The American Groundnut (Apios americana) is a plant in the legume family. I knew that it was on the grasslands, but had not run across it before. Previously, I had only seen it in Cooke County thanks to Shirley. The 20th outing however was to be my day.
As you can see the American Groundnut (Apios americana) is a vine. The vine is pubescent (fuzzy) and can reach up to 12 feet long. We encountered it next to the overflow pipe of the pond that we were heading towards.
The flowers are a beautiful brick red! The early Americans used the tuber for food.
The nearby Yellow Passion Flower(Passiflora lutea) was slightly worst for the wear.
Now that we were getting closer to the pond, the brush thicken. If we were to get through this we needed the pruning shears.
A sawfly larva with a waxy coat was on a Greenbriar vine. How do you distinguish sawflies? In short, look for only one eye per side and prolegs on all the abdomen segments.
My first goal of the morning was to reached this pond. The Great Blue Heron was standing on the far side and this is where Davis the dog (not pictured here) parted ways with us.
The brambles were thick along the edge, but it was the only place to move forward. So this lichen covered Honey Locust branch needed trimmed for us to continue.
In tomorrow’s post, I will take you up the drainage ditch that feeds the pond.
Hope you had on your snake gaiters
Nope, just gaiters to keep grass burs, seeds and ticks out.
The groundnut flowers are way cool!