6/29/11 ALL BEAUTIFUL, A SEASON TO REMEMBER

DESIGNED BY NATURE

...BY MAN

...BY NATURE

SWEET CICELY

BLACKBERRY FLOWERS

Thursday, 8:00 AM.  67 degrees, wind NW, calm.  The sky is lightly overcast and somewhat hazy, and although the barometer predicts rain I think not today.
    I have never seen fields and roadsides so colorful.  The lupines are still in full bloom, and many summer wild flowers and roadside weeds are added to them.  Of special note at present is the sweet Cicely, Osmorhiza chilensis, in the parsley family.  A strong perennial with showy umbels of tiny white flowers tinged with pink, the roots are particularly fragrant but the entire plant suffuses a dainty, faint but unmistakable perfume.  Some sources list it as rare, but it is abundant all along the southern shore of Lake Superior in Wisconsin. 
    Black raspberry plants are flowering and make quite a show on roadsides and woods edges.  The berry crop promises to be enormous.
    Gardens in town are hardly more colorful and showy than fields and roadsides now, all beautiful in their own way, whether designed by man or nature.  It is truly a season, and a year, to remember.   

6/29/11 PITCHER PLANTS, AND BIRDS OF A FEATHER

BARK BAY SLOUGH

PITCHER PLANT FLOWERS DOT THE BOG

THE INSECT TRAPPING PITCHER

BEAUTIFUL, NODDING FLOWERS

 ...COMPLICATED FLOWER STRUCTURE

Wednesday, 8:00 AM.  62 degrees, wind W, calm.  The sky is clear with some haze over the channel and the  islands.  The barometer is up.  It will be a fine day.
    Alerted by friends that pitcher plants were blooming at the Bark Bay Slough State Natural Area west of Cornucopia, we took a ride before dinner yesterday evening to see for ourselves the carnivorous bog plants.  Sarracenia purpurea occurs mainly in far northern sphagnum bogs, but a sub-species occurs along the east coast of the U.S. The sundew family, the Droceraceae, to which it belongs contains several other carnivorous plants native to the North American continent.  All have evolved mechanisms for trapping insects and other small creatures, and digesting them for their nutrients, which are scarce in the acid bog environments these plants inhabit.  The morphology and even the taxonomy of these plants is more than I can explore here, and I will simply furnish some photos, as detailed information is readily available on line.
    The Bark Bay Slough Natural Area, established in 1977, is 552 acres of wetland and bog habitat, and is home to a number of native orchids as well as the pitcer plant.  It is a favorite haunt of eagles and shore birds, and well worth visiting for its beauty alone.  Detailed information about it is also available on line.
    I had not seen pitcher plants in the wild since college field trips, and after that in the  New Jersey Pine Barrens, and stepping onto the springy, floating  sphagnum moss mat to take some photos brought back a lot of memories.  I will be sure to go back to look for orchids as well, but it is a fragile environment and neither I nor others should just go tramping around in it unawares.  While there we visited with a lone woman kyaker who was also photographing pitcher plants and orchids, and it turned out she was a DNR naturalist from Milwaukee who was a close associate of my good friend Paul, who is now retired from that organization.  Birds of a feather do flock together at the Bark Bay Slough.

6/28/11 TWO UNUSUAL FLOWERS

YOUNG FEMALE FLOWERS OF STAG HORN SUMAC

WISPY FLOWERS OF AMERICAN SMOKE TREE

Tuesday, 7:45 AM.  62 degrees, wind W, calm at present.  We had another rainy day and night, with almost an inch of rain, but the sky and waters could not be bluer now, nor the trees greener.  It is a fantastic morning and the barometer predicts more of the same.
    The staghorn sumac, Rhus typhina, have suddenly lost last year’s fuzzy fruits that they had kept all winter, and new young flower “cones” have taken their place.  The male flowers, long fuzzy spikes, will soon appear on male shrubs, as male and female flowers usually appear on separate plants.
    The American smoke bush, Cotinus obovatus, a native of the American Southwest that is hardy north, is closely related and in the same family.  It is an interesting plant because of its unusual flowers and bright orange-yellow fall color, and is often grown as an oddity.
    The family to which both belong is the Anacardiaceae, the cashew family, which contains both very poisonous and also many ornamental and edible plants.
    We had a tree board meeting yesterday afternoon and were going to do a lot of pruning of young trees, but got rained out.  The new trees are well established and growing fast in this weather. I ended up repoting our hanging baskets from plastic pots to larger wire and fiber baskets, getting somewhat wet in the process.
   

