Flying Dragons

Dragonflies - pretty, charming and colorful, they flit around and settle for longish periods, displaying their beauty. These very accommodating specimens provided delight and wonder, in their various iterations.

Poor Mussel

I was amazed a the size of this mussel shell in a secluded cove and had to get closer to be sure it was exactly what I thought it was. Here it is on my shrub rake, it's 6 inches across. It's probably the Eastern elliptio (Elliptio complanata).

What bothered me though, was that this mussel shell was open and in the sun, with the living tissue parts no longer attached to the shell. While it allowed me to see and photograph its intriguing innards, the fact that it had no future was upsetting.

Since the age of mussels can be determined by counting the rings on their shells, this one looks like it's easily more than twelve years old, and probably closer to twenty.

Purple Carnivore

This beautiful little display is the flower of an aquatic carnivorous plant, the large purple bladderwort (Utricularia purpurea). It's not a purple people eater, but a purple planktonic eater ...

It has bladders on its "foliage" that trap teeny tiny animals swimming or floating past. There's a niche for everything!

The little dots on the plant below are the traps that help keep insect larvae numbers down (read mosquitoes!).

Meet Mr. Jackson

Our new local resident is a young groundhog, named Mr./Mrs. Jackson - it's been seen around quite a bit lately, but never really slow or close enough for a good photo - this is what I have so far.

Impending Storm

 How deep and rich colors become when there's an incoming storm ...

I was able to get off the water before it materialized, despite being distracted by wild blueberries (in immodest abundance)!

How lovely to have a small little island of blueberries all to myself

Later, at home, it looked like this

Who Goes There?

Look at this well worn trail - is it the Mohawk trail for ants? What made it or uses it? It's very distinct and cleared of pine needles, and it seems to be getting broader ...

Dale thinks it's an ant trail. Maybe ... but I stood around and waited and watched, expecting some activity that would give it away, but nothing moved along it. I've even spied on it on different days and different times, but still nothing to indicate ant activity.

Terrestrial Beauty

 

Hummingbirds love the tubular flowers of Lonicera sempervirens

A Matter of Scale

Though these two flowering aquatic plants are not related, seeing them together gives a much better indication of just how small our native little floating bladderwort (Utricularia radiata) presentation is. It's pictured here next to the native spatterdock or yellow pond lily (Nuphar variegata).

The bladderwort is so delicate and fragile compared to this bouffy lily!

Lacustrine Beauty

 

 

Lasting but two days,

Inconspicuous beauty

Attracts many bugs.

Spectacularity

I've just invented a new word on seeing this spectacular show of buds from Joe pye weed - move over singularity, here comes spectacularity.

Little Rascals

Some little rascal has decided to shred the box I was keeping for packing things.

I suspect the culprit has been using cardboard fragments in making this nest in my old grill chassis.

I wonder who it might be???

Buttery Yellow

 What a gorgeous yellow these Common bladderwort flowers produce!

The flowers are so similar to snapdragons

Damselfly or Watershield?

I can't work out if this is a photo of a damselfly or of a watershield leaf - or is it both?

The bold coloration of this leaf, together with the water droplet, drew my attention to it as I kayaked in a secluded cove. As I approached, I noticed a damselfly landing on it, but reckoned it wasn't worth rushing to capture it while I fished my camera out of my dry bag. The leaf in and of itself was exquisite and worth a shot anyway. My first 2 captures were damselfly-less, but then it returned to the bright leaf again as I sat there! 

I wonder if it too, was attracted by the color ...

Dreams of Bowie

David Bowie is alive and well - in my mind ... just in case you thought I'd forgotten about my hero!

Last night's dream was so pleasant and wonderful (and not in a lewd or erotic way) - I met Bowie at a small show he was trying to put on (on the stage at the Science Museum in Boston), but one of his actors was missing. I hadn't bought a ticket, but offered to fill in for the missing person. He and I managed to ad lib and dance together - it was part of 'the script' - (in that old fashioned, ballroom hold kind of way) that was so casual and sweet and normal. We chatted and connected, and I wasn't tongue-tied like a silly fan-girl, either! But I did tell him "this is the best night of my life" and he understood, smiling shyly! He was charming, humble and gracious, as expected 😍

It was like watching a movie of myself, living a fantasy.

Ahh, the psyche is a funny thing ...

Bunchberry Love

Look at how gorgeous the (native) bunchberry fruit is against the exquisite green leaves. It is, as you can see from the distinctive venation, in the dogwood family.

This low growing one is known as the creeping dogwood, Cornus canadensis, and makes a fantastic, low-maintenance groundcover. They look so cheery along the shoreline as I survey. One of my favorite natives.

