Explore Outdoors ~ Wintery Flowers

 Welcome Back! Shadow or no, and regardless of what the Groundhog thinks, it's time for me to come out of hibernation, shake the snow out of my brain, and share cool science and books for the spring.

I spent part of the winter months in south Boston area, near the ocean. The air seemed to be warmer, the climate milder, and the flowers bloomed into December...

Here are a couple I captured at first snowfall, right before the Solstice.

 

You can tell the air was warm(ish) because the flakes are so big - large enough to distinguish them on flowers and leaves. Within a couple weeks all the flowers had lost their petals and leaves were dried and crinkly.

What do the flowers look like in your neighborhood this week?

Explore Outdoors ~ Texture

 One of the reasons I find dead-on-the-stem flowers so interesting is their textures, and the contrast between them and the blooming flowers next to them. Though, given the lateness of the season, most of my flowers are naught but papery petals and seed heads at this point. And if I want to collect a few seeds to sow next year, I'd better be quick or the birds and squirrels will beat me to it.

 

 

This week enjoy the textures of the flowers 

you find around your neighborhood

Explore Outdoors ~ Three Ways of Looking at a Dahlia

 There are so many ways to look at things: from the front, from above, from below. I happened to be visiting a friend who was trimming her dahlias earlier this month - so I got to look at the flowers close-up-and-personal.

 

This week, take some time to look at flowers

 or trees, leaves, lichens

from different points of view.

Explore Outdoors ~ letting go of color

As we move toward winter, I watch the changing season reflected in my garden. Flowers go to seed, blooms fade, leaves turn color or dry and fall...

How do your plants reflect the changing season?

 

It's Pollinator Week!

 It's Pollinator Week! That means every day I'll have something fun on this blog. Tomorrow and Thursday it's a look at pollinators at work. On Wednesday there's a pollinator scavenger hunt, and on Friday a review of a special book about bees.

 

 Before the Seed: How Pollen Moves
by Susannah Buhrman-Deever; illus. by Gina Triplett & Matt Curtius
40 pages; ages 7-9
‎MIT Kids Press, 2024

 

 If you want to grow a flower - or a tomato - you need to plant a seed. But before you can have a seed, you've got to move pollen. And if you've ever seen a pollen grain, you know they're too tiny to pick up. So how does pollen get moved? By animals. From beetles to bees, from bats to birds and butterflies, pollen is on the move!

 

 

 The Mighty Pollinators
by Helen Frost; photographs by Rick Lieder
32 pages; ages 2-5
Candlewick, 2024

Meet the pollinators through playful poems and stunning photographs. There are bumble bees and honey bees that carry pollen back to their hive, and solitary bees that live alone. There are beautiful photos of flies and butterflies, bats and fireflies, and back matter that explains more about pollen and pollination. Want to observe pollinators in your garden or park? Just find a flower and stand a few feet away and watch. Once you're still, you'll notice the pollinators visiting the blooms. They are busy working, so if you don't bother them they won't bother you.

Want to learn more about these books and the authors? Head over to the GROG blog and check out my interview with Susannah and Helen at the GROG's Fourth Annual Arthropod Roundtable

Explore Outdoors ~ spring flowers

 Forsythia is blooming like fireworks! And when you look closely at the flowers, you can find tiny visitors. What's blooming in your neighborhood? 

Explore Outdoors ~ Who's hanging out in the Crocuses?

 

Last week I noticed crocuses popping up in yards down in town. Lots of crocuses. So I wandered over to see whether any insects might be checking them out. I expected bees - maybe early bumble bees, though to tell the truth, March 10 is very early for anyone to be waking up and heading outside.

I didn't see any bees, but I did notice flies. Some were tiny and dainty; others were like this stout fellow.

What flowers are blooming in your neighborhood?

And what insects are visiting them?

Explore Outdoors ~ Parachute Seeds

This is the season when trees drop walnuts and hickory nuts onto our road, and purple berry juice speckles our driveway. Tall roadside weeds with dandelion-like flowers are going to seed, sending dainty parachutes out to ride the least breeze.

Sometimes the parachute fibers hang on, reluctant to leave the safety of the seedhead. After all, where will they end up? They don't file flight plans and no one has given them a map. 

Look for plants producing parachute seeds in your neighborhood. 

• What kinds of plants make these seeds?
• Collect some parachute seeds from different kinds of plants and draw them. What do you notice?
• How far do the seeds travel on a breath of air?
• What do the fibers feel like?
• What do the seeds and fibers look like under a magnifying lens?
  

Explore Outdoors ~ Beauty in Old Flowers

 

My coneflowers are no longer their vibrant purple. After a summer of hard work, producing pollen and nectar, they are showing their age. The color has faded and the petals have dried and curled. Seeds are ripening, and birds are already dropping by to check them out. 

 

Soon sun and wind and rain and snow will take their toll and they'll look more like this.

This week, look for beauty in aging flowers. What do you notice?

Explore Outdoors ~ Fall Flowers

Happy Fall! Saturday is the fall equinox, and fall flowers are coming into their own. Like this aster...

 

Asters are composite flowers, being a composite of yellow disc flowers and purple ray flowers. The center disc flowers open a few at a time, from the outside in - you can see their cup shape and the stamens that hold pollen. Sometimes they look like spirals. 

