Pic(k) of the Week: Vernal honesty

Pastel delights

Singing aubade

In vernal chorus, assembled.

Wildflowers called honesty(!), blooming in mid-spring morning light.

Dearborn Park: City of Decatur, Georgia, USA. 20 April 2024.

Lunaria annua —commonly known as annual honesty, dollar plant, honesty, lunaria, money plant, moneywort, moonwort, silver dollar— is a species of flowering plant in the cabbage and mustard family (Brassicaceae). It is native to southern Europe but is cultivated throughout the temperate world.

The plant grows up to 3 feet tall (90 cm). In spring and summer, it bears terminal racemes [short stalks] of white or violet flowers. The fruits appear in midsummer. They are paper-thin, flat, silver dollar-sized fruits, called siliques, that become white-translucent with age, resembling a full moon or coin, hence some of the common names of the plant. Another common name, 'honesty,' relates to the translucence of the plant's silique membranes, which 'truthfully' reveal their contents.

— Wikipedia.
— North Carolina Cooperative Extension.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Diamorpha in bloom

In late winter and early spring, tiny red diamorpha succulents grow white blossoms atop Arabia Mountain, a 955-foot high granitic monadnock in southeastern DeKalb County, Georgia, USA. 27 March 2024.

Also called elf orpine, diamorpha —a rare plant endemic to the southeast United States— appears, during during winter and spring, as a vibrant red covering patches of Arabia Mountain in shallow solution pit pools. In March and early April, the diamorpha flowers, growing delicate white blooms. The blooms do not last long – they will soon begin to fade as the diamorpha prepare for the hot summer months.

Diamorpha are dormant in the summer due to the extreme heat of the bare rock face. During the warmer parts of the year, these hardy plants look like little more than brown twigs sticking up out of patches of soil on the monadnock. This stage of the diamorphas’ life cycle is critical: during the summer, they hold their seeds above the ground, conserving energy until the fall (seeds that fall to the ground in summer burn and die in the hot sun). Then, in the autumn, the seeds drop to the ground and begin to germinate. The process starts again around December. Now, in April, this complicated life story is at its most vibrant stage.

— Arabia Mountain National Heritage Area

This photo is a 'macro' closeup. The diamorpha, at most 2 inches tall, appear much larger in the image than they did in 'real' life.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Winter speedwell

Look down! Tiny blue winter speedwell blossoms have popped up, low down, in large numbers, seemingly overnight. So small, so unassuming, and, yes, some might say, so weedy.

Lanier Gardens Park: Avondale Estates, Georgia, USA. 24 February 2022.

I've so often walked by over ubiquitous winter speedwell, paying no heed, until one winter afternoon, when I felt the need to get down on the ground and look at them on their level.

My clothes became muddied; I probably received bemused glances from motorists passing close by this tiny strip of streetside greenspace. But there I lay, taken aback by these blossoms' miniature elegance: flowers for a fairy's garden.

Veronica persica —commonly known as birdeye speedwell, common field-speedwell, Persian speedwell, large field speedwell, bird's-eye, or winter speedwell— is a flowering plant in the plantain family (Plantaginaceae). It is native to Eurasia and is widespread as an introduced species elsewhere, including North America. The short-stalked leaves are broadly ovate with coarsely serrated margins, and measure one to two centimeters (0.4 to 0.8 inches) long. The flowers are roughly one centimeter (0.4 inches) wide and are sky-blue in color with dark stripes and white centers.

— Wikipedia.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Verdant fungus

"A rolling stone gathers no moss" ... but a polypore mushroom can!

Briarlake Forest Park: DeKalb County, Georgia, USA.
7 January 2024.

Trametes versicolor is a common polypore mushroom found throughout the world. Meaning 'of several colors', versicolor accurately describes this fungus that displays a unique blend of markings. Additionally, owing to its shape being similar to that of a wild turkey's tail feathers, T. versicolor is most commonly referred to as turkey tail. The top surface of the cap shows typical concentric zones of different colors, and the margin is always the lightest. Older specimens [such as the one pictured] can have zones with green algae [or moss] growing on them, thus appearing green. It commonly grows in rows on logs and stumps of deciduous trees, and is common in North America.

— Wikipedia.

This is a closeup. The polypore appears much larger in the image than it did in 'real' life.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Arabia Mountain 'daisy'

"We call them yellow daisies."
— Arabia Mountain park ranger

A native 'Porter's sunflower' wildflower —one among thousands blooming in early autumn on Arabia Mountain— in DeKalb County, Georgia, USA. 25 September 2023.

Every year in September, an explosion of yellow flowers covers granite outcrops such as Arabia and Panola Mountains. These are yellow daisies (Helianthus porteri). Related to sunflowers, they are one of the fall wonders within the Arabia Mountain National Heritage Area. Found in only 4 states —Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina, and South Carolina— the flowers are most common on the granite outcrops of the Georgia Piedmont region, thriving in fragile solution pits —often dry, sandy vernal pools— found on bare rock faces.

— Arabia Mountain Heritage Area Alliance.

