Bloomlist July 4, 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.

Wow, does the Northeastern Rose (Rosa nitida) love its environment this week. These were near the birdblind, but the one on the Island, which we thought we had lost to the beavers, is also blooming on the edge of the lake. And catch another one of them just as you step onto the bridge to the Island out of the gatehouse, on the left behind the Buttonbush (which are not yet blooming).

Across from it is that Azalea-type shrub I still can't identify from last week, still blooming — see right. I think the leaves are too narrow, and maybe the stamens too short, for the Swamp Azalea, but it's more open this week (right). By the way, a slug is enjoying the tube of the bloom at 4 o'clock.

A close-up of the Swamp's rounder leaves on the GoBotany site left, which match all of the leaves on our Island's Swamps.

In that same area is one tiny little bit of Climbing Nightshade (Solanum dulcamara), which we thought the beavers had entirely obliterated.


The Island is decked out in Spotted Wintergreen (Chimaphila maculata, below left), and I love Bonnie's picture of the American Bur-reed (Sparganium americanum) peeking through the other swamp greenery (below right).

 

What looks like Cleavers or Madder at no.9 is probably Fragrant Bedstraw (Galium triflorum). Apart from the smooth stems that do not cling, there are 4 white petals, whorls of 6 chubby leaves and groups of 3 blooms. According to GoBotany, the fragrance comes from the dried leaves, which smell like vanilla. Gotta try that out. 

Check a possible Bartonia (Bartonia virginica) below left, which I put at no.22, and for that strangely contorted group of what I think are Swamp Candles right next to it. I had expected these to unfold by this time, but they never did. So are they what I think they are? Have they been disturbed by something botanically hurtful, or are they a different variety of this Loosestrife? Help would be good on this one. 

 

Also check for Indian-pipe (Monotropa uniflora), which we didn't notice today but was there last week.
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Just as you enter The Woods from the upper parking lot, there's a wonderful grass, which I think is Bottlebrush (Elymus hystrix), described by GoBotany here.  Didn't have my graminoid books with me, so I'm working from what Bonnie caught in her picture.

There's some Goutweed still blooming up there next to it, though the rest of the patch that's more visible from the path has pretty much gone to seed.

Catching the early morning sun were some Spotted Touch-me-not (Impatiens capensis) by the birdblind boardwalk. In Bonnie's fabulous picture of them, you can actually see sap oozing from the points on the leaves. That's why you're supposed to rub this plant on your hands if you accidentally touch poison ivy or nettles. According to the Forest Service, this plant 

. . . has a long history of use in Native American medicine. When applied topically, sap from the stem and leaves is said to relieve itching and pain from a variety of ailments, including hives, poison ivy, stinging nettle, and other skin sores and irritations. The sap has also been shown to have anti-fungal properties and can be used to treat athlete’s foot.

Urushiol is the name of the annoying sap in poison ivy and sumac, among others.

Hello to the Fringed Loosestrife (Lysimachia ciliata), which is blooming more than a week earlier than in more than 5 years, according to our notes. I think the Curled Dock has pretty much gone to seed, though I've included it in the Highlights.

A note about Hairy-rosette Panicgrass mentioned in the past couple of weeks but gone to seed by now. The plant is mostly hairy — stems and leaves —  but as shown in the picture below, grabbed from a Virginia Tech post, the top surfaces of the leaves are actually hairless.


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I'm throwing in something here that we didn't see on the Island or in The Woods today, but you might run across them around these parts. Both Quackgrass (or Couch Grass, Elymus repens) and Perennial Rye (Lolium perenne) have a single, narrow inflorescence at the top of the stem*, but note the striking positioning of the florets in relation to that stem. In the Rye, each little floret is lying in the same plane as the stem, as if you stepped on the thing and flattened it out, while in the Quackgrass, the back of the floret, which is still flat, faces the stem. The picture of the positioning is captured so well in this Eurofins webpage above right, but there are some other great close-ups at Life on an Oxfordfordshire Lawn and GoBotany.

* I should be using the term "culm" for the stem, but this blog is not meant to be too techy.

Here below are three samples from my street. The little florets of the two Rye cuttings on the left are opening flat in the same plane as the culms. The florets in the Quackgrass on the right are also opening flat, but they lie against the culm, not perpendicular to it.

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