Aquatics at Sandogardy Pond

Beth and I took Penny to Sandogardy Pond today. I wanted to look for the late summer aquatics, and though we were able to find quite a few, I didn’t find all the ones I was looking for.

Before we got to the pond we found some Indian tobacco.

Indian Tobacco (Lobelia inflata)

This is also called “puke weed” and I think that’s what I’m going to call it from now on. I suspect that “Indian tobacco” is a racial slur, as many plants with “Indian” in the name are. As in, “tobacco only good enough for Indians.”

Not far from the puke weed, we came across some hazel cuttings.

Beaked Hazels

These are the shells from beaked hazels (Corylus cornuta) which were growing nearby. I have a lot of them on my property too, but have never really been able to harvest any. The squirrels and chipmunks tend to harvest them before they ripen. You have to be careful when gathering them too, because those husks are full of fine spines which have a tendency to stick in your skin and break off. Just imagine shelling one with your lips and teeth!

We got to the pond, and the first blooming plant I noticed was this spotted water hemlock.

Spotted Water Hemlock (Cicuta maculata)

It is important to be aware of this plant if you plan to eat wild carrots, because they are superficially similar, and spotted water hemlock is the most toxic plant in North America. One taste can kill.

Just offshore from the water hemlock, I could see the floating heart in bloom. I took off my shoes and waded out to it.

Floating Heart (Nymphoides cordata)

You have to be careful when photographing these, because the tiniest waves you make tend to wet the flowers, and when that happens, they turn from white to transparent. I have dozens of photos of transparent floating heart blossoms. I managed to avoid that this time.

Down the beach a little ways I found some Marsh St Johnswort.

Marsh St Johnswort (Triadenum virginicum)

I always have a hard time remembering the name of this one, because I keep wanting to put the “Virginia” part of the binominal name into the common name. Virginia St Johnswort? Nope. Virginia Swamp St Johnswort? Nope. Someday I might be able to remember without the aid of the Internet.

I had already put my shoes back on when I found some seven-angled pipewort. I didn’t want to take them off again, so I leaned way out and snapped this shot.

Pipewort (Eriocaulon aquaticum)

Leaning out doesn’t make the greatest photos, and we can see that here. I looked for these earlier this summer but could find no sign of them. But today, here they are.

A little farther down I found some square-stemmed monkey flower.

Square-temmed Monkey Flower (Mimulus ringens)

This plant got me into a little trouble once. A friend of mine breeds poodles and typically names them after flowers. Knowing that I was a plant-guy, she asked me to suggest a name for her next “keeper” dog. She was not pleased when I proposed square-stemmed monkey flower. I guess it just doesn’t roll off the tongue.

“Here, Square-stemmed Monkey Flower! Here girl!”

Nope.

 

Yellow and more yellow

Last week the wild woodland sunflowers (Helianthus divaricatus) at the end of my driveway bloomed.

Woodland sunflower (Helianthus divaricatus)

At least, that’s what I think they are. I always look forward to these, and now, here they are. I took this photo two days ago, but only got it off the camera a few minutes ago. It was a nice surprise. 🙂

Tonight after dinner Beth was complaining about “being bored.” I gave her the usual suggestions – clean your room, clean the living room, read a book, write a book, pick some berries (I offered to pay her the going rate for them), but none of those appealed to her. So she went upstairs.

The Internet was sluggish, and then I almost got bored too. 😉 So I proposed a walk to Sandogardy. She wanted to swim, and I wanted to get a picture of a bullhead lily (Nuphar lutea). So we leashed up Penny, and we were off.

I wasn’t expecting anyone to be there at 6:00pm on a Friday, but there was a family of four swimming, and two other groups in paddle boats. The swimming family was the one whose kids like to throw the sticks into deep water for Penny. Oh well – she needed exercise too. Beth swam, and I went looking for the bullhead lily. Before I found one, I came cross some swamp candles (Lysimachia terrestris) still blooming (they are mostly done now, but these were still looking good). I brought my big tripod, since I wanted to photograph the bullhead, and they grow in a couple of feet of water.