6/27/11 IT'S AN ILL WIND THAT BLOWS NOBODY SOME GOOD

OX EYE DAISIES

BLADDER CAMPION

RED MULBERRY TREE

LOADED WITH FRUIT

Monday, 8:00 AM.  62 degrees, wind NNE, calm.  The sky is ovrcast, it feels like rain and the barometer predicts it. The wet weather and humidity  has produced a great hatch of mosquitos.
    The common ox eye, or white, daisy’s of the field, Chrysanthemum leucanthemum,  are in bloom everywhere now, very pretty but weedy.  I often let them grow in the garden as they are easy to pull up and otherwise welcome enough.
    The bladder campion, Silene cucubalus, in the pink family, has an interesting flower, the petals subtended by a rounded bladder, thus its common name.  I can get it confused with soapwort, Saponaria officinalis, but I think I have it right.  It is a European weed of pastures and waste places but is quite pretty.
    Every year I try to pick mulberries, which I love, on the roadside across the street but the native red mulberry tree, Morus rubra,  had grown out of my reach.  Winter winds and snow load have tiped it over somewhat and it is now accessible and loaded with fruit.  It’s an ill wind that blows nobody some good.

6/26/11 A PARASITE, A LEGUME, AND IRON MINING

PARASITIC PLANT...

...CANCER ROOT

BLACK LOCUST TREE...

...FRAGRANT FLOWERS

Sunday, 7:30 AM.  58 degrees, wind NNE, calm.  The sky is mostly blue with some haze.  It warmed up nicely yesterday afternoon and it will do so again today.  Trees and shrubs have put on so much new gowth that I have a lot of pruning to do everywhere, it seems.
    An unusual and fairly uncommon flower is growing under the birch and maple trees in the front yard.  It is cancer root, Orobanche uniflora, in the Orobanchaceae, the broom rape family.  All plants in this family are parasitic, growing on the roots of other plants, and have no chloropyll, so have no green leaves or other plant parts.  I can fnd no herbal medicine or ethnobotanical references to the use of this plant, so I do not know the derivation of the common name.  If anybody does, please leave a comment.  Anyway, it is an interesting and even rather attractive plant.  It is found sporadically throughout much of the US and Canada, and in Wisconsin in the southeast, southwest and far north.
    The black locust trees, Robinia pseudoacacia, are in flower, their perfumed scent very attractive to bees.  This is quite a handsome and useful tree (its wood is very rot resistant), and is a nitrogen-fixing legume, but it suckers profusely and is therefore the bane of farmers, as it invades their fields and is thorny and difficult to eradicate.. Traveling to southern Wisconsin last week, groves of these trees were flowering profusely.
    GTEC, the Michigan mining company that has been interested in mining iron ore in the Penoke iron range in Ashland and Iron Counties appears to be getting cold feet because of the very vociferous  local opposition to taconite mining, and says it needs more specific state legislation to spell out the permitting, exploration and mining rules and regulations before it is willing to commit an initial billion plus dollars to the project.  Can’t say as I blame them, and this major economic opportunity may well now wither and die, along with a projected 29 billion dollars in state and local tax revenue and thousands of jobs over the next thirty years or more.  It seems to me we are almost morally obligated to accept the challenge of renewed iron mining in the region (mining ceased in the 1960's when it became unprofitable), with the intent of showing the rest of the world how to do it responsibly, with the very best environmental protection; for if we do not mine our own plentiful iron ore, the Chinese or Russians will simply hack it out of the earth on some other part of the globe, with absolutely no regard for the environment or local cultures, and sell it at a premium to our own industries, snickering all the while at our foolishness.  The same logic also applies to drilling for oil in the arctic or the Gulf, or to coal and natural gas extraction.
  

