Bloomlist for April 25, 2019

    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.

There were no Red Maple flowers on the path, though the trees themselves glistened red in the sun. That color came from the samaras (seedpods), which Bonnie got a good shot of (on the right).

Unless we’re mistaken, the Cucumber Magnolia survived the beavers. Not flowering yet, but large buds very visible across the marsh.



Another of Bonnie's  great close-ups is the Blue Cohosh (below).




On the Island and in the Woods are new Pignut Hickories, whose unfurling leaves look very much like flowers (below).

Backyard Nature says:

Each leaf bears five or seven leaflets. A pretty thing that hickories do when spring's leaf-bearing stems emerge from a twig's terminal buds like this is that the former buds' inner scales enlarge tremendously, becoming fleshy and colored. You can see such pink, inner scales in the picture curling back at the base of the vertical new stem. There's a special botanical word describing things that enlarge after flowering or after something has emerged from its bud, and that's "accrescent." A hickory's inner bud scales are beautifully accrescent . . . .

Below is their picture of a female Pignut flower, hard to see pale yellow tufts.

Not surprisingly, we spent some time on violets today and I would venture to say that all the yellow ones we saw were Downy Yellows (Viola pubescens). Note the fine hairs on stem and leaves, but also the serrated stipule, which are just about visible in Bonnie’s pictures (one of them below).

(The Smooth Yellows, which I don't think we saw today, have no hairs, 1–5 basal leaves, and smooth-edged stipules.)

As for whether we have Common Blue or Marsh Violets, am still not sure. GoBotany says the Common Blues have hairy foliage, with petal hairs tapering or rounded at the tips, whereas the Marsh’s foliage doesn’t have hairs and the petal hairs are knob-shaped at the tips (which Illinois says you might need a lens to see). I only had Peterson with me on the walk, so made a stab at Common Blue and Marsh using his descriptions, which included a shortened middle petal and darkening of the petal towards the middle. Enlargening Bonnie’s pictures show no hairiness on the leaves or stems, and the petal hairs do not look knobbed. They hybridize.

Did the Larch die, or was I looking at something else in that area today that did not look to be living?

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https://www.dropbox.com/s/rbhc8fv6rdwyd1b/2019-5-2%20rev.pdf?dl=0

Bloomlist for April 18, 2019

    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.

The fact that we noticed the Common Shadbush Amelanchier arborea so early on (compared to the past two years) makes me think that we’re not always in the habit of looking upwards to see the fully blooming white floral branches. I’m not that surprised, though, because the Trillium patch right below it is a definite attention-grabber, and I can't ever remember looking up at that point on the path. We actually saw it on the way out, with its white floral branches soaring above some lower shrubs. But maybe it's taller this year. In any case, Mary says the Shadbush is not a consistent bloomer.

Note: the Common Shadbush has longer petals than the Canadian Shadbush Amelanchier canadensis,;which are only 7-10 mm long as opposed to what we have in the pictures, each 15 mm long.

There’s a very small yellow violet that cannot be studied from the path, but first time we’ve seen it on the island. I believe it is a Round-leaved Yellow Violet Viola rotundifolia, which Peterson says is the only stemless yellow violet in our area, as well as being very small with roundish leaves close the ground.

Out in The Woods today were single appearances of two kinds of Viola sororia, the regular Common Blue and a Confederate (V. sororia fan priceana). There are some nice pictures and descriptions of this latter variety here).

Some clarification about a couple of botanical words I’d like to pass on. The one we’ve seen a lot of is “var.” (obviously, variety), which according to a BBC gardening website is used to identify a plant that has a “slightly different natural botanical structure” from the rest of the species. The abbreviation “f.” stands for “form,” which they say is used when the plant has “a minor difference to the species, such as leaf colour, flower colour or fruit.” And the “f.” is sometimes left out, so you’ll see, for example, Rosa rugosa f. alba or Rosa rugosa alba interchangeably.

I have looked all over for the meaning of the word “fan,” in Viola sororia fan priceana, but it’s got to be something along these variety/form lines, because alternate names for this variety of the Common Blue are: Viola sororia priceana, Viola sororia var. priceana, and Viola sororia fo. priceana.

A reminder more to myself than anyone else, the mostly 6, but sometimes 8-10 “petals” of the Rue-anemone are really sepals.

Apparently, Lesser Celandine will be removed from the island whenever it appears, in keeping with a Teatown policy to exert maximum control of this lovely, but licentious plant. The goose is still nesting, the Skunk Cabbage blooms almost entirely gone.

Bloomlist for April 10, 2019

     This week's bloomlist for Wildflower Island is at the end of the post.
     Peterson names are used for consistency wherever possible, and comments and
     clarifications are welcome in the comments section.

The new season started today with very few blooms but a couple of really nice surprises.

There are some lovely Bloodroot blooms walking down to the Island from the parking lot – go off the stone steps to the right, a little past the area where that big Red Trillium usually sits under the rockface.

Also in The Woods, there's a ton of Lesser Celandine around the stream and Waterfall Bridge (see the names of various locations at the end of this email). Strange that on WFI, though, not a single bud in the small patch of Celandine has yet opened…maybe by the weekend.

       

Red Maple florets are on the path in many places, Woods and WFI. The Hybrid Witch-hazel “Diane" (pink) is very much in bloom, and some of the Spicebush shrubs below them on the hill are blooming yellow and smelling great. I suspect more will be open by the weekend.

Welcoming us once again to WFI this season was this matron, who apparently does not “leave the nest, eat, drink, or bathe while the eggs are incubating” (28-30 days). She’s on the left at the end of the bridge to the Island.

It is definitely catkin time, but I am not willing to try and name any of them except for the American Hazelnut, which was backlit by the setting sun this evening and magical. There seems to be more than one these Hazelnut shrubs in that spot on the Island, which I had not noticed before now. There are also some red and yellow catkins at Stonecrop Point, more lovely than the normal yellow or yellow-brown ones we usually see. (Picture, below right, taken by Rachel, Bonnie’s friend. She and Phyllis supplied all the pictures today, thankfully.)

Phyllis and I were able to catch a female bloom next to the male catkins of what I believe is a Hazelnut near the Witch-hazels in The Woods. Ours is the one below left — so difficult to get a picture of it in the wind with smartphone. It’s the first time I’ve seen those red petals (filaments). The one below right is a Beaked Hazelnut, Corylus cornuta. Wiki says the Beaked kind "is named from its fruit, which is a nut enclosed in a husk with a tubular extension 2–4 cm long that resembles a beak. Tiny filaments protrude from the husk and may stick into, and irritate, skin that contacts them.” Maybe that’s what we have here, in which case, we might be able to add Beaked Hazelnut to our species list for The Woods.

  

Most delightful of all were the Trailing Arbutus blooms, stretching along a very small ridge in their normal place on the Island for about two feet. So sweet. I did not see any Mottled Wild Ginger.

I found something interesting in the shrub book in the gatehouse, which I’ve left open for y'all on the counter. The female flowers of the Smooth Alder apparently extend outward or upward from the branch (see left), while those of the Speckled Alder droop downwards (right). But the two kinds of Alders grow near each other and hybridize, so this is not foolproof — only interesting.





Here’s what a beaver did to a large tree on the northern path of WFI before you get to the Bayberry.

Link in the sidebar for a reminder of the names I gave parts of the island and Woods last year to make it easier to pinpoint where something was seen.