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Tag: winter weeds

Month of Macro Part 2: Wildflowers

Month of Macro Part 2: Wildflowers

Continuing my macro explorations from my previous posts (if you missed them, check them out here and here) I switched my focus to wildflowers. Admittedly, January isn’t the most obvious time to go looking for flowers, but many of our local species have persistent seed heads that can be found through the winter. And some of these, as you’ll see, are quite intricate when observed up close. And in at least one case, some flowers already have their spring buds ready…

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Mini Mystery

Mini Mystery

At 9 months pregnant, my woods walking speed has slowed to almost a snail’s pace. But the beneficial side effect of this is that I notice tiny details I would’ve otherwise missed. On Friday, for example, I noticed a single strange seed pod mixed in among bear oak and huckleberry shrubs. This was a seed pod I’d never seed before, but I was hopeful that it’d be fairly easy to identify. It was part of a low-growing (only ~6-8 inches…

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Winter Wildflowers: Wild Bergamot

Winter Wildflowers: Wild Bergamot

The result of more than 24 hours of snow then rain then more snow was a disappointing 3 to 4 inches of snow on the ground yesterday morning (I had been hoping for a little more snow, and a lot less rain). It did make for a lovely walk wintery though.  Although I more often walk in the forest, yesterday I visited the south portion of Crane Wildlife Management Area, which is dominated by open fields. I always find the…

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Pink Lady Slipper (Cypripedium acaule)

Pink Lady Slipper (Cypripedium acaule)

Pink lady slipper flowers, which bloom in early- to mid-June, are a challenge to pollinate due to their unique shape. Only bumblebees and a few other larger species of bee are up for the task of pushing through the narrow opening into the center of the blossom. Unfortunately, pink lady slippers produce pollen, but no nectar. So after repeatedly coming up empty-handed after visiting a few flowers, the bees will learn there is no reward for their efforts and stop…

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Winter weeds: Swamp Rose Mallow

Winter weeds: Swamp Rose Mallow

Excited to put my new copy of Weeds and Wildflowers in Winter by Lauren Brown to good use, I spent the day hunting for unique seed heads and other dried flower parts. The seed capsules seen here were from swamp rose mallow (Hibiscus palustris) and were by far some of the most striking. Each dried swamp rose mallow seed head consists of woody five-parted capsules that appear to resemble a flower themselves. The insides of these capsules are lined with…

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Annual Honesty (Lunaria annua)

Annual Honesty (Lunaria annua)

Although not nearly as showy this time of year, the remnant membranes from the seed pods are enough to identify annual honesty (Lunaria annua), which is also sometimes called money plant. Annual honesty is native to eastern Europe and western Asia. It was widely planted in North American gardens and over time has escaped and naturalized in many parts of the U. S. and southern Canada. It can now commonly be found throughout much of Massachusetts. In the spring, the…

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Spotted Knapweed (Centaurea stoebe)

Spotted Knapweed (Centaurea stoebe)

Many plants, particularly herbaceous ones, are most easily identifiable when in flower. As we move further into the cold season, and flowers (and many leaves) are essentially absent, it seems like herbaceous plant identification should be impossible. While it can be tricky, many plants have such distinctive seed heads or stalks, that they are identifiable well into the winter. While it’s possible to identify many herbaceous species through their winter characteristics alone, I find that now is one of the…

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