!

macro

The 2021 season has started with great success. The following orchids were found in Stoddard County on a trip with Pete Kozich, Casey Galvin and Stephen Dilks. Many thanks to all of you for your parts in finding these and several other fascinating plants on this day. It was a pleasure botanizing with you.

Sand loving plants!

macro, native plants

*Monarda punctata* (spotted beebalm) found at Sand Ridge State Forest, IL.

Today I’m sharing a couple of plants that Casey introduced me to that have a preference for growing in dry, sandy places. The first is a monarda that I did not know existed and has since become my favorite of the beebalms for certain.

Next up is Callirhoe triangulata, the clustered poppymallow. This supremely saturated flower strongly prefers, dry sandy soils. A stunner of a plant! We looked for compositions that allowed us to feature not only the flower, but the triangular-shaped leaf as well, which is indicative of this species. This species is very rare to possibly extirpated in Missouri.

*Callirhoe triangulata* (clustered poppymallow)

We found this equally striking Rufous-banded Crambid moth (Mimoschinia rufofascialis) on an open flower. This moth uses these mallows as a host plant, feeding on the immature seeds. I’m not sure, but I doubt the adults feed; this one was likely just using the flower for shelter.

*Callirhoe triangulata* (clustered poppymallow) with adult *Mimoschinia rufofascialis* (Rufous-banded Crambid)

-OZB

Fragrant Water Lilies

native plants

Here is a series of the freshly blooming Fragrant Water Lilies (Nymphaeaceae – Nymphaea odorata) taken at Shaw Nature Reserve this past summer. I converted these to look like oil paintings using Photoshop CS6.

Fragrant Water Lilies - 2 — Fragrant Water Lilies – 2

This plant uses an interesting pollination strategy. Insects are attracted to the flower and land on the concave tip of the ovary which contains a small amount of liquid. If the insect has visited another lily flower previously, then the pollen it is carrying gets washed off in this fluid and pollinates the flower. Often, the insect pollinator (usually small, native bees) will not be able to escape this small pool before the flower closes for the night and will therefore drown. See Steyermark’s Flora of Missouri by George Yatskievych for more details on these interesting wetland plants.

Water Lilies - 3 — Fragrant Water Lilies – 3

Thanks for visiting…
-OZB