tomerler's Favorites

Oriental Bittersweet naturalizing on private property north of the Sandy River, Rhododendron, OR.

Specimens were taken for submission to the Oregon State University herbarium. Specimens were confirmed as Celastrus orbiculatus by Aaron Liston and James Mickley.

This infestation had been actively managed by the property owner using manual methods for several years.

The patch was sprayed in in October 2023 using 0.5% imazapyr,

31734 VT
near treeline
David Barrington (VT) writes:
The character I found most useful was the ratio of the length to the maximum width for the medial pinnae—roughly 1:1 in P. lemmonii, 3:1 in P. lonchitis, and (though more variable) around 2:1 in P. kruckebergii. The two hybrids [31726, 31733] come in around 3:2.

I'd never noticed this wildflower before today, when botanist friends pointed them out, just a few growing by the sandy path along the sandy spit. Phacelia hastata is known as Narrow-sepalled Phacelia.

Earlier in the year, I noticed holes in the leaves of S. dulcamara but I never saw what created them. The holes reminded me of ones made by Black-margined Loosestrife Beetles (Galerucella calmariensis) on Purple Loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria). Today I found a G. calmariensis on a hole ridden S. dulcamara leaf.

I see rabbits eating blackberry canes in the winter. In the spring, I have seen them eating new blackberry leaves before the spines on the leaves develop. The new growth is a good source of dietary nitrogen.

The butterfly is in the middle, under a leaf, mostly obscured by the shade, where it is laying an egg!

Two years ago, after someone dug up the nettle patch in my growing butterfly meadow, where I often see Satyr Commas, I planted a nettle root in this sunny spot, which grew into this nettle patch. I was very happy to see this one landing on the nettles, laying an egg on the underside of a leaf, taking a flight, land on the nettles again, and lay another egg on the underside of another leaf. It repeated this about seven times. I look forward to seeing the caterpillars!

The caterpillars will stay on the underside of the leaf, and make a tent by pulling the sides of the leaf down, and together with silk, leaving the front half of the leaf open, and will feed from the tip of the leaf to the petiole, leaving a petiole with no blade when they are done, then go to a new leaf, and do the same. In the 4th photo someone has pulled open the tent, the caterpillar was hiding under, to expose the caterpillar.

My journal post of how the egg laying on these Stinging Nettles was my first observed success in 27 years of working to get butterflies to lay eggs on plants growing where I started them growing!

A native annual with a predilection for disturbance-prone settings, little barley was especially abundant during a summer following a dry fall and winter and when most other plant species were not flowering.

For additional photos and species diagnosis, see https://www.flickr.com/photos/plant_diversity/albums/72157686067367140

The inflorescence of six row barley includes three rows of seed bearing florets on each side (corresponding the three spikelets per node and spikelets alternating along opposite sides of the rachis). Six row barley has the thicker and darker inflorescences and is growing along the margins of a field of two row barley. This barley represents populations that have escaped from the adjacent crop fields of the Museum of the Rockies and established along South 7th Street, Bozeman, Montana.

For additional photos and species diagnosis, see https://www.flickr.com/photos/plant_diversity/sets/72157688722438965/