6/25/11 KAYAKS AND GARDENS

KAYAKS AT GARDEN VIEW

 

A GARDEN OF KAYAKS

ORANGE HAWKWEED

6/25/11: Saturday, 8:30 AM.  64 degrees, wind W, calm.  The sky is partly overcast and the atmosphere is hazy, but the barometer is up and it will be a nice day.
    We have kayakers as guests in Garden View, and their four kayaks are very  colorful, matching the flowers of the garden. It will be a fine weekend for kayaking,.
    Orange Hawkweed, Hieracium aurantiacum, is a composite flower with a rosette of basal leaves,  and is very common in lawns and other grassy spots in our region.  It is quite pretty but also somewhat weedy.  It was naturalized from Europe with early settlement.
    I’ve started to catch up with lawn mowing and such but it will take a few days to do so after our week of rain.

6/24/11 LOTS OF POLLEN, RIPENING FRUIT, AND SUNSHINE

FIFTY-FIFTY SKY

AMERICAN VETCH

RIPENING JUNEBERRIES

CONCOLOR FIR POLLEN CONES

Friday, 8:15 AM.  58 degrees, wind variable, changing from NW to W, very gusty.  The sky is cloud covered in the north and east, clear in the west.  The barometer is up and a high is moving in at last, after seven days of rainy weather.
    Juneberries, Amelanchier canadensis,  are ripening, the trees and bushes loaded with fruit.  It should be a great year for apples as well.  The birds and animals will get most of the Juneberries as they are small and hard to pick, although quite good.
    American vetch, Vicea americana, is blooming in the fields and roadsides now, straggly but quite pretty.
    All the conifer species are ready to release their pollen if they have not already done so.

6/23/11 FORTY DAYS AND FORTY NIGHTS

THE OLD GARDEN LOOKS PRETTY GOOD

CLEMATIS

DWARF DOGWOOD, AKA BUNCHBERRY

BLUM ROAD IN HEAVY FOG

Thursday, 8:30 AM.  48.5 degrees, wind SE, light.  It is still raining lightly, the sky is overcast and it is foggy, but the barometer predicts partly cloudy skies and with the wind shift we may have a high coming in that will break this spell of wet, cold weather.  The big freighter was still moored off Madeline Island yesterday.  Could it be Noah’s ark? Actually, it may have just delivered coal to the Ashland power plant. Anyway, we are nowhere near forty days and forty nights of rain, although it feels like it.
    The overgrown garden has become quite beautiful with Iris, lilies, poppies, and peonies about to burst into bloom.  Clematis are blooming too, and there are still some lilacs.  The tomatoes are just sitting here shivering.
    Dwarf dogwood, or bunchberry, Cornus canadensis, are blooming profusely along Blum road, which was enveloped in fog yesterday afternoon.

COULD IT BE NOAH'S ARK?

6/22/11 RUNNING FOR A LEE

LYING IN THE LEE

WHITE PINE POLLEN CONES

BRIDAL WREATH SPIREA

Thursday, 7:00 AM.  48 degrees, wind ENE, strong.  It rained all night and is still raining after having gotten over an inch, as the barometer predicts more.  Madeline Island is enshrouded in fog.  We are still in the grip of a Nor’easter. Our travelers going back to Texas reported tornadoes in Nebraska and Kansas, and very hot weather.
    A large freighter (but not a “thousand footer”) spent time waiting out the storm yesterday in the lee between Madeline Island and Long Island.  I can’t see if it is still there this morning
The male cones of the white pines are bursting with pollen, and as soon as we get a drying wind the air will be filled with clouds of the yellow dust and I will have a stuffy nose again.
    The old fashioned bridal wreath Spireas are blooming all over town, gracing the fronts of Nineteenth-century homes.

