The phantom crane fly (Bittacomorpha occidentalis) is a beautiful thing and gets its common name from the way it appears and disappears as it floats through light and shadows. They can float on breezes and air currents with minimal use of their wings because each lower leg is hollow, inflated, and sac like.
I’ve always liked blue and yellow together and this blue bottle fly and yellow milkweed aphids were eye catching.
I think this is some kind of leaf hopper. He was very triangular.
NOTE: Amelia at the A French Garden blog has identified this creature as a tree hopper called Stictocephala bisonia. It can cause a world of problems for grape growers, as Amelia can attest. If you’d like to read her blog post about it, just click here. Thanks Amelia!
Usually when you find dog lichens, in this case membranous dog lichen (Peltigera membranacea,) they are growing with moss. That’s because lichens like plenty of moisture and mosses soak it up like a sponge and release it slowly back to the surrounding vegetation. You can tell that the one in the photo has had plenty of moisture by its color. They turn a light ashy gray when dry. I like its frosted edges.
I never noticed this liverwort, called greater whipwort (Bazzania trilobata,) until last year but now I’m seeing it everywhere I go. It likes to grow in large colonies on damp stones usually near streams, and is very small and easily mistaken for a moss when you’ve never seen it. Each “leaf” is only about 1/8 inch wide and ends in 3 lobes or notches. That’s how it comes by the trilobata part of its scientific name. It’s another one of those beautiful things found in nature that often go unnoticed.
And speaking of beautiful things that go unnoticed; I love seeing the little purple “flowers” on the back of pokeweed berries (Phytolacca americana.) They are actually the flowers’ five lobed calyx, but mimic the flower perfectly. People do eat its new shoots in the spring but all parts of this plant are considered toxic, so it’s wise to know exactly what you’re doing if you choose to try it. Native Americans used the plant medicinally and also used the red juice from its berries to decorate their horses.
Ripe bittersweet nightshade berries (Solanum dulcamara) dangle like tiny Roma tomatoes, but eating them wouldn’t be good because they are very toxic. The plant can be especially dangerous around small children, who might be attracted to the bright red berries. Native to northern native to Africa, Europe and Asia, it has spread throughout much of the world thanks to migrating birds that are immune to its poisons.
I liked the netting on this savoy cabbage that I saw in a friend’s garden.
A different kind of netting is found on wild cucumber (Echinocystis lobata,) and once the seed pods dry the netting found inside them is even more interesting. A man wrote to me once and told me that he decorated pens that he makes with that same netting. For me these plants are like a time machine that always takes me back to my boyhood, when we used to throw the soft spined fruits at each other.
Wild grapes are showing signs of ripening. The ones pictured also show a good example of bloom, the powdery, waxy white coating found on grapes and other soft fruits like plums and blueberries which protects them from moisture loss and decay.
Many other plants like the first year black raspberry cane (Rubus occidentalis) pictured here use the same waxy white bloom as a form of protection. On plants like black raspberries, blue stemmed goldenrod, and smoky eye boulder lichens the bloom can appear to be very blue in the right kind of light. Finding such a beautiful color in nature is always an unexpected pleasure.
Silky dogwood berries (Cornus amomum) start out white and then turn blue. Somewhere in between they look like Chinese porcelain. In fact, I’ve wondered if the idea for their blue and white decorated porcelain didn’t originally come from these berries. Ideas always come from somewhere, and nature would be the most obvious source of inspiration.
No plant can live without light and nature always provides enough, even if that means being spotlighted by a sunbeam for only an hour each day like this spinulose wood fern (Dryopteris carthusiana.)
I first became attracted to long-leaved pondweed (Potamogeton nodosus) earlier this summer when I paddled my kayak through a large colony of it. They are unlike many of our more common aquatics and I like the leaf shape and the way they float on the water. The floating leaves are only half the story though, because the plant also has quite a crop of submerged leave floating just under the surface. The submerged leaves have the longest leaf stem (petiole) of any pond weed. It can reach 5 or more inches in length.
In my opinion one of the most beautiful things in the forest at this time of year is the maple leaf viburnum (Viburnum acerifolium.) Its leaves go through several color changes and In addition to the deep maroon seen in the photo they can become red, yellow, orange, deep pink, and often a combination of two or three colors at once. Finally, just before they fall, they turn a pastel pink so light it is almost white.
He who has experienced the mystery of nature is full of life, full of love, full of joy. Radiance emanates from the whole existence itself; it does not know the meaning of holding back. ~ Maitreya Rudrabhayananda
Thanks for coming by.
I love the pokeweed berries and the crane fly, our crane flys are much less exciting.
So are ours. Most are quite plain, but this one really stood out. The birds really love those pokeweed berries!
Very beautiful Allen. Beautiful close up of the crane fly! We don’t see the crane fly around here very often. I bet your temperatures are a lot cooler now. We are suppose to have 46 degrees tonight.
Thanks Michael. Yes, they say that we’ll see our first frost tonight. I’m hoping that they’re wrong!
I love the fern/shadow image! The phantom crane fly sure is neat looking.
Thanks Laura. I like that crane fly too. He was very open to having his photo taken!
I think I recognise your funny beastie, I think it might be Stictocephala bisonia which is native to North America but causing problems here. I did a post on it some time ago http://afrenchgarden.wordpress.com/2012/10/28/beauty-and-the-beast/. Have a look and see if it is the same. Amelia
Thank you Amelia. I think you’re correct and I have updated the post. I appreciate the help!
