Browsed by
Month: September 2020

When Plants Bite Back – Spoon-leaved Sundew

When Plants Bite Back – Spoon-leaved Sundew

This weekend I spent some time in an abandoned cranberry bog – although it has not been actively cultivated for years, it still produces a decent amount of cranberries. With no one to weed the bog, however, the plant diversity has increased substantially. There are now sapling trees (e.g., gray birch, pitch pine), ladies’ tresses orchids (Spiranthes sp.), and a variety of aster and goldenrod species. With all this additional growth, and without a functional water control system, rather than…

Read More Read More

Wildflower Wednesday: Sickle-leaved Silk Grass

Wildflower Wednesday: Sickle-leaved Silk Grass

Many plants within the aster family are in full bloom in September, long after many other flowers have faded away. Goldenrods are in bloom, bright purple asters, like the New England aster (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae) are flowering, and seemingly everywhere I walk, I encounter the sunny yellow flowers of sickle-leaved silk grass (Pityopsis falcata).  Sickle-leaved silk grass, also known as sickle-leaved golden aster, has a highly restricted range and is only found on the sandy glacial deposits along the coastal plain…

Read More Read More