Late Bloomers

While out admiring the beavers' engineering project the other day, I "discovered" some new plants.

This first one took me forever to key out! It wasn't until I was showing someone the sketch for pussytoes that I found it.

It is Arrow-leaved Tearthumb (Polygonum sagittatum).

A close look at the stem (and leaf shape) explains the name. It was growing in a dense mat (if you can call something a couple feet tall a mat) along the shoreline just below the new beaver dam.

Along the boardwalk on the other side of the Rich Lake Outlet I came across these golden yellow flowers:

This one also took me a while to key out. Turns out it is Beggar Ticks (Bidens frondosa), aka Sticktight. Now this is a plant with whose seeds I am quite familiar, but I'd never seen the plant! The seeds are brown triangles, longer than wide, with a prong sticking off each end of the short leg. These prongs are what stick tight(ly) to passing animals and people.

The flowers were very popular with an assortment of flies. You can tell they are flies, by the way, by looking for two characteristics. One: flies have two wings, not four. Having said that, I recently had a entomologist tell me that the two wing criterion can be iffy for ID. He recommended the second trait: look for the halteres. These are, as he described them, pads upon which the wings rest. They also function, I believe, as stabilizers during flight. On some flies they are quite obvious, while on others you have to really look for them.

Mushrooms were around, too:

This, I believe, is Amanita porphyria.

This yellow one, upon which the slug is dining, is possibly another Amanita.

I love these little red ones. Those are hemlock needles at their bases, so you can see that they are very tiny. Any ideas?

I loved this little one. It was in good company with a lot of little friends. Getting a close up without a real macro lens was tough, and it kept getting washed out. I love how it's growing on a leaf.

Molds are everywhere!

I think I have found the source of fuzzy pink slippers:

After the Storm

It was a blustery day in the Adirondacks yesterday (actually, it was blustery pretty much all around NY). Severe thunderstorms crossed the state, and tornado watches were initiated. As we sat here in the dark, listening to the weather radio and watching the temperature drop from 81 to 64 degrees (Fahrenheit), and tracking the storm on the computer, we were pretty sure that the darkening sky and the whipping wind spelled doom for us. And yes, the storm was headed for Newcomb...but the other end of town. The VIC got maybe a drop or two of rain and that was it.

The boss was greatly disappointed.

Still, the weather redeemed itself later on when a second stream of storms passed over during the night, yielding great thunder and lightning displays, and strong gusting winds. No hail or tornados, and only 0.2" of rain, but it was a more impressive display.

Today, however, it is a different world. The heat and humidity of the last several days has passed and it is a glorious true Adirondack day. The air is cool thanks to the strong wind that is blowing, which is serving double duty by helping keep the insects at bay.

On a quick trip around the Rich Lake Trail, we had some neat finds:

a funky red slime mold;

bunchberry (Cornus canadensis) - note the flowers are actually in the center, and the white "petals" are actually bracts, like the red "petals" on poinsettias;

dragonflies (how many wings do you see?);

and the day's star - rattlesnake fern (Botrychium virginianum).

The dragonflies have me flummoxed (what a great word). Eight wings?!? I have two photos, taken about 15 minutes apart (one when I headed out on the trail and the other when I came back), so they are likely of two different individuals, and each one shows eight wings! Could it be a trick of the light? It's not shadows, because the colored spot on the leading edge of the wings is in color on all eight wings. Could it be from the wings moving and the camera capturing what is essentially double exposure (but I don't recall the wings being in motion when I took the photos)? Or maybe we have mutant dragonflies! The jury is out on this one. I have a call in to a dragonfly person - will keep you posted.