Jomegat's Weblog

I took a lap around my woods this evening. This was the most interesting find:

The identification is, of course, conjectural. It was the closest match I could find via a cursory Internet search.

I was also very pleased to find my painted trilliums (Trillium undulatum). There are a few growing in my woods, and I have not been able to find them for the past couple of years. I went off-trail this evening and stumbled upon them. They were far past the blooming stage, and the forest was pretty dark to begin with, so I didn’t bother trying to take their picture. But I did make some mental notes to their location – about half way between my tapping maple, and the fallen log where the trail bends in the southwest corner of our plot – but off the trail another 40 feet to the north.

If I forget again, maybe you can remind me…

Yeah, I know.  I haven’t posted anything here since September.  I don’t know when I’ll post again, as I have been tremendously busy of late, and that promises to continue through at least the end of the summer.  Don’t hold your breath for another – I don’t know when that will be.

Yesterday I took a lap around my woods trail and saw that the Sheep Laurel (Kalmia angustifolia) and partridge berry (Mitchella repens) were in bloom.  I took some photos, and returned this morning for a few more.  Here’s what I got.

These haven’t bloomed on my property in quite some time, and this is a new patch of them that I have never seen in bloom. I really like them!

I thought this shot of the partrige berry was pretty OK! Patridge berries generally have two flowers with four petals each, and fused at the base. They combine to make a single berry with two “eyes”. I was a bit surprise to see an unusual pair of them, one of which had five petals. I don’t recall having ever seen one that didn’t have four petals, so I had to document…

When I finished documenting that one, I saw another – this one had a pair sporting three-petals on one, and five on the other:

It was not a particularly good looking specimen, but I had never seen one with three petals either. So here’s the proof.