Mahonia

Top Photo: Mahonia buds, blossoms, and leaves on Dinosaur Trail. Mahonia goes by the names Oregon grape, grape holly, mountain grape or just plain Mahonia among others. Grape because the ripe fruit has a visual similarity to grapes. Holly, because the leaves resemble holly leaves. The name Mahonia is the binomial genus name of this and several other west coast broadleaved plants. It’s derived from Bernard McMahon (Mahon-ia) horticulturist, author, and one of the stewards of the Lewis and ClarkRead more

Needle Ant

Top Photo: Asian needle ant (Brachyponera chinensis). Depending upon who you reference, there are somewhere around 10,000 to 12,000 known species of ant in the world. New species are still being discovered. There’s an estimated total of some 20,000 species including what has yet to be described. The number 1,000 is most often returned in searches for North American species. And it seems 192 species is the most recently calculated number for North Carolina. I have no idea how manyRead more

Another Mystery Tree

It was a rainy day, a very rainy day (we’ve had many rainy days this past winter, but this was a particularly cold and miserably rainy day). There were few visitors in the outdoor areas of the museum, none, in fact. Several rangers, including myself, were standing in the rain discussing the identities of different plants here on campus and how and why they’re growing here, whether or not they were purposely planted here or “volunteered.” The identity of theRead more

Questionmark Pears

There are more than a few Bradford pear trees on our 84 acre campus. One, a volunteer that sprouted next to our north parking lot has been dropping fruit. The rotting fruit is attracting flies, bees, and butterflies. One butterfly in particular is the question mark. It belongs to a group of butterflies known as anglewings, referring to the angular edges of the wings. Question marks are named for small whitish markings on the underwings, a “c” and a dot.Read more