The beautiful blue of this dragonfly dazzled me for a few moments one recent day. I’m not sure but I think it might be a blue dasher (Pachydiplax longipennis.) Its color reminded me of the blue stemmed goldenrod, which appears at this time of year.
NOTE: A reader says that this looks like a slaty skimmer. Any thoughts on that?
The blue of the blue jay feather matched that of the dragonfly. This shade of blue seems to appear in unexpected places in nature, like on smoky eye boulder lichens, cobalt crust fungi and first year black raspberry canes.
There were two painted turtles (Chrysemys picta) on a log one day and the big one looked to be scratching the little one’s back. Or maybe he was trying to push the little one off the log, I don’t know. They looked like happy turtles, whatever they were doing.
The hickory tussock moth caterpillar (Lophocampa caryae) is black and white and can cause quite an itchy rash, from what I’ve read. The nettle like hairs can break off and stick in the skin and they are said to bother some people enough for them to be hospitalized, so it’s probably best to look and not touch this one.
New Hampshire has eight native salamanders including the red-spotted newt (Notophthalmus viridescens.) I found this one under a log and I think it must be a juvenile red-spotted newt, which is called a red eft. It was bigger than many adults I’ve seen of that species but it was bright red as red efts are supposed to be.
NOTE: A reader has confirmed this salamander as an erythristic red-back salamander. Erythristic means that it has more red pigment, like a red headed person. Red back salamanders are the most common salamander in the northeast and usually found under logs, so everything fits this example.
The salamander was cooperative and let me take several photos until finally quickly ducking under a leaf.
I saw that a Canadian hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) seed had fallen onto a rotten hemlock stump that was apparently dirt like enough to let the seed grow. And grow it did, until its roots encircled the rotten stump and reached the ground. When the young tree is grown and the stump has rotted away this hemlock will look as if it’s standing on stilts.
Before they go dormant for the winter some ferns turn white, and if you catch them at just the right time they can be very beautiful.
Other ferns command my attention for different reasons.
Smooth sumac (Rhus glabra) berries are ripe and red. These berries don’t get anywhere near as hairy as staghorn sumac berries do but the plants still look alike and are easy to confuse if you don’t look closely for the hairy stems of staghorn sumac. Smooth sumac leaves turn bright red in the fall and produce a rich brown dye. Birds love them.
Staghorn sumac berries, like the rest of the plant, are very hairy. They are an important winter emergency food for many types of birds including Robins, Evening Grosbeaks, Bluebirds, Cardinals, and Scarlet Tanagers. After a thorough soaking and washing, the berries were made into a drink resembling pink lemonade by Native Americans. In the Middle East they are dried and ground into a lemon flavored spice.
Since I’m speaking of sumacs I might as well give you an update on the sumac pouch galls that the Smithsonian Institution is coming to harvest. They’re looking for winged adult sumac gall aphids (Melaphis rhois) so they asked me to cut a gall open. These galls turn tomato red as they age but as the photo shows this example looked more like a blushing potato.
All I found inside were green aphid larva. They need to grow a bit but since I don’t know much about their life cycle I’ll let the Smithsonian people decide when to come. They’re researching the coevolution of Rhus gall aphids and their host plants. Science has found that this relationship between the aphids and the sumac has been going on for at least 48 million years, with no signs of stopping. The galls are surprisingly light; they are really just bags of air.
When false Solomon’s seal (Smilacina racemosa) berries are fully ripe they will be bright red, but I like them speckled like they are at this stage too. I’ve read that soil pH can affect fruit color. Native American’s used all parts of this plant including its roots, which contain lye and must be boiled and rinsed several times before they can be used. Birds, mice, grouse, and other forest critters eat the ripe berries that grow at the end of the stem. They are said to taste like molasses and another common name for the plant is treacle berry.
Dark blueish purple true Solomon’s seal (Polygonatum biflorum) berries dangle under the leaves and look like grapes-quite different than the false Solomon’s seal berries in the previous photo. The berries and leaves of this plant are poisonous and should not be eaten. Solomon’s seal and its variants are great plants for a shaded woodland garden.
Most burning bushes (Euonymus alatus) are still green but every now and then just one branch will turn this orchid color, as if it can’t wait to announce summer’s passing. Though they are very invasive they can also be beautiful. They have taken over the understory of a strip of forest along the Ashuelot River and when the hundreds of shrubs all turn this color it becomes a breathtakingly beautiful sight.
One very important aspect of motivation is the willingness to stop and to look at things that no one else has bothered to look at. This simple process of focusing on things that are normally taken for granted is a powerful source of creativity. ~ Edward de Bono
Thanks for stopping in.
I think your dragonfly is a Slatey Skimmer, as your reader suggested. Nice “catch”! I’ve never seen one in the wild.
