This week's bloomlist for Wildflower Island is at the end of the post, and Bonnie's
pictures can be found HERE. Peterson names are used for consistency wherever possible,
and comments and clarifications are welcome in the comments section.
ON THE ISLAND
The Orpine Hylotelephium telephioides was in bud, some ready to open, but I am not putting it, since when it opens, it’s really a noticeable flower (below left, photo from the net by Michael Huft). None of the buds were open today. By the way, Peterson calls it Sedum telephium, but there’s consensus about the Hylotelephium Latin name.
Bartonia (right): I am including this in the bloomlist because after looking closely at it to see whether it was flowering or gone to seed and finding this picture on internet, decided what we had today were some florets, and some gone to seed.
IN THE WOODS
It’s difficult to know whether to include a plant in the bloomlist when most has gone to seed and only a few “bloomlets” (hardly the right word) are left. Mostly we decide on the spot whether to include one of these sparsely flowered plants or not, but this week Bonnie did the pictures on Wednesday and I was there today. Bonnie was able to capture a couple of these remaining bloomlets in her pictures, but I missed them altogether and did not include them. It’s possible that what she saw yesterday were gone by today. You might want to keep a look-out for any remaining Indian-tobacco and Rough Bedstraw.
We might have missed Pilewort Erechtites hieracifolia in The Woods last week, because I saw a 4-foot specimen of it today.
In a former year, I referred to one of the Willow-herbs as “Narrow-leaved Willow-herb,” and I don’t know if that was a mistake. Today’s I think is “Purple-leaved Willow-herb,” Epilobium coloraturum, because of the sharply toothed leaves. It likes wet ground. Peterson says: “Note the distinctly toothed leaves” with seedpods “stiffly ascending.” That’s ours.
Nicely flowering grass on the Birdblind Boardwalk is Rice Cutgrass (GoBotany: https://gobotany.newenglandwild.org/species/leersia/oryzoides/). The stems are covered with stiff hairs, so they can scratch you, or cling to you. The picture at the right is from Illinois wildflower site (https://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/grasses/plants/rice_cutgrass.htm), which says it has “leaf blades that can slice through human flesh. In addition to its sharp leaf blades, the rough foliage of this grass can cling tenaciously to clothing, flesh, or fur. It is an unpleasant experience to walk through a dense colony of this grass. These unpleasant characteristics help to distinguish Rice Cutgrass from other grasses: In my experience, no other grass species in Illinois has such sharp leaf blades and rough foliage!”
Hog-peanut is finally blooming (in The Woods). Peterson gives the Latin name Amphicarpa bracteata, but USDA and many others say Amphicarpaea.
Crabgrass: I found a small Crabgrass today that had no hairs on it, and exactly fits the description in Illinois: http://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/grasses/plants/sm_crabgrass.htm. Last week, I thought I had Hairy Crabgrass, but it might have been what I think I saw today, Smooth Crabgrass Digitaria ischaemum. We have to watch out for this in the next two bloomlists and also next year to see if we just have the Smooth, or both of them. (Actually, the Smooth has always been on the WFI spreadsheet; I added Hairy last year.)
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