Bloomlist for July 18, 2019

    This week's bloomlist for Wildflower Island is at the end of the post, and Bonnie's pictures (from
    July 11th) can be found HERE. Peterson names are used for consistency wherever possible,
    and comments and clarifications are welcome in the comments section.

We couldn't take pictures today because the list was done in the rain, but there are still a few things to say, and the comments relating to Virginia Stickseed and the insect-infested Yellow Loosestrife in my July 15th post are still relevant.

I have put Sweetflag (Acorus calamus) on the list today to help clarify whether it's blooming or not. Apparently not, as the whole spadix of the one on the map at no. 27 has turned tawny brown. Comparing it to the flowering stage shown in the Illinois picture on the left, our sample doesn't look as if it's blooming any longer. 


Below is diagram of the structure of these Arum plants (credit to E.M. Armstrong at the Palomar site), a webpage that has quite a few diagrams of flower structures and terminology.

    

Another one I'm having trouble with is Bartonia (Bartonia virginica), which for the third week I'm expecting to "flower," but it still looks in bud — if it's Bartonia in the first place, and if those bud-looking protuberances are really buds. Below left is a fuzzy picture of it from July 4th, and below right is a flowering version of it from GoBotany. The very small flowers look bigger in the picture than on the plant itself. The whole thing is about 8 inches tall.

 

I'll try to get a better look at this next week, because I want to exclude the possibility it's a Bartonia paniculata, called Twining Screwstem in GoBotany and not described in Peterson. 

With her cellphone and in spite of the rain, Rachel got nice pictures of a Pokeweed (Phytolacca americana) in The Woods and the soon-to-blossom Cardinal-flower (Lobelia cardinalis) on the Island.

 

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