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Literally growing from the granite outcrops of Arabia Mountain, the blossoms are a riot of yellow, a marker of autumn's arrival in Georgia. But...are they true daisies?

Helianthus porteri is a species of sunflower (Helianthus) —commonly known as Porter's sunflower, Stone Mountain daisy, and Confederate daisy— native to the southeastern United States, particularly Georgia and Alabama.

Helianthus porteri grows on thin soils on and around flat rock granite and gneiss outcrops. It grows up to 40 inches tall (100 cm). One plant usually produces 5 or more small flower heads, each containing 7 or 8 yellow ray florets surrounding a central disk of 30 or more yellow florets. A summer annual that blooms in the fall, Helianthus porteri drops seeds that grow the following year.

The term 'daisy' is imprecise because the species is a sunflower rather than a daisy (Bellis and related genera). Likewise, although the plant grows on Stone Mountain, in Georgia, its range extends beyond. The connection to the Confederacy is through Stone Mountain which contains a confederate monument, although the connection is tenuous as the species was named before the Civil War, in 1849, in honor of Thomas Conrad Porter, a Pennsylvanian minister and botanist who collected the plant in Georgia.

— Wikipedia.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Mayapple blooms in March

It may have been 0 °C in DeKalb County, Georgia, USA, on 19 March 2023, but the native plant restoration was blossoming in the Clyde Shepherd Nature Preserve.

Podophyllum peltatum is an herbaceous woodland plant in the family Berberidaceae —with common names of mayapple, American mandrake, wild mandrake, and ground lemon— widespread across most of the eastern United States and southeastern Canada.

The mayapple grows only two leaves and one flower, which appears in the axil of the leaves (where the leaf joins the stem). The stems grow to 30–40 cm (12 in to 16 in) tall; the leaves grow up to eight inches in diameter (20–40 cm) with three to nine deeply cut lobes. The flowers are white, yellow or red, one to two inches in diameter (2–6 cm), with six to nine petals, maturing into a large, fleshy, lemon-shaped berry, one to two inches long (2–5 cm).

All the parts of the plant are poisonous, including the green fruit, but once the fruit has ripened and turned yellow, it can be safely eaten, as the ripe fruit does not produce toxicity.

— Wikipedia.

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Clyde Shepherd Nature Preserve is a citizen-run, 28-acre park, located in an urban area between the cities of Decatur and Atlanta, Georgia.

A few years ago, the preserve brought in sheep to eradicate (i.e., eat!) an infestation of invasive plants in the park. Species such as English ivy, Chinese privet, and kudzu were out-competing and ultimately destroying native plants that local pollinators and the native ecosystem depended upon.

As the invaders were vanquished, the natives began to return. Such as the mayapple.

Here's another view: top-down and pre-bloom.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Close encounters of the arachnid kind

A Jorō near-miss (in Legacy Park: Decatur, Georgia, USA, 12 November 2022).

It was a foggy early morning on the forest trail. I didn't see the expansive web —or its spinster— until I was about to run into it. I quickly ducked.

Backlit, the web might not have been visible in a photo and the spider, merely a silhouette. So, I popped up the in-camera flash. Not expecting this situation, I wasn't carrying a diffuser and the image might be a bit hot. Nonetheless, the arachnid appears well-limned in all her colorful glory.

As to the arachnid...

Trichonephila clavata —also known as the Jorō spider (ジョロウグモ)— is a member of the Trichonephila genus. The spider can be found throughout Japan (except Hokkaidō), Korea, Taiwan, and China. The spider is also an introduced species in North America —first spotted, in 2013, in northeast Georgia and northwest / upstate South Carolina. It is believed that the species will become naturalized over much of the eastern seaboard of the United States due to its relative imperviousness to the cold.

The adult female's body size is 2/3 to 1 inch (17–25 mm), while the male's is 1/4 to 2/5 inches (7–10 mm). The adult female individual has stripes of yellow and dark blue, with red toward the rear of the abdomen. The web of females may reach several meters in length. In sunlight, the yellow threads appear to be a rich gold color. In autumn, the smaller males may be seen in the webs for copulating. After mating, the female spins an egg sack on a tree, laying 400 to 1,500 eggs in one sack. Her lifecycle ends by late autumn or early winter with the death of the spider. The next generation emerges in spring.

Although the spider is not aggressive, it will bite to protect itself. The bite is considered painful, but not life-threatening.

— Wikipedia.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Beer bubbles, closeup

And now for something completely different...
A close-up of beer-foam bubbles in a (non-hazy) IPA.

I poured the beer in a straight-edged glass and set it outdoors (hence the green visible in the background). No beer was harmed —or wasted— during the shoot.

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Pic(k) of the Week: In the limelight

Morning sun created a flash-without-a-flash effect (with a little assist from post-production).

A limelight hydrangea blossoms in a garden, in Decatur, Georgia, USA. 29 May 2022.

