This is another of those posts full of all of the things I’ve seen that wouldn’t fit in other posts.
This oak apple gall was about the same diameter as a quarter. Apple galls are caused by a wasp (Amphibolips confluent) called the oak apple gall wasp. In May, the female wasp emerges from underground and injects one or more eggs into the mid-vein of an oak leaf. As it grows the wasp larva causes the leaf to form a round gall. Galls that form on leaves are less harmful to the tree than those that form on twigs.
The female catkins of native river birch (Betula nigra) will form cone shaped fruit called a strobiles. The seeds in the fruit, called nutlets, are dispersed by the wind. River birch is a popular ornamental tree because of its peeling and curling reddish brown bark. It’s my favorite birch tree.
This robin let me walk right up to him and snap a few pictures.
This blue jay didn’t want any part of having his picture taken and thought he was hidden.
This bull frog sitting on a log was fidgety and his movements told me that one more step would make him launch himself into the water. I didn’t take it, and he stayed dry.
Sensitive fern (Onoclea sensibilis) gets its common name from the way even a light frost damages it. This spring sensitive ferns and many other native plants miscalculated and came up early, and a late frost made their leaves wither and turn brown.
Interrupted fern (Osmunda claytoniana) looks frost bitten, but it wasn’t. The brown parts are fertile, spore bearing leaflets that appear in the middle of the leaf, interrupting the green, infertile leaflets.
The fertile leaflets of interrupted fern are completely covered with spore-bearing structures called sporangia. The sporangia have small openings that the dust like spores are released through during the summer. The fertile leaflets will wither away and fall off after the spores are released, and by the time fall arrives each leaf will have a gap between its infertile, green leaflets.
The flower buds of wild grape look like miniature versions of the fruit that will hang here later on.
The white leaves of large toothed aspen (Populus grandidentata) mean the tree hasn’t started photosynthesizing. These trees, along with many oaks, are the last to green up in spring. Some call them white poplar (Populus alba,) but that is an entirely different tree, even though they are both in the poplar family.
The shiny, purplish bronze, spring leaves of poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans) make you want to reach out and touch them, but if you do you’ll be sorry. It usually takes about two weeks before the itchy and sometimes painful rash goes away. This plant can grow creeping along the ground, as a shrub, and as a vine like the one pictured. If you spend any time in the woods in this part of the country it’s a good plant to get to know well before you meet face to face. Later, these shiny purple leaves will become green and won’t be quite as shiny, and the plant will blend right in to the background.
American royal fern (Osmunda spectabilis) is probably the easiest fern to identify because there aren’t any other ferns that I know of that look like it. It can reach 5 feet tall and prefers growing near wateron stream and pond banks. I think that it is one of the most beautiful ferns in the forest. According to the book How to Know the Ferns, written in 1900 by Francis Parsons, the European version of the royal fern (Osmunda regalis) can grow to 10 feet in Great Britain.
Spotted wintergreen is an odd name for a plant with no spots, but that’s what someone decided to call it. It is also called striped wintergreen (Chimaphila maculate,) which makes more sense to me. This native plant is a close relative of pipsissewa (Chimaphila umbellate,) which is called umbellate wintergreen. The small, white to pink, nodding flowers appear in July. This plant is rarely seen here-I’ve found it in only two places and both are areas that haven’t been disturbed by man in 100 years or more. The U.S.D.A. lists it as endangered in Canada, Illinois, and Maine, and in New York it is listed as vulnerable.
It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see. ~ Henry David Thoreau
Note that I have added a new page called Books I Use.
Have a great holiday weekend. Thanks for stopping in.
The Oak Apple Gall picture took me back to when I was growing up- a nearby park had many old Oak trees that had dozens of these galls on their leaves. Us kids called them ‘puff balls’.
They look a lot like puff balls when they fall out of the tree and are sitting on the ground.
such exotic looking species (to me), the blue jay is so pretty, wonderful photograph and colours.
Thank you, and welcome.
Reading this post is like going on a nature ramble.
Thanks Sandy. That’s the idea!
Very interesting collection! I really like these posts! You sure called it right on the frog. I have found them very difficult subjects to photograph.
Thanks Montucky! I know what you mean about frogs. I don’t have many pictures of them!
[…] saw tall ferns, not ten foot tall like those mentioned by my friend in New Hampshire in his recent blog but above my sboulder so a good four feet tall. Along this part of the path amongst the […]
My favorite birch is the white birch, but I think that is so for utilitarian reasons. The bark can be lit even when it’s wet, as it’s filled with an oil. Very handy when camping inthe rain, but I never take it at a camp ground (because everyone else does, ignoring the pleas not to). It doesn’t take much to get a fire going with it. A patch of it about four inches long and an inch or two wide is plenty. If I can, I strip it from a downed tree. It still has the oil.
When we burned wood I always wanted some white birch in the load for those very same reasons. I never wasted any of it, because it was excellent for starting fires.
I really like the royal fern, I don’t think it is in the woods around here. I am extremely allergic to poison ivy, by the way, I think just looking at a picture could be enough to make me break out.
Or at least get you itching! I’ve seen royal fern growing in gardens so I’m pretty sure you can buy it-probably from a nursery that specializes in ferns. It would need a constantly moist spot.
So how does poison ivy ‘work?’ Is it the sap or does it have hairs like a stinging nettle? D
Yes, it is the sap that causes the rash, but you can even get a reaction from breathing the smoke from burning it or kneeling on the naked stems in winter. Another way is by petting an animal that has come into contact with it, so you don’t always have to touch the leaves. I’m not that allergic to it and usually get a small, localized rash but I had a friend who was so allergic to it that his eyes were swollen shut from it once. It can be very dangerous if you somehow get a reaction inside your mouth or throat, so it’s a good plant to walk away from.
You see so many interesting things. I had often wondered what poison ivy looked like.
That picture is of new spring leaves on poison ivy. They will get bigger and greener as time goes on. You’re lucky that you don’t have it there.
I’m intrigued by the Royal fern growing so high. I’ve never seen one but that is something I’ve got to go looking for.
From what you and Marie have said I think maybe the author of the 1900s book How to Know the Ferns might have repeated a few tall tales that someone passed on. The tallest I’ve ever seen them is about 4 feet.
The sporangia is quite something! like an entire unknown world ready to open up and swooooosssshhhhh!
What a great shot of the Blue Jay, too! I’ve been stalking several around my yard this past week to no avail. they are notoriously camera shy!
I think this blue jay really thought he was hidden! It’s interesting to watch the wind catch the dust-like sporangia of ferns. it’s like a small brown cloud rising up from the forest floor.
It’s nice to see a little wildlife in one of your posts. 😉
They don’t hold still very often, but when they do I give it a try!
These “things [you] have seen” are among my favorite of your posts. It’s fun to see some of what doesn’t fit in. 🙂 Nice captures.
Thank you Melanie. As you know I stumble across strange things in the woods all the time, so there will be plenty more of these posts.
Ah, poison ivy. Out on Appledore Island it grows as a free-standing shrub about six feet tall in places! Also, I love that robin. Such a noble pose.
Poison ivy can actually be a very pretty plant at times. And of course we want to touch anything that pretty! That robin seemed like he was frozen in place-like he was listening intently to something only he could hear.
I can say I’ve ever seen any ten foot ferns in the woods here but I’ll be looking out for them from now on 🙂
I’d sure love to see them, so I hope you’ll take pictures!
If I see them I will 🙂
If I see any I sure will
I love the cool and interesting facts and photos in your posts. I was particularly taken this time by your description of the formation of the gall.
Thanks Mike. Galls and the insects that make them are very interesting things.