Bloomlist for June 20, 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.

Two pictures added since last night and some other updates in red ... 

A difficult day for us, as there were blooms we couldn't ID very well. I have to confess because of the rain, we did the list and the pictures at different times and have been trying to coordinate our best guesses much of the day.

I couldn't find anything in the books or online with that pink color in the plant above. Bonnie took it in The Woods looking up from the Waterfall Bridge towards the parking lot, uphill from the Privet.  I didn't see it at all in person.

Update: Danielle Begley-Miller a few hours ago pointed me in the direction of Spiraea. Both of us have come separately to the conclusion, though, that it cannot be S. japonica because those are more vibrantly pink. I'm thinking a variety of S. alba Du Roi, based on eFloras entry that says this species is sometimes "pink-tinged" in bud and that hybridizations "introduce intermediate forms that may be difficult to key." What's holding me back is the shape of the panicle, which eFlora says ranges from "narrowly conic" (this isn't) to "open, pyramidical" (maybe — will check again next week). That conical shape is seen in Lady Bird Johnson's picture on the right.

The Swamp Azaleas are in full bloom and smelling beautifully.

No.16 has not been identified because there aren't enough similarities to put it into either of the two genera that come to mind. For example, the Common and Wood Strawberries (Fragaria virginiana and  F. vesca) are hairy and have yellow centers and more pointy leaves. Blackberries have thorns.  If anyone knows what it is, please let us know and I'll update the list.




What I think is a very attractive grass can be seen at water's edge near the bench in the western flank of the island (no.24). I think it's Hairy-rosette Panicgrass (Dicanthelium acuminatum), but it might be a less hairy type of the genus, like the Small-fruited Panic Grass (D. microcarpon). I grabbed a picture of Hairy from iNaturalist (right).

Right around the bend at that point is an interesting patch of Yellow Loosestrife (Swamp Candles) (Lysimachia terrestris) unfolding. Note the circle of red dots at the base of each petal

Almost invisible in all the green is what I think is Blunt Spikerush (Eleocharis obtusa) on the left side of the Lizard's-tail swamp. They look like these at the right.

Most of the Fringed Sedges have had it, but a couple look still to be in bloom.  There are additional grasses on the Waterfall Bridge in The Woods, but I can't ID them. Pretty, though.


At the southern point of the path where the Stonecrop usually is there's a clump of individual slender grass culms spreading wide that's worth looking at for its sparseness. I think it's Poverty Oatgrass (Danthonia spicata). Again, we didn't get a picture of it, but see on the right (from the Texas database) for what it looks like. At the base are some curled up leaves from this year and last.

See below right for the scan I just made of it.

Doll's-eyes, the fruit of the White Baneberry, are worth noting, though they're not in their full-blown white-eyeball look this week.

It would be good to have some more input on the Bluets patch by the Great Rhodo, which we've been calling Large Houstonia (Houstonia purpurea) for a couple of weeks. A new patch of them came up this week which in some ways looks more like the Long-leaved Bluets (Houstonia longifolia) in Peterson, and we've run into this problem before trying to figure out whether the difference in leaf shape, size, veining is the result of not getting enough sun or hybridizing. But there do seem to be two kinds of them at that spot.


I think Teatown cleared out most of the Curled Dock, but we saw one of them in The Woods on the way to the Bird Blind. GoBotany's illustration below left (taken by Arieh Tal), is really good, but the one we saw today didn't have that rich red coloring yet. Maybe next week. There were, however, a few white bits on our plant — see close-up of Bonnie's picture below right — so I'm guessing it could be "in bloom," but I should have looked more closely because it's hard to believe those white bits are stamens.

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