Intricate Details

 Something to puzzle over - a beautiful closeup of .... what?

This is part of a spider's web with dew and a pine needle embedded in it.

Waning Glow

Sunlight glows, then fades

Enriched colors darkening

Reflections wane, too.

Mystery Eggs

I don't have definitive answers as to what this glob is. It was picked up by one of my patrollers, initially arranged as if they were packed like orange segments, but they glided apart when she handled them. They were in a mucous sac, and definitely look like eggs or seeds (passionfruit likeness).

Most suggestions online think it's possibly frog eggs, not toads, since they present in a long strand. Another suggestion has been salamander eggs, which also seems likely to me since they come in a mass similar to this.

I wonder if they could be snails? Or could they be plant seeds? I can't imagine they'd need to be in a jelly, though. They separated out into individual blobs when I collected them.

Royally Impressed

The American royal fern (Osmunda spectabilis) puts on a magnificent display in the fall  - look at how spectacular it is: 

Sublime Stillness

All that I can hear:

The rich sound of water drops 

Breaking the surface.

Spikerushes

I think this is blunt spikerush, (also called a spikesedge) Eleocharis obtusa, an American native. It's an annual with erect, cylindrical stems. Quite lovely!

I think this is sand spikerush, Eleocharis montevidensis, another native. It's more slender and less robust with a brilliant green tinge. We had all remarked that it looked just like lawn grass, and then I read here (Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center) that it is 'good as a lawn replacement for low, wet areas.' This spikerush is a perennial and spreads through runners.

Unusual Larva

When I found this strangely shaped dark 'pod' floating near the surface, I thought of a vanilla bean pod - it looked exactly like a seed case, with one end tapered as if it had been attached to a plant by a petiole.

Of course, I had to get a closer look, and that's how I noticed the segments on the 'pod' and checked a little further ... to discover that this is the larval stage of a black soldier fly (Stratiomidae), and that the 'petiole' is actually an elongated segment used as a breathing siphon in aquatic species.

Watery Garden

I came across 17 of these flower floats still under water on my paddle this week - the invasive Utricularia inflata (swollen bladderwort) blooms again! This particular secluded spot seems ideal for them - most had their flowers submerged, but others had rafts and flowers on the surface. 

As I sat still in my kayak, more and more became apparent to me ... how many do you see in this picture?

There are at least 6:

Legendary Role Model

“The naturalist,” Jane said, “looks for the wonder of nature—she listens to the voice of nature and learns from nature as she tries to understand it. Whereas a scientist is more focused on facts and the desire to quantify."

― Jane Goodall, The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times

Long Haired 'Cats'

  Enjoy the deep, hairy bristles from afar, but don't touch!

Cats = caterpillars!

Blowing my Own Trumpet

This post is about me exposing myself as a supreme plant nerd, if you weren't already aware of that aspect of my being! My Mum would have chastised me for blowing my own trumpet, but here goes anyway ...

I've been finding some unusual growth forms/structures on bladderworts in my lake on and off since 2022, and hadn't been able to find an expert who was aware of exactly what they were.

These structures that have my head whirling are the flimsy white filaments floating off to the side of the leaves in this next pic (Utricularia macrorhiza, or common bladderwort). They're not roots, which was my initial impression - this is a rootless, free floating plant!

Filamentous shoots on Utricularia macrorhiza

These outgrowths are fascinating, yet no one else in my realm of lake experience had seen them before.

Filamentous shoots on Utricularia inflata

I wrote an exploratory field note about the filaments I observed in Utricularia inflata (swollen bladderwort) in the Maine Natural History Observer (Tuberous Structures in Utricularia Inflata page 44) last year, but it was only this month, with the help of Laurie Callahan of the York County Invasive Aquatic Species Project (YCIASP), that my more recent query about these structures in Utricularia macrorhiza landed in the hands of Dr. Garrett Crow, one of the co-authors of our aquatic 'bible.' Lo and behold, traction at last!

He not only informed me that they were most likely air shoots, but he also wrote ... wait for it ...  "Thank you, thank you, thank you Debbie. These are wonderful. You are expanding my understanding of Utricularia!! He thanked me for teaching him about bladderworts! What? Moi? Very, very gratifying (and terribly exciting) that he will be including my new information in volume 6 of the updated "Flora of North America." Is that a thrill or what???? 