Blue dashers, however, I’ve seen aplenty. They have green eyes, yellow thoracic stripes, and an amber wash on their wings. The blue part goes “pruinose” (dusty) as it matures. Here’s my picture of a mature one:
I enjoy your posts! Keep ’em coming!
Looks like my html got stripped for the picture. Let’s see if this link works: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jenniferschlick/3736071535/
Thanks very much for the help Jennifer. I’m not very good at identifying insects so I appreciate all the help I can get.
I can see the differences when I compare yours to the one I saw, but they weren’t so clear when I was trying to compare it to others that I saw online.
Thanks again!
The dragonfly photo was lovely, the turtles made me smile and that newt was a real surprise. I’ve never seen a newt in the wild around here so I wonder if we have them at all?
Thank you. Yes, according to Wikipedia you have 3: the smooth newt, the great crested newt, and the palmate newt. It’s odd that you’ve never seen one near ponds and marshes, but they are quite shy creatures.
I shall have to look more closely
Unfortunately Alice and I have seen quite a few of those little red newts on our morning walks. I say unfortunately because all but one were dead in the road. I suppose they come out to warm on the pavement and are not quick enough to avoid the cars. Great shots and fun stuff to see up close. Love the blue dragon fly!
Thanks Martha. That’s too bad about the salamanders but I doubt anything could be done about it. I’d guess that they’re probably using the roads for warmth too. People driving probably can’t even see them.
Fabulous shots of all the things you’ve seen Allen. Our own native euonymus (eunymous europaeus) turns a similar colour in the autumn especially if we have had a lot of late summer sunshine. Sumachs have been popular garden plants here for some time and people are often surprised when it starts suckering and spreads all over their lawns! That dragonfly is a beauty!
Thank you Clare. Unfortunately your euonymus would be an introduced variety too, even though it might not be anywhere near as invasive. I’m glad you get to see such a colorful shrub though.
I wonder if the sumacs you speak of are American. Ours do the same thing.
The dragonfly was very cooperative for a change. They usually aren’t!
I think many of the sumacs I see are Stagshorn sumacs, so yes they are American. I know what you mean about unco-operative dragonflies! I spend ages following them about just waiting for them to settle somewhere!
Staghorn sumacs can be really invasive so people should be careful what they wish for!
I usually just stand and wait for dragonflies to calm down but they don’t often do it.
Yes! 😀
What a nice collection….
Thanks Scott.
Kathy beat me to it—it’s neat that you found an erythristic redback salamander. That particular phase of the redback seems to be fairly common in this area. The redback salamander is not only the most common salamander in New Hampshire by number, probably there are more tons of redbacks in the state than any other amphibian, or any bird, mammal, or reptile. From the website of the Arnold Arboretum:
At Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, a northern hardwood forest in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, red-back densities were estimated to be 0.25 individuals per square meter. In fact, the biomass of plethodontid salamanders at the Forest—of which red-backs contributed 95 percent—was found to be double the breeding bird biomass and equal to the biomass of all small mammals. Similar high densities have been found in other parts of its range.
Thanks Al. All of this has me wondering why I never see this particular salamander. I was actually rolling logs over looking for crust fungi when I found this one. He was in Robin Hood Park in Keene. He didn’t look mush like a red eft-he was much too long for one thing-but I had to go with that because the description more or less fit. Thanks for the help!
All of your shots are interesting and well done, though my personal favorite has to be the dragonfly…The detail of the dragonfly is just so stunning.
Thanks very much Charlie. It was nice of the dragonfly to pose for a moment or two!
Just stopping and looking without thinking is good enough for me. I loved the burning bush.
You don’t know how often I wish that looking without thinking was good enough for me but curiosity always seems to get the better of me and off I go.
The burning bush is a beautiful shrub in the fall. It’s too bad it’s so invasive because a lot of people love them.
It’s good that someone has the energy to think. Your knowledge has been useful to me.
You must have been spending a great deal of time out doors lately to find so many rare and unusual things! I’m not sure if I have ever seen a dragonfly that shade of blue before. I know that I’ve never seen a totally red salamander before, the closest we come in Michigan is a black salamander with a red stripe on its back. I do see trees growing in stumps of previous trees, but they’ve never reached the size of the one you found.
Thanks Jerry! I have indeed been spending a lot of time in the woods lately. I found a new job at a place called Nature’s Classroom and it all happens in about 700 acres of forest, so I feel right at home. Of course, none of these photos could be taken while I was working but it’s still nice to be in the woods.
I’ve never seen a dragonfly or salamander wearing those colors either. I usually see damselflies in blue and salamanders in more of an orange red with spots, so I didn’t know what to make of either one.