You are finding some beautiful stuff this late in the year! I love the little phantom crane fly!
Thanks Montucky. I like that one too. I’ve never seen another one like it.
My first pass at your photos was to look at the specimens you photographed; I would not that it does not get past me that these photographs are real art.
Thank you Charlie. It’s good of you to say so.
Reblogged this on Dawn of Divine Rays.
I love the triangular leaf hopper. Why would nature chose such an odd shape???
That’s a great question that I can’t answer Martha. It was also a tiny little thing, not even a snack for a sparrow.
I was delighted to see the pokeweed! The colors are beautiful. Over the weekend I shot some. The calyx (thank you for that word) does look like a stunning little flower. I know they are a pesky weed, but so pretty in the afternoon light.
I like them too. They really are a colorful plant at just about any time of year.
I learn so much from your posts, I wish that I could retain a little more of the knowledge that you pass on. I never knew what the coating on grapes and other plants was before, and that’s just one example of something that I hope to remember.
Do the Silky dogwood bushes grow to about 10 feet tall, and in colonies that crowd out almost all other plants? It sounds and looks like the bushes that grow in Michigan that attract ruffed grouse. Back when I hunted grouse, we used to look for a particular type of bush that had berries that started white but turned blue. The grouse will stuff themselves with the berries, and use the thick bushes as cover to hide from predators and hunters. From your blog, I think the bushes were Silky dogwood, but I won’t tell you what we called them after fighting our way through the thickets of them to push any grouse out. 😉
Thanks Jerry, I’m the same way with birds and insects. I guess we just can’t remember everything, but I have to say that I do feel a little foolish looking up the same bug 2 or 3 times!
Yes, silky dogwoods get quite big-and often as wide as they are tall, and they like to grow near water, especially where the branches can overhang a river or pond. There are other dogwoods that have blue berries and some with white berries but I think this is the only one that has white changing to blue. I sure wouldn’t want to have to fight my way through one!
These pictures would make an interesting “color chart.” Not to mention a 2015 calender. Do you get animated over exciting finds or stay cool and calm? I definitely “oohed” and “aahed” through the whole blog!
Thank you, I’m glad that you liked them. Yes, my pulse often speeds up a bit when I find things, especially if it’s something I’ve never seen before. It’s hard to not get excited when there is so much discovery going on and sometimes I feel like a little kid again. Anyone watching might think I had gone over the edge!
I’ve had witness many times. Sometimes they had a hard time keeping a straight face. And then there are times when I can almost hear the nature spirits’ respond to my excitement.
I’ve seen people act like they wanted to ask what I was doing, but then they changed their minds and decided to give me a wide berth.
Nature does respond. Many times I’ve been led from one interesting or beautiful thing to another, as if I have a guide leading me.
Maybe being female made people friendlier. With my wearing camo often and being immersed in something, they’d quietly go around. One Christmas bird count a friend and I both wore camo bibs and jacket. We didnt’ get served. Guess they didn’t see us in the camo. A couple men found it amusing.
Usually when I meet women on the trail they have a dog or a friend with them and unless I’m doing something out of the ordinary, we will usually say hi to each other.
Coming around a corner on a trail and finding a man lying on his stomach trying to take a photo of a mushroom is just too much for some people though. It would probably give me a fright too, for a minute.
Thank-you for another lovely, interesting post. The calyx of the pokeweed berry is very attractive. If you lived in the 18th or 19th centuries you would have a house full of exhibits of the interesting things you had found on your expeditions. The camera saves such a lot of storage space!
You’re welcome Clare. Actually if you know where to look in my house you can find many boxes full of rocks and minerals, because I used to collect them. And then there’s the lichens, interesting pieces of wood, plant galls, and everything else that comes home with me. It doesn’t quite look like a natural history museum, but it’s getting there!
Hah! I was right then!
You’ve got me pegged!
Wow! So beautiful!
Thank you, I’m glad you enjoyed it.
You’ve outdone yourself with these photos. They are marvelous. They remind us that Nature is an incredible thing, a beautiful mystery indeed.
Thank you Cynthia. There is beauty everywhere you look out there!
Yes. Especially when you have an eye to see it.
It’s something I’ve learned, so that means anyone can.
Your work is excellent and of great interest to me. I’ve seen many of the same things, but know little about most of them. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you Anthony. You’ve just described a lot of what this blog is about. I hope you’ll continue to get out there are find even more.
Beautiful shots but the one of the pokeweed berries wins the day.
Thanks! I’ve been waiting a while now for those berries to ripen and as soon as they did the birds started eating all of them.
Beautiful photographs, I especially liked your shot of the Rubus cane, so much detail. Lovely.
Thank you Julie. I liked the colors in that one too.
You really grabbed my attention with that first photo–the phantom crane fly is definitely a curious looking insect. I really like the way that you are able to find such colorful berries and other plants when you are traipsing about. I’m sure that I am missing a lot, though I suspect it really helps to know where to look.
Thank you Mike. That’s the first time I’ve ever seen that particular crane fly and I thought he was a real beauty.
If you’re looking for a specific plant it does help to know where they grow but most of what you see in these ‘things I’ve seen” posts are just things I bump into as I wander around. Walking very slowly and stopping to look around occasionally helps you see things that you wouldn’t ordinarily see.
The wood fern and its shadow exemplify for me your splendid noticing eye and the skills you have as a photographer. It is a treat to read your blog.
Thank you Susan. When you’re in a dark forest sunbeams like that one really stand out and I always like to see what plant is being highlighted by them. I also think fern shadows are really interesting.