Swamp candles (Lysimachia terrestris)

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Turns out I needed the big tripod to get a decent shot of these too. While I worked with the swamp candles, I was also scanning for the bullheads. I found some not too far off shore, shed my shoes and socks, and zipped off the legs of my pants. Then I went in.

Bullhead lily (Nuphar lutea)

I liked this shot the best, but all of them came out to my satisfaction.

I waded back to shore and gathered up my shoes. Then I noticed some water hemlock (Cicuta maculata). It too could take advantage of the big tripod.

Water hemlock (Cicuta maculata)

This is said to be the most poisonous plant in North America. It is superficially similar to the wild carrot (aka Queen Anne’s lace), but they are not difficult at all to distinguish. The leaves are completely different, as are the stems. The flowers and habit are the most similar, but even those can be easily distinguished. In my opinion, no one should ever eat a wild carrot until they have seen one of these and can tell them apart a million times out of a million.

This guy didn’t seem to care though:

Lady beetle on water hemlock

 

White-spotted Sawyer Beetle

White-spotted Sawyer Beetle (Monochamus scutellatus)

This guy (or gal, I dunno) was hanging out on my deck yesterday. This is the best shot I manged to get, even though the antenna protrudes out of the frame.

I also should report that I went down to Sandogardy Pond on Saturday for the first time in three weeks, and saw a couple of new species in bloom for the season. Here they are:

Pipewort (Eriocaulon aquaticum)

Water Lobelia (Lobelia dortmanna)

Spotted Water Hemlock (Cicuta maculata)

Jewelweed (Impatiens capensis)

 

Cicuta Maculata

Tonight after dinner, Va wanted to mop the floors. That means Penny has to be evacuated from the house for about 90 minutes while she does that (allowing time for the floor to dry). So I took her and the camera down to Sandogardy. I also brought my big tripod.

I was just down there Saturday, so I wasn’t expecting anything new. I set up and took several shots of some Spotted Water Hemlock (Cicuta Maculata).

Spotted Water Hemlock (Cicuta maculata)

This shot came out semi-OK. I was having difficulty because the light was a little on the low side and it was a bit windy. Low light dictates slow shutter times, and wind causes motion which dictates fast shutter times. I did the best I could. I guess.

While I was doing that a couple of guys came down the hill dragging a john boat. They asked what I was taking pictures of and I told them. I also noted that this was probably the most toxic plant native to North America. That piqued their interest! This stuff can kill a full grown cow in as little as 15 minutes. It can kill people too, and sometimes it does when it is mistaken for wild parsnips or wild carrots. That’s not a mistake a person is likely to repeat, as it is generally fatal.

After I showed them the plant, they thanked me, got in the boat, and went fishing. I headed down the beach looking for more blooms. I found this huge bullfrog (Rana catesbeiana).

Huge Bullfrog (Rana catesbeiana)

This guy was about six inches long, head to tail. I guess he’d have been a foot long if he had stretched out his legs. The size is one way to tell these from Green Frogs (Rana clamitans), which are a lot more common around here. But young Bullfrogs can be the same size as Greens. You can still tell them apart by observing the two ridges that originate behind the eyes. In the Green Frog, these run down the length of the back. In Bullfrogs, they wrap around the tympanic membrane (that large circular thing behind the eye). That’s actually the frog’s eardrum. In females, the timpanic membrane is about the same size as the eye, but in the male, it’s much bigger. So I guess we have a male here. This is the only frog species in which I can distinguish male from female.

The other thing I did tonight is read a transcript of the Apollo 11 landing. As an engineer, I find this stuff pretty fascinating. The computers they had on the lander were very primitive compared to what we have available to us today, but I have actually worked with some systems that were bound by similar constraints: almost no memory; slow clock rates; primitive user interface; programmed in assembly. Yup. I’ve worked on those before, but even the ones I worked with were vastly more powerful than the Apollo 11 equipment. Still, it gives me an insight that I think most software engineers today lack. You had to be careful with resources!