Hydrangea paniculata — the panicled hydrangea or limelight hydrangea— is a species of flowering plant in the family Hydrangeaceae, native to China, Korea, Japan, and Russia. It is a deciduous shrub or small tree, 1–5 m (3.3–16.4 ft) tall by 2.5 m (8 ft) broad, growing in sparse forests or thickets in valleys or on mountain slopes. In late summer it bears large conical panicles of creamy white fertile flowers, together with pinkish white sterile florets. Florets may open pale green, grading to white with age, thus creating a pleasing 'two-tone' effect.

— Wikipedia.

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Pic(k) of the Week: White violet, close up

Tiny, early-spring flora.

In March, ruderal, white/purple-striated violets were bustin' out all over. Here, I photographed one (getting down low!), just off of a sidewalk, in Avondale Estates, Georgia, USA, on 22 March 2022.

This was a closeup. The Viola sororia (at most two centimeters in diameter) appears much larger in the image than it did in 'real' life.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Tractorial innards.

A synecdoche labyrinth,
These tractorial innards.
Now, idled in the mead.

A tractor parked in a field, in Legacy Park: Decatur, Georgia, USA. 25 February 2022.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Field o'cattails

Field o'cattails.
Riparian autumnal.

Autumn on the marshy edge of Echo Lake —a shallow, 18-acre pond— in DeKalb County, Georgia, USA. 23 September 2021.

Typha latifolia (broadleaf cattail, bulrush, common bulrush, common cattail, cat-o'-nine-tails, great reedmace, cooper's reed, cumbungi) is a perennial herbaceous plant in the genus Typha. It is found as a native plant species in North and South America, Europe, Eurasia, and Africa. T. latifolia is always found in or near water, growing mostly in freshwater but also in slightly brackish marshes.

— Wikipedia.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Mantis preying for autumn

Preying,

She hunts.

Prematurely autumnal.

As seen alongside the East Decatur Greenway in the city of Decatur, Georgia, USA, on 22 August 2021. (Autumn does not officially begin for another month, on 22 September.)

The species praying mantis (Mantodea), like the cockroach, has existed since the Cretaceous period, 145 million years ago. It probably will continue thus for hundreds of millions more. Unlike us.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Rapeseed stalk

A stalk of rapeseed (Brassica napus) blooms in Decatur’s Kitchen Garden —an immigrant-operated community garden— in Decatur, Georgia, USA. 16 April 2021.

In the cabbage family, rapeseed is the plant from which the vegetable cooking-oil, canola (an adman's portmanteau of 'Canada' and 'ola', the latter itself meaning 'oil, low acid'), is extracted. ^* The re-name may have seemed more, err, palatable.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Tiny wood sorrel on the Greenway

April showers bring May flowers. Like these.

Tiny violet wood sorrel flowers blossom on the East Decatur Greenway, in DeKalb County, Georgia, USA. 2 May 2021.

Violet wood-sorrel (Oxalis violacea) is a native plant in much of the United States, from the Rocky Mountains east to the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico coasts, and through Eastern Canada. It has a tendency to cluster in open places in damp woods and on stream banks, and in moist prairies.

— Wikipedia.

By the way, this is a closeup. The wood sorrel appears much larger in the image than it did in 'real' life.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Bird perched on branch over pond

She came.

She saw.

She flew 

Away. 

A North American tyrant flycatcher (tyrannidae) poses, perched on a branch jutting over Postal Pond, in Legacy Park, Decatur, Georgia, USA.

I took this photo on 31 October 2020, when this lady and many other birds were preparing to (or already) flying further south to winter. Five months later, many are returning (or flying through) in anticipation of the imminent return of Northern Hemisphere spring. (This year, the vernal equinox will occur on Saturday, 20 March 2021.)

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Pic(k) of the Week: Hornswoggling hornworm

A tomato hornworm (Manduca quinquemaculata) munches on a tomato plant, in a garden, in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. 5 September 2020.

The tomato hornworm is a green caterpillar that is the larva (reaching a length of up to 4 inches) of the hawk moth. Found across North America and Australia, it commonly feeds on tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, and potatoes. It gets its name from a dark projection on its posterior end and its use of tomatoes as host plants.
— Wikipedia.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Inland Sea Oats

End-of-the-summer fecundity.

Inland sea oats (Chasmanthium latifolium): not cereal grains but perennial grasses; ground cover for eroded shaded areas.

As seen at the Trailhead Community Park of the East Decatur Greenway, in Decatur, Georgia, USA. 27 August 2020.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Purple wildflower in field

Wildflowers have begun to bloom at the end of the trail (or is it the beginning?).

At the Trailhead Community Park of the East Decatur Greenway, in Decatur, Georgia, USA. 22 April 2020.

The shot is a closeup — getting in close at a wide angle— so the purple blossom appears larger in the image than it does in 'real' life (~ 1-inch or 2.5-centimeters).

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Pic(k) of the Week: Elwyn John's lilies

Lilies of the valley (Convallaria majalis var. montana) bloom in winter, in the riparian soil of the North Peachtree Creek watershed, in the Elwyn John Wildlife Sanctuary of DeKalb County, Georgia, USA.

Vernal oracles. 19 February 2020.

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