Top Photo: Fruit of Euonymus fortunei or winter creeper. I happened to be walking through Into the Mist just as Exhibit Developer, Michele Kloda and Landscape Supervisor, Christian Britt were installing steps on one of the tunnel mounds in that much visited playscape. Michele pointed to a vine growing up one of the black locust trees in the exhibit and suggested “bittersweet.” Glancing at the many red fruit dangling from the vine, and frankly, not knowing any better, I said, “yes, IRead more
Posts filed in: Flora
Lepidoptera, Mantodea, and Anseriformes
There are still a few monarchs hanging about. I saw two of them on Sunday (11/15/15) in the garden on either side of the steps leading to the Butterfly House here at the Museum. I also saw an American lady and a cabbage white butterfly. All were nectaring on the asters on the west side of the steps. Also in the garden was a Chinese mantid. It, was warming itself on a metal sculpture of the sun.Read more
The Lion’s Mane
I was first alerted to its presence by Facilities Tech, Daniel last Saturday, “Did you see that giant fungus growing on a tree next to the parking lot?” I hadn’t, but made it a point to check it out, probably a large shelf mushroom. During the course of the day, a very busy day here at the Museum, I’d forgotten all about the fungus. Until yesterday that is, when Richard Stickney of the Butterfly Conservatory showed me a picture he’d take of theRead more
Fall Goings On
Top Photo: Bald-faced hornet hive. It’s been drizzling, raining, and downright pouring over the past week or more here in the Piedmont of North Carolina. But, life goes on, herons gotta eat, snakes too, and wasps have to keep building additions to their hives as their numbers increase, you can’t stop progress. If, over the last week or so, you’ve happened to make it out past Hideaway Woods, our new outdoor playscape full of tree houses, woodland stream, nature trails, stick built “castles” and hammocks hungRead more
Maypops
I noticed a partially eaten maypop on the ground as I walked past a passion flower vine in Catch the Wind. Except for the fruit high up on the vine, the maypops have been steadily disappearing from this vine. I didn’t know at the time whether people had been picking the fruit or local animals were filling up on the green ovate shaped passion fruit. I now suspect it was the local fauna. Curiously, this particular fruit, or maypop, was onlyRead more
What’s in the Smartweed?
At the very end of the boardwalk which leads into Explore the Wild there is a patch of smartweed. Smartweed, as you know, will make your mouth smart if you eat it. That is, smartweed is hot and spicy and may make your mouth hurt, or feel the heat, should you eat the stuff. I’m convinced that this patch of smartweed remains in the Wetlands due to its undesirable taste. Even the invasive red swamp crayfish shuns the weed (most ofRead more
Orchids, Trumpets, Passion Fruit, Sawflies, and Oakworms
Thanks to Richard Stickney (Butterfly House Conservatory) I was able to get a look at, and a few photos of, an orchid growing here at the Museum. Richard spotted the leaves of the orchid last winter and had been waiting for the flowers to appear. It’s now in bloom. The orchid is a crane-fly orchid (Tipularia discolor). These orchids show leaves on the forest floor in fall and winter. The leaves disappear as the flowers emerge the following summer. It’s not aRead more