6/21/11 SMALL, FLOWERING MAPLES, AND RECALL CAMPAIGNS

MOUNTAIN MAPLE

...FLOWERS

GINALLA MAPLE

...FLOWERS

Tuesday, 7:45 AM.  51.5 degrees, wind NE, light with stronger gusts.  The sky is overcast and it is raining .  The barometer predicts more rain.  It is the first day of summer and it feels almost like the first day of spring.
    The mountain maple, Acer spicatum, is blooming now, its erect panicles of greenish flowers poking up through the round, rather large, slightly three lobed leaves.  It is native to southern Canada and the US northeast, and far upper Midwest around the lakes, but seems rather rare in our area.  In habit it is a multi-trunked small under story tree or large shrub.  It’s leaves turn a brilliant orange-red in fall.  It is seldom seen in landscaping and the nursery trade.
    An oriental counterpart is the Ginalla maple, Acer ginalla, which also has greenish flowers, rather insignificant but numerous, and small, lobed, typically maple, leaves.  It is probably over used, but it does have excellent red and orange fall color. Another oriental maple, the hedge maple, Acer campestre, is somewhat similar in shape and  has good yellow fall color.
    Politics: Recall campaigns targeting both Democrat and Republican Wisconsin state senators and representatives are  underway.  It seems our society no longer accepts winning and loosing as an end to political conflict, but seeks to have a constant campaign amid ideological warfare.  Not a way to accomplish anything, or to foster democracy. Whatever happened to majority rule with minority rights? What’s next, sabotage and street battles?

6/20/11 SOME SPECTACULR FLOWERING TREES

RUBY RED HORSECHESTNUT

...FLOWERS

FORT MCNAIR BUCKEYE

...FLOWER

PAUL'S SCARLET HAWTHORN

...FLOWERS

Monday, 7:45 AM.  55 degrees, wind N, light with stronger gusts.  The sky is hazy but mostly clear and the barometer is up, so it looks like it will be a fine day after a spate of cold, wet weather. I have a lot of yard work to do after things dry up.
    Several interesting trees are blooming now.  The hybrids between the horsechestnut, Aesculus hippocastanum, and the red buckeye, A. pavia are named A. x carnea, the x denoting a hybrid.  A number of selections have been made from this pairing, the most popular being the ruby red horsechestnut, A. x carnea ‘Brioti.’  It is a medium sized tree, rounded in form at maturity and very vibrant in flower.  Another is A. x carnea ‘Fort McNair’ a US National Arboretum introduction. It is somewhat smaller and more upright and by all accounts is a good smaller street tree.  Both are hardy in Zone 4, and seem to be doing well in Bayfield.  I planted a half dozen of ‘McNair’ on the S 6th St. entrance to town several years ago and they attract a lot of attention when in bloom. I have a hard time telling ‘Brioti’ and ‘McNair’ apart but I believe the one pictured, growing in a yard on N 4th St. is the former.
    Another tree that is spectacular in bloom is the English hawthorn selection Crataegus laevigata ‘Paul’s Scarlet,” which was once very popular but is very susceptible to fire blight and not seen much anymore.  The one pictured is in a small park on S 6th St. and Old Military, and does not seem to get fire blight.
    I am often asked why I do not use only native trees for the city streets, but that is a whole subject in itself which I will address at some time in the future.

6/19/11 FAMILIES

HEADING HOME

THIMBLE WEED

PASQ UE FLOWER AND MEADOW R UE

MEADOW RUE

THIMBLE WEED FLOWER

Sunday, 9:00 AM.  52 degrees, wind NNE, light, with occasional strong gusts.  It is overcast and threatening rain, which we received about an inch of last night. Our Texas family, Dutch, Leslie and toddler Allison Eleanor (and Tango, their dog) left for home today, stopping to stay overnight in Lincoln, Nebraska with friends.  We will miss them, but will see them next winter in Texas, and time goes fast these days.
    We are pleased that this summer’s Sunday’s will be graced with services at our old Christ Episcopal Church.  I may even start ringing the bell again, like old times.
    Anemone canadensis, the thimble weed, is blooming. It is native to meadows and shores in the upper Midwest.
  Also blooming now is the meadow rue, Thalictrum dioica, native to the upper Midwest and the east coast in rocky woods, ravines and out washes. The interesting seed heads of  Anome patens, called Pasque flower or prairie smoke, are evident now.  All three plants are in the Ranunculaceae, the buttercup family, and are often grown in gardens.