Category: flora

Arilus cristatus

procreating
The reproductive cycle of the wheel bug initiates in autumn. When a pair of wheel bugs encounter each other and have coitus, the female will lay 40-200 small, brown, cylindrical eggs on a tree twig, and eventually die. The eggs will hatch in the next spring into eighth millimeter long red nymphs, which will undergo 5 molts until they reach the adult stage the following summer.
They are predators upon soft-bodied insects such as caterpillars, Japanese beetles, etc., which they pierce with their beak to inject salivary fluids that dissolve soft tissue. Because most of their prey are pests, wheel bugs are considered as beneficial to the garden as ladybugs. They are also known for eating stinkbugs.-Wikipedia
(these two in a q.alba)

vegetative phase

cannabis
As is common in serrated leaves, each serration has a central vein extending to its tip. However, the serration vein originates from lower down the central vein of the leaflet, typically opposite to the position of, not the first notch down, but the next notch. This means that on its way from the midrib of the leaflet to the point of the serration, the vein serving the tip of the serration passes close by the intervening notch. Sometimes the vein will actually pass tangent to the notch, but often it will pass by at a small distance, and when that happens a spur vein (occasionally a pair of such spur veins) branches off and joins the leaf margin at the deepest point of the notch.–Wikipedia

Anura

tree tube frog
Tree tubes offer protection from the herbivores, insects and an extended growing season for saplings. I do wonder what the environment has to offer for a frog? How did he/she gain access?

indigenous fruit

pawpaw
The paw paw is the largest edible fruit indigenous to the United States. Asimina triloba has had numerous local common names including: wild banana, prairie banana, Indiana banana, Hoosier banana, West Virginia banana, Kansas banana, Kentucky banana, Michigan banana, Missouri banana, the poor man’s banana, Ozark banana, and banango.-Wikipedia

Pinus palustris

pinus palustris grass stage
Before European settlement, longleaf pine forest dominated as much as 90,000,000 acres stretching from Virginia south to Florida and west to eastern Texas. That range has been vastly reduced. These are not popular trees with pine plantation folk. This form is called the grass stage. During this stage, which lasts for 5–12 years, vertical growth is very slow, and the tree may take a number of years simply to grow ankle-high.
Longleaf pine takes 100 to 150 years to become full size and may live to be 500 years old. When young, they grow a long taproot, which usually is 2–3 m (6.6–9.8 ft) long; by maturity they have a wide spreading lateral root system with several deep ‘sinker’ roots.–Wikipedia

Herbivores above and below. Last year grackles killed ten of these trees from above. This year I am struggling with the underground herbivores.
Herbivores above and below. Last year grackles killed ten of these trees from above. This year I am struggling with the underground denizens. Voles dig under plants, eat the roots until the plant falls over. I make 1′ diameter rat wire collars, buried at ground level. That way the voles have to work harder for their food.

rat wire in situ
This is a photo in process. Different plant, same species. Three hours after this photo was taken a mole tunnel appeared. Moles are carnivores. Earthworms a major part of their diet. The mole bumped into the wire. My theory is that voles opportunistically run mole tunnels. Just a theory…

Prunus × yedoensis

snap
D.C. packed above and below with tourists filling phone memory with cherry blossoms.

civility instruction
In a ceremony on March 27, 1912, First Lady Helen Herron Taft and Viscountess Chinda, wife of the Japanese ambassador, planted the first two of these trees on the north bank of the Tidal Basin in West Potomac Park.–Wikipedia
(March 26, 2016, Mr. Beaver’s call for civility was ignored. At least one tree was broken by climbers and stripped of flowers for personal adornment.)

grey and green touristinfrastructure
Republicans were once interested in the Environment, witness Teddy Roosevelt and National Parks, Dick Nixon and the EPA. What happened?
In 1965 Democrat Lady Bird Johnson accepted a bunch more Yoshino trees from the Japanese Government. They were planted on the grounds of the Washington Monument.

Couple on the tidal pool.
Many many selfie sticks in action on the perimeter of the Tidal Basin..

much of a muchness

swamp
Bennett’s Creek, the water later runs into the Chowan River then to Albemarle Sound. It is south and west of the Dismal Swamp

swamp
Merchants Mill Pond. via two-lane roads, south and east, skirting the Nottoway River, Courtland Road, Jerusalem Plank Road, Plank Road, through the town of Courtland, bypassing Franklin, crossing the Blackwater River, directly south to North Carolina on the Gates Road, rt.666, through Reynoldson, Wileyton. The Park is near Gatesville NC

open water
Much of a muchness? These clearly baldcypress, but upstream on Bennett’s creek, seemed that there were red maple and tupelo in the mix.