Yesterday, I took advantage of the cooler morning for an outing on the grasslands. As per the usual, the outing was great! Several new insects for me and another location for the Southern Shield Fern. However, with the front, we only got one short and brief breeze on top of the barrens. Still I can not complain because of how lucky we are to have the grasslands right in our backyards!
So we arrived before sunrise. And this is about 5 or 10 minutes into the walk.
A Darkling Beetle (Tenebrionidae family)clinging to several blades of grass.
I call these Cow patty mushrooms. Evidently the cows had been here recently. But not too recent as the patty was dry.
So why do you think this small ash had the curve? Maybe just because LOL. The smaller tree is a Shumard Oak.
Sumac is one of the plants that have started to turn colors.
You can still occasionally find the Mountain Pinks (Centaurium beyrichii)!
Whitlow Wort (Paronychia virginica) has started blooming!
Here is the often overlooked Rock Hedeoma (Hedeoma x serphllifolia). An easy way to distinguish the Hedeomas is by smell. The way to do this is to crush a leaf between your fingers. This one has camphor odor.
The flower of the Rock Hedeoma are small.
In current news, we got rain today! Isn’t that wonderful! Gracie got a rain bath. That makes her fluffy! Our total at this time is .89 inches! No complaints here!
Now this is the craziest song about a real creature. I do not know who this guy is, but he is describing the critter perfectly according to what I read about it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNos1iMCmts Here is a blog that further describes Leucochloridium paradoxum. Parasite of the Day.
Keep looking!
The more you know, the more you see and the more you see, the more you know.
9 Comments
Good pic of you and gracie. Thats a crazy song about parasites. Poor snails
I’m so glad Shirley taught us about the different species of Hedeoma having different fragrances.
Now tell me how you get to the hundreths decimal point on a rain gauge. I can tell a portion of a tenth and am guessing yesterday’s rain here was .07 as in not half a tenth and not a whole tenth.
Kathy
Kathy, We use a Davis weather station instrument. Jim got it for me years ago. It reports back to inside the house and logs the reading too. Really niffy.
A favorite Shirley story of mine was how at BRIT they tested her nose. They took out some old (really old) specimens and asked her to smell. She did and got the species right each time. My smeller is not near at that level as some of you know. In fact, I can still hear Shirley say to me, “can’t you smell that” LOL
I either didn’t know that story or forgot. How funny and Shirley had one of those valuable noses like mine (smelled a gas leak before they could detect it).
I’ll give Gary this info. Good birthday idea right?
Good pic of you and gracie. Thats a crazy song about parasites. Poor snails
So crazy indeed!
My hedeoma in the garden has completely gone to seed. Hope it comes back
I got my fingers crossed for the hedeoma!
That’s a really an unworldly parasite!
I’m so glad Shirley taught us about the different species of Hedeoma having different fragrances.
Now tell me how you get to the hundreths decimal point on a rain gauge. I can tell a portion of a tenth and am guessing yesterday’s rain here was .07 as in not half a tenth and not a whole tenth.
Kathy
Kathy, We use a Davis weather station instrument. Jim got it for me years ago. It reports back to inside the house and logs the reading too. Really niffy.
A favorite Shirley story of mine was how at BRIT they tested her nose. They took out some old (really old) specimens and asked her to smell. She did and got the species right each time. My smeller is not near at that level as some of you know. In fact, I can still hear Shirley say to me, “can’t you smell that” LOL
I either didn’t know that story or forgot. How funny and Shirley had one of those valuable noses like mine (smelled a gas leak before they could detect it).
I’ll give Gary this info. Good birthday idea right?
Another book is always a good gift to receive so you are welcome 😉