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…
With the start of October comes our slow turning towards the cold season. My yard is peppered with acorns, leaves are starting to yellow, and many wildflowers are noticeable now more for their striking seed pods than their colorful blooms. One of my favorites (is it weird to have favorite seed pods?) are the seed pods of the milkweed genus (Asclepias). One of our common native milkweeds is butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa), also known as orange milkweed. Where it is…
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…
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…
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…