Since then, I've been encouraged enough to spend hours and days, poring over the tips of air shoots for the best possible perspective. For the ultimate understanding. For the thrill of the chase. I've prepared one set of herbarium sheets, and today embarked on more. It's been so exciting talking botanic curiosities with other people interested in such geeky things! It inspires me to keep questioning.

The air shoots have interesting bract- or scale-like appendages near their tips, if you look very carefully. What are they for? What will they become?

I can't stop looking at bladderworts right now, to try and figure out why ... what triggers them to send out these aerial shoots? They occur in some coves and not others, and in some species but not others. In some months but not others. So much to puzzle over and solve - my brain is going into overdrive as I try to puzzle things out!

Fiery Fall

 Some scenes from Lake Arrowhead at my favorite time of year

Early Morning

Loons fish and frolic,

Dry leaves lie atop the lake,

Gold light spreads its wings.

Toxic and Psychoactive

I'm sure many of you will have guessed that yesterday's close up was of a mushroom. This is the poisonous Amanita muscaria var guessowii, or yellow fly agaric mushroom, native to North America.

Do NOT eat one of these! Despite being both toxic and hallucinogenic, it is quite a beautiful fungus to look at.

 As it grows, the rounded cap becomes convex and then eventually flattens out.

Out of Context

This looks like barnacles on a smooth surface to me - what do you think it is?

More tomorrow ...

Novae Angliae Shout Out

Our New England aster, Symphyotrichum novae-angliae, is a stunning fall bloom that explodes with color when many are fading.

Pollinators find them pretty irresistible. They're a valuable late season food source for pollinators, and they are gorgeous to look at, so why not plant some?

The leaf bases have a distinctive way of wrapping around the stem, having auricles (lobes) that extend around the lightly hairy stem.

Smoke on the Water (Again)

Nothing much beats September scenes with a mug of hot coffee and a throw blanket around me to start the day ...

 

... being joined by a furry friend is an extra bonus,

as is ending the day with incredible stillness after a deluge of much-needed rain.

 

Sunny and Cheery

It was such a delight to come across these brightly blooming nodding beggarticks (also called bur-marigold) by the water's edge - they look so summery for September!

They grow in wetlands, and are a cheery sight to see when most other blooms have passed.

Bidens cernua, of the aster family: perfection!

Juxtaposition

Juxtaposed int'rest

Angular stones, round puffballs

Man made, natural.

Ladies Tresses in the Bog

Wow! Am I excited to have found this wild orchid known as nodding ladies tresses, Spiranthes cernua, in our lake.

It's a fascinating bog plant, commonly known to flower between August and November. I've visited this site many times, at different times of the year, and yet this is the first time I've seen them. Was I not ready to take it in previously (overloaded with other new species), or were they not growing here before? They are a successional species, so it's described as 'fickle' - maybe that's why?

They're glossy like sugar-coated buns when you examine them up close in the sun.

September Swirls

Mist swirls and rises

(Like humpbacks' net of bubbles) -

Currents caused by warmth.

 

Rooting About

I'm told that many of you know me well enough not to roll your eyes when you hear me wax lyrical about esoteric subjects such as aquatic plant root differences and such. That's just Debbie, you will say, so here goes with my latest fascination ...

Over the years, I've casually noticed that the roots of our native Myriophyllum verticillatum (whorled water milfoil) on Lake Arrowhead seemed to be different from those of the non-native M. heterophyllum (variable water milfoil) but I've never had concordance from others about this being a known feature despite having remarked on this to quite a few people, nor have I found anything about it in the literature.

As my explorations on the lake are coming to a close with our proposed move, I decided to investigate for myself to satisfy my own burning curiosity, and this is what I have noticed:

The roots on M. verticillatum do not have a branched, filamentous and fibrous look to them - they are mostly single unbranched strands only. I also noted that specimens of M. verticillatum slide very easily out of the substrate as a complete, intact sample, but M. heterophyllum roots require a lot more tugging and manipulation to free them.

M. verticillatum roots

M. heterophyllum roots

Whorled milfoil plant and roots on left and variable milfoil plant and roots on right

As you can see from the two samples, there IS a difference, and this might be even easier to use in the field than counting the number of leaves per whorl and the number of leaflet pairs per leaf, especially since there is overlap between the two.

A single rootlet strand of whorled milfoil (L) next to a single strand of variable milfoil (R)

I'm excited about this - to me, it's a discovery of something undocumented!