plants
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Blooms and Pods
Smooth Aster Goldenrod. Honeylocust.
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Bombus/Solidago
The cold snap combined with the rain took the bees by storm. They were clustered to various late summer blossoms Friday and Saturday, stunned if not lost. But yesterday, the air warmed, and by afternoon the sun was out. The goldenrods at Fort Tilden were alight with a few of these hardy little beasts. Note…
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In Da Bronx
Franklinia in bloom. What a scrumptious flower! And the bees agree. (All of today’s trees are descendants from seeds collected by William Bartram in the 1760s. The plant is unknown in the wild.) On the mammal front, Cottontail and Chipmunk and Gray Squirrel.In addition to the frog, a Garter Snake crossed our path, and a…
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Forms
The immature cones of Arborvitae (Thuja).An unknown mushroom, past its prime.Fruit of Ascelepias physcocarpa/Gomphocarpus physocarpus, Balloon Plant Milkweed, also known as Family Jewels and, wait for it, Hairy Balls.Bonus paper wasps in that Arborvitae. Genus: Polistes.
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Elevated Meadow
Leaning towers of Prairie Dock (Silphium terebinthinaceum) Sunchokes (Helianthus tuberosus).Asclepias tuberosa going to seed. Both on the High Line.
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Tadpoles
One of the unexpected sights during our walk along the Northumberland Coast Path was this (tidal?) pool full of what we thought were Common Toad (Bufo bufo) tadpoles. Surprising because this was brackish water at best, if not fully the brine of the nearby North Sea. It seems, though, that they can tolerate a certain…
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VLB Adult
In less than a decade, the invasive Viburnum Leaf Beetle (Pyrrhalta viburni) has spread throughout most of New York State. They devour the leaves of viburnum species, key understory plants of our woodlands; a couple years infestation can kill the plant. I’ve seen the damage they do in Prospect Park, skeletonizing every leaf on a…