It would be interesting to watch that hemlock over the years to see what happens, but it’ll be around a lot longer than me!
I love sumac, I was never very sure that it came from the sumac trees I see in gardens but now I know! Amelia
I think if you washed staghorn sumac berries and ground some up you would find that they tasted very much like what you buy.
The ones I’ve seen in the U.K. have not looked appetising so I never tried grinding and eating them. Since it is a Middle Eastern spice I wondered if they needed warmer weather to mature.
It’s probably a different plant than ours.
One of your best quotes, I liked it a lot. Loved the colour of the leaves of the burning bush.
Thank you Susan. I don’t know how true that quote is but it seemed fitting. The burning bush is a favorite of many. It’s really too bad that it’s so invasive.
Fun observations with lots of critters. The hemlock is remarkable and I was recently looking at my own pouch galls, wondering what was in them…now I know! Thanks!
Thank you Eliza. I’m glad I could help with the pouch galls. It took me a while to figure them out too.
Wow. Here in PA the burning bush is a popular bush, especially around golf courses. I have had a few around various homes. I’m very glad to learn this is not to be planted in NH because I was considering a few as privacy during the summer. Any replacements?
Two of my favorites for fall color are highbush blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum) which gets very scarlet red, and maple leaf viburnum (Viburnum acerifolium) which turns orange, purple, red, and pink. Plant breeders have been working on both of them to improve their fall color and I’ve heard that you can now buy cultivars that are astounding.
This page has more information: http://perrysperennials.info/articles/burning.html
Reblogged this on Dawn of Divine Rays and commented:
Thank you, Allen. I’ve decided to start a new page for native plants in USA. You’ve inspired me to look deeper into the natural eco-system which most gardeners have yet to comprehend and enjoy. Wishing you a beautiful weekend. Namaste
Thank you Agnes. That sounds like a challenging but rewarding goal. Let me know if I can help you out.
I hope you have a great weekend too!
Thank you for offering your help, Allen. You’ve a lot of gardening and nature experiences and knowledge. I send some questions your way when needed. Happy weekend. Namaste
Any time!
Any time!
Another great post. I had no idea burning bush is invasive – this makes me wish that nurseries were more knowledgeable/forthcoming with this kind of information. Perhaps homeowners would forego the beautiful crimson fall color if they knew the risk.
Thank you Judy. Yes, burning bush is very invasive and it’s sale is banned here in New Hampshire. You can get a hefty fine if you’re found planting it as well.
Since each state has different laws on invasives I’m not sure what its status is in Michigan.
Your first photo looks like a Slaty Skimmer to me.
Thanks very much Roger. When it comes to anything but plants I’m shooting in the dark, so you could be right. It’s a beautiful thing, whatever it is. I’ll look up the slaty skimmer.
The salamander you saw is not a red eft, but an erythristic red-back salamander. Red back salamanders are the most common salamander in the northeast, but usually found under logs. The erythristic is simply a salamander of the same species, but with more red pigment, like a red headed person. Red backed salamanders are much more slender in body than red efts, and their skin in shiny, as opposed to red efts, which have more of a matte texture. Red efts also have red spots on their backs.
Thanks very much Kathy. I wondered about it being a red eft but that seemed to be the only description that really fit on the state website at http://www.wildlife.state.nh.us/nongame/salamanders.html
I thought it was both too long and too red but since I’ve never seen any salamander except the red spotted newt I had to go with that one. I appreciate the help sorting this out and will update the post as soon as I can.
Another red salamander is the spring salamander. Rarely seen, it is much larger, more like the size of a spotted salamander or a Jefferson, but more slender in the body. I have only seen one, which Al Stoops caught on the road on a rainy night in the spring.
Thanks for that Kathy. I don’t see many salamanders at all and when I have they’ve always been the red-spotted newt, until now. I’m going to have to roll more logs over!
The Canadian hemlock will be really neat looking once the stump has rotted away. The signs are all around us, fall is in the air!
I’m afraid so Laura, and there’s no stopping it.
That hemlock will be a real head scratcher for someone in the future.
your sumac gall looks like a fat bird singing, to me. We have them on some staghorns by me in NJ, if the Smithsonian cares. I’d never seen them before this year.
I confess I love burning bush, even though it’s awfully invasive. Nothing else gets quite that shade of hot pink in the fall, then the berries are pretty in early winter, and the winged stems are interesting at the end of winter when there’s nothing else to see.
Love your fern pictures, very pretty. And your snobby-looking turtles, as well.
Thank you Sara. I’ll tell the Smithsonian people about your pouch galls. If you watch them they should turn bright red and then start to split open to release the winged adults.
I like burning bushes for all the same reasons, but I’d never plant one!