Celestials!
More photos from the grasslands…
Eastern Red Cedar with fungus where a limb had been cut off.
Closer view.
Gnarly oak!
Can you find the dragonfly?
Closer…sometimes even when you know where it is, they can be hard to spot. It is a female Common Whitetail.
Greenbriar is starting to flower. This is a host plant to several moths species.
Closer view. I actually saw the neighbor’s cow munching on the tender greenbriar. I am told it tastes like asparagus; just tastes green to me.
This insect was eating on the new Blackjack leaf. Pretty neat the way it was eating. Sometimes the method that insect eats, can help with identification. I do not know what kind this one is.
Wild plums are setting their fruit!
Another example of a different type of eating method. Notice how it is leaving the veins of the leaf. This caterpillar was found on the Chittamwood.
New leaves on sumac with last year’s berries.
The lichens were really pretty. There are two types of fruticose lichen (the shrubby ones) and foliose lichens on this twig.
This is the creek we have been going to lately. The Cursed Buttercup (Ranunculus sceleratus) has finally started to bloom! Interesting common name, eh.
Close view!
A beaver’s home in the bank.
A view looking towards the 5 acre lake.
This is where the fish were last week. We didn’t see any this time. I used a laminated foldout guide called Freshwater Fishes of Texas and the Peterson’s guide to come up with guess of the Chain Pickerel. I consulted with Dr. Edith C. Marsh-Matthews and Dr. Bill Matthews (both University of Oklahoma.) for further help. They could not say for sure what fish we found. They could not rule out the pickerel or the large mouth bass with the photos I took. Edie said, she would need to see better photos of the dorsal and anal fins. She said many people transplant fish they catch to their private ponds. Edie and Bill are currently working on a fish book. I’m looking forward to seeing it! And thanks to Claire for pointing me to them!
At home, my one bunch of Celestials bloomed! There is a tiny katydid on one of the flowers. Thanks Jim for letting me know the Celestials were blooming!
It is crazy, but this is my only reliable bunch to bloom. One year I had twenty plants blooming.
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A good day!!
I have a nice scattering of celestials flowering in my yard too. Love them!
Dragonfly was hard to find but found without close up.
Judy, You are good!
Suzanne, Sounds like you got a wonderful yard!
Mary, we left part of our acre wild (much to our neighbors' distress), and that's where the celestials grow. This year our flowering colony numbers about 9 plants.
Suzanne, It is pretty distressful for us botany people to see the others' yards. You are lucky to have your 9! I hope someday everyone's yard will be more like yours!