Tree Flowers

It's hard to come back to this blog after a long absence.  So much is happening, it always seems like, why should this flower, or this insect, be the thing that gets me back into it?  Plus, with so much happening... I could easily show 10 plants that have changed phenophase since I left for my family's reunion 5 days ago.  So what got me to write today?  I learned something!  Now, it's not like I know everything there is to know about the natural world.  No one does, and I suppose I know more than most, but a lot of people know more than me.  I often learn things about nature -- from books or the internet.  I see something, I go back and ID it, or I research it so that I can be sure I'm being accurate or have enough to say when I'm writing.  

Today I had one of those experiences when I just noticed something that I'd never noticed before, learned something just from seeing and experiencing it.  Sumac is a plant that doesn't get much mention at this time of year in my observations.  In the fall, it's leaves turn brilliantly red, orange and yellow quite early, making it a prime target for observations.  Its red berries are striking above its foliage.  But this is the flower:

Green, blends in with the leaves.  You'd walk right by it, and I certainly have.  What I noticed today was that the flowers were covered with bees.  (No, no photo with a bee in it.  Oh, well.)  I never really thought about what pollinated those green and rather uninteresting flowers before, but apparently honeybees don't find them to be uninteresting.  The flowers were literally a-buzz with bees!  Naomi's new knowledge for today, gleaned by my own research rather than someone else's observations!

I"ll switch from barely-noticeable flowering trees to some of the most showy:

These catalpa flowers, each close to 2 inches across, are really very striking and in full bloom right now.  Just look at that spectacular coloration -- the yellow and purple in there.  I wonder what that might look like to a bee or another pollinating insect with compound eyes.  (Like neon "Eat Here!!!" signs, I always imagine.)

More tomorrow?  Maybe!

Sumac

Many sumacs are starting to turn red in earnest this week... though this is a species with a lot of variation in timing. 

Sumac

Today's crosshatching exercise, I sketched this sumac leaf. I sketched it nearly life-sized -- it went from the paper's edge to the spirals. (With forethought, I'd have turned the book the other way...) I noted that the leaves toward the bottom of the plants are starting to turn colors; as my students often do, I tried to show the red and orange colors of these leaves by rubbing one on the page (that being the color scribbles at the bottom) but they didn't turn out as bright as real life, so I also took a quick photo.

A Mad, Mad World

The Gardens at Taliesin

Yesterday, we headed to Madison, WI, to spend the day exploring. Mad-town is really only about 30 miles north of us (and quite a bit further west). After visiting Frank Lloyd Wright's home at Taliesin (actually further west, in Spring Green), we headed to the Olbrich Gardens. Here is some of what we saw:
A pitcher plant with a fly perched upon it. The fly did not "go into the light," much to my dismay, how cool would that have been to see? The plant was in a bog planter, and I suspect I will be getting one next year, if possible, as someone (not me) was obsessed with them.
Flowering prickly pear, one of the only cacti that will grow outdoors this far north.

Tree seed series:
Sumac seeds turning red

Catalpa pods (small and green)

Sycamore seed (fallen from tree)

Redbud seed pods

Look at the size of this cottonwood!!!

And, speaking of really ginormous, look at the size of this tulip tree leaf! Have you ever?

In ickier news of the large, there was a huge population of Japanese beetles, and growing larger, as many were mating.

How can a Rock be Starved?

Spent the weekend at Starved Rock -- about 100 miles south -- with my entire extended family. Here are some of the interesting plant and arthropod discoveries there...
Sumac Catalpa flowering. Up close, the flowers are about 1.5 inches, irregular, and stunning.

Black raspberry ALMOST ready to eat...

Hazelnut (on which hazel) not nearly ready to eat, but formed!

Some sort of hawkweed-like thing. Goat's beard?

Poison Ivy -- easily the most common plant at Starved Rock -- this one is hanging form a vine and its flowers are visible under the leaves.

Bell flower.Berries on a cedar.

Lungwort? Some sort of non-vascular plant clinging to the sandstone cliffside...

I have no idea what this is. But it's cool.

Ditto. This flower is TINY.

Another hawkweed-esque thing, this one a perfect yellow-orange color.

One of many millipedes, about 3-4 inches long.

With its wings spread, this butterfly was blue; closed, they look grey. Maybe an Azure? Saw several other varieties of butterfly as well.

Spring seems here to stay.

Linden Leafs Out

New, translucent leaves line the linden branches.  Below is a sketch of a linden seedling.  Who would ever imagine that the seed leaves of a linden would look like that!

We have reached the point where it would be easier to list the trees that haven't leafed out than those that have.  Even locusts and sumac have leafed out.  (Well, some sumacs have emerging leaves; others don't yet.)

The first wild geranium blooming.
A cinnamon fern fiddlehead.

Shooting stars bloom.  For years I have had these in my garden; this is the first year they are finally happy enough to flower!

Also flowering: lilacs are beginning to open flowers -- yesterday each cluster had 1-2 open flowers; today they have 5-6.  Redbuds are in peak flowering mode.  Serviceberries are shedding petals.