Beautiful Bur-reeds

The flowering parts of bur-reeds are exquisite! Look at this lovely floral arrangement:

The male and female flowers appear separately on the plant - the larger, less crowded female flower balls are formed below, and the smaller male flowers occur at the top end of the stalk.

Muskrats, marsh birds and other waterfowl browse on these tasty treats.

Mini Forest

I found a lot of pipeworts (Eriocaulon aquaticum) blooming together around an island and decided they looked like a miniature forest, in a way. Or like mini truffula trees from Dr. Seuss' The Lorax

They have rather sturdy-looking basal leaves under the water, like a tight cluster of grass, from which the tall stems arise. I really like the effect on the water that the stems breaking the surface tension make - mini spirals at the interface of the two. Beautiful!

Beeing Balmy

Hot and balmy days

Embolden bee balm flowers

To sprout vibrant hues

Wapato

I found these wapato (Indian potatoes), or duck potatoes on Big Brook in Big Lake last month. They're an edible, starchy tuber that is part of the Arrowhead plant. This was the first time I'd seen them uprooted like this for all the world to see. They looked fascinating.

Now that I know what the plant is, I realize there were obvious clues that I had overlooked, such as the striations on the roots. The entire plant was floating on the surface of the brook, obviously having been dug up and discarded (or forgotten) by whatever had foraged for them - ducks, muskrats, or beavers.

Indigenous people harvested and traded them. According to Natural Resources Conservation Service, "Indian women collected wapato in shallow water from a canoe, or waded into ponds or marshes in the late summer and loosened the roots with their toes. The roots would rise to the top of the water where they were gathered and tossed into floating baskets."

A Fair View

A fair view ... of a deer on Fairview Drive in Lake Arrowhead, browsing around mid-day. Lucky me to have been at the right place at the right time!

Becoming

A Pickerelweed (Pontedaria cordata) bloom becoming ...

from this,

to this,

to this spectacular visual treat!

It looks as if it's made of happy little faces!

Obscure Flowers

Sometimes the flowering structures of aquatic plants are tiny, and therefore seldom seen, so it was with great excitement that I observed coontail (Ceratophyllum demersum) flowers recently. The plant is native to North America but now has a universal distribution thanks to the aquarium trade.

The flowers glowed red in the sunlight, like shining raspberries! They are completely submersed, so the pollen from the male flowers needs to sink down onto the female flowers, with currents facilitating cross pollination.

I was also thrilled to find this seldom noticed Elodea flower on its slender, floppy stalk, though I forgot to add my ruler for scale.

Gently Present

Snakes, frogs and turtles

Gently inform their presence -

I try to mimic

Fascinating Fungi

I do believe our botanical mystery has been solved! My fellow plant nerd who collected it with me had already bet her money on the solution, and she was absolutely right! We needed to have it verified though, and Glen Mittelhauser of the Maine Natural History Observatory answered my query promptly. Remember this unusual plant growth from a previous post?

It is caused by a fungus that generates abnormal growths (galls) in the tissue of shoots, leaves and flowers of the host plant, in this case Andromeda polifolia (Bog rosemary). It is known throughout north temperate regions - we found it in Washington county, Maine. 

The pink leaves that look like flowers are the pathogenically infected leaves. Inaturalist states: fruitbody of Exobasidium karstenii causes gall of live, enlarged, reddened leaf of Andromeda polifolia.

Woo hoo! So very, very excited to have this confirmed and explained. The world makes sense again thanks to Glen!

Teamwork

Our plant patrol team on Lake Arrowhead, PALZ (Patrollers of Arrowhead's Littoral Zone) decorated a pontoon for the July 4th boat parade using the theme of "Where the Wild Weeds Are" based on Maurice Sendak's 1963 book.

Photo: D Holabaugh

We opted to use discarded, second hand, or discarded items for our weeds - a weathered tarp, stained green sweatshirts, and leftover yarns and fabric remnants produced the weedy look we were aiming for.

Our artist 'in residence,' Dina, used discarded latex house paints to create the artwork on a piece of plywood that was sanded and trimmed by Mark. Dina included native and invasive plants that are found in Lake Arrowhead in her fantastic illustration. Look at this beautiful mess of weeds!

Photo: D Schultz

Our successful rendition of showing what we focus on as a plant patrol team earned us 3rd place in the award ceremony! 

At the community BBQ, we manned display tables about protecting Loons

 and distinguishing between native and invasive plants. Our focus was on creating awareness of other creatures and life forms in our lake.