Tangled Branches: Cultivated
happenings in and around my zone 6b gardens in northern Virginia and in central Virginia
Saturday, September 08, 2007
Fungi, Flowers, Firmament
The tomato tide has turned, and I can get back to exploring the woods and fields.
Starting with the last rain (August 26), mushrooms began popping up everywhere. Ordinary-looking mushrooms, mushrooms that look like molded plastic foam, inverted mushrooms, and these storybook mushrooms. I haven't the faintest idea what any of these might be, and I don't intend to taste any of them, but I noticed that some of them had been gnawed on. And there was a kind of dried-porcini truffle-y odor about, but I don't know where it was coming from.
The woods' edge has surprised me with some very pretty wildflowers lately. This one is a beauty. Truly. It's called Virginia Meadow Beauty, and the entire plant is attractive. The opposite leaves with prominent veins form a very regular pattern; the fruit capsule is an interesting urn shape, and the bright yellow stamens/anthers are very striking against the soft magenta-pink petals. In another spot, grows her cousin - the Maryland Meadow Beauty. Not quite as pretty, perhaps, because the flowers are much lighter in color. Maryland seems more compact and bushier than Virginia, but that may be because my spouse weed-whacked Maryland earlier this year.
Then there's this thing. I know it's an Aureolaria (formerly Gerardia?), but I'm having a hard time getting the species. It's apparently quite tasty, because most of the leaves have been chewed off one of them, and also some of the flower stalks. I haven't gotten a really good picture of it yet, either, but this is an open flower that's fallen to the ground. This genus is said to be parasitic on the roots of white oak trees, but I'm wondering if it's more of a symbiotic relationship than parasitic. Need to do some reading about this.
A couple more woods' edge plants now in bloom are the very tiny Curtis' Milkwort and a Lobelia which may or may not be L. siphilitica. The inflorescence doesn't look as dense to me as the pictures I've seen of L. siphilitica, and some of these are very tall (close to 5 ft. where they're growing up through some small sweet gum trees). So I don't know yet, but I'll spend some time with the field guides and try to get a positive ID.
Up in the field, there are bright yellow billows of a Bidens, either aristosa or coronata, or maybe both. These were aflutter with butterflies yesterday, and they have the same honey fragrance that I've noticed in my 'Fireworks' goldenrod. There are patches of Eupatorium coelestinum or Blue Mist Flower, and nature provided a pretty combination with magenta legume that I've not identified.
Those are the wildflower highlights. Some of the tree leaves are starting to turn, but I don't want to talk about it yet.
We enjoyed our evening beverage last night by starlight. The Summer Triangle and Milky Way were high overhead, and I saw 3 shooting stars in about 20 minutes.
Labels: astronomy, fungi, wildflowers
5 Comments:
Those meadow beauties are indeed. Do you know the botanical names for them? I've not seen them before and would like to investigate.
I wouldn't rule out l. syphilicata just because those plants are so tall. My great blue lobelia got to at least 4ft tall in my garden at the old house... even though in my parents' woods it grows more at groundcover size.
Blackswamp Girl: The Virginia Meadow Beauty is Rhexia virginica, and the Maryland Meadow Beauty is R. mariana. I hadn't heard of them either until they bloomed here and I looked them up.
Somewhere I read that L. siphilitica tops out at 3', and that's what had me confused about the 5' tall ones.
Thanks, Entangled! I will have to go look those up later. :)
I think that I have read the same about both those and the red cardinalflowers, but it's been my experience that they're more like 4ft or so. Maybe it depends on how much moisture they get at key times in their growth?
You have beautiful things growing in your part of the world, Entangled - and it's fun to be introduced to new plants. As Kim noted, those beauties were named correctly.
Almost everything you've shown us today is new to me - except for the cartoon mushrooms.
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
Blackswamp Girl: That's interesting about the height variation in the lobelias. I think all the plants I observed were the same species (the flowers all look the same), but some are sprawling and some are very tall. I thought maybe the taller ones were that way because they had sturdy little sweet gum trees to lean on.
Annie: You don't happen to know what the cartoon mushrooms are, do you? I Googled "orange mushroom", but didn't see anything exactly the same. Guess I need a mushroom book.
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