This week take a closer look at the centers of flowers. What do you see?

Explore Outdoors ~ Bees are Still Busy

Summer is winding down, and everyone - trees, flowers, animals - is getting ready for fall. The roadsides are filled with yellow and purple flowers, goldenrods and asters, with a few bright orange jewelweed blooms tucked here and there. Berries are ripening and leaving purple splots on the road where they fall.

The bumblebees are busy, too, out slurping nectar and getting pollen all over their legs and faces. Which is great for these late-bloomers that will be going to seed in a couple weeks.

This week, take a few moments to watch the bees - and enjoy the late summer blooms.

• what color are most of the flowers growing along your roadsides?
• what kinds of bees do you see?
• how is the landscape changing as summer comes to a close?
  

Explore Outdoors ~ Shadows in the Flowers

 

 

Usually when I go walking, I look for insects in the flowers. But last week I found something just as interesting: shadows! The sun was just at the right angle to make shadow of the flowers stamens.

This week, look for shadows in the flowers blooming in your neighborhood.

Explore Outdoors ~ Disc Flowers on a Coneflower

 I've been watching pollinators on my coneflowers week after week - butterflies, flies, bees of all types. But I never really thought about the flowers producing the pollen that the bees were collecting.

So a couple of weeks ago I followed a leafcutter bee around. And I noticed that the conehead of my purple coneflowers had tiny pollen-laden stars on the disc flowers.

Okay, a digression: composites have disc flowers and ray flowers. In the coneflower, the ray flowers are the purple petals and the disc flowers are the ones that make up the center cone that looks a bit like a porcupine.

At first, I thought that the pollen was on top of the orange spike of the disc flower.

Then I looked closer...

Turns out each "porcupine quill" is a bracht, and the flowers are next to it. When you look closely (a handlens is helpful) you can see the two-lobed stigma and the star-like anthers.

 According to the Outdoor Learning Lab (Greenfield Community College), the disc flowers mature sequentially, beginning with those on the perimeter and moving toward the center. Only one whorl of flowers matures each morning, and there is only a small amount of nectar - so pollinators have to visit many flowers on one plant and then visit more on another plant. What a great way to ensure cross-pollination! You can read more about coneflowers at the OLL page here.

 This week take a close look at composite flowers you find in your neighborhood. They might be coneflowers or sunflowers, black-eyed Susans or ox-eye daisies, asters or fleabane, or even dandelions and their relatives. If you have a magnifying lens, take it with you.

Explore Outdoors ~ Flower Spiders

 Last week I shared Spider Flowers. This week it's Flower Spiders - more specifically, crab spiders that hang out in flowers.

These spiders are colored in a way that helps them blend in with flowers. I've seen yellow crab spiders and greenish ones; this spider is white with pink designs. The spiders get their name because of their flat, round bodies and the way they hold their legs out to the side like claws. Some even move sideways, just like a crab.

Crab spiders lurk, waiting for something yummy to drop by. They eat bees and flies and even other spiders (especially other crab spiders). I caught one in the act a couple years ago (posted here)

This week take a closer look at the flowers in your neighborhood. Do you see any crab spiders? If so, what color is the spider, and what color/kind of flower is it on? 

If you are lucky enough to discover a crab spider dining, watch quietly without disturbing them. What did it capture?

Explore Outdoors ~ Spider Flowers

 Last year I planted some of these flowers. They are called "spider flowers" and cleome, and grew as tall as me (five feet tall, if you must know). 

I planted them for the hummingbirds and hummingbird moths, butterflies and bees - you can see where a leafcutter bee has snipped out a bit of petal. And I planted them for their color and their fragile beauty. You may recall a post from late September in which, while looking at the seed pods, I wondered whether they would re-seed.

Yes, they do - but only where I didn't want them. Did the seeds grow in the flower bed? No. Did the seeds grow where I planted lettuce this year? Of course! Plants growing where you don't want them is the definition of "weed". But instead of calling them "weeds," I referred to them as "volunteers." Rather than yank the seedlings out, I let them grow a couple of weeks and have been transplanting them around the garden: to the flower bed, in amongst the tomatoes. I can't wait to see the birds and bees and butterflies visit this year's blooms.

This week, look for "volunteers" growing in your garden and yard. Did they come from seedpods of last year's plants? Did they fly on the wind? Were they dropped by birds or carried by ants? How do plants take root in a new place?

Explore Outdoors ~ Got Ants in your Plants?

I do! And I'm not too worried. That's because these ants and plants have a working relationship. A partnership of sorts. 

 

 

The peony has extrafloral nectaries on the sepals (the leaf-like things that protect the flower). That nectar attracts ants that, in exchange for the food, protect the plant from flower-chewing bugs. There are other nectaries inside the flower that produce food for pollinators - once the flower opens.

This week, take a closer look at flowers and flower buds.

• Do you see ants on the plants?
• Do the ants look like they are collecting nectar?
• Are the flowers open or still closed buds?
• Are the ants eating other insects on the plants?
• Do the ants leave pheromone signals letting other ants know how to get to these sweet treats?
• Do you see other pest-eating beneficials on plants, such as ladybug larvae or lacewings?

You can find out more about ants and peonies at Illinois Extension and the master gardeners at Penn State. And by observing peony flowers wherever you find them!

Explore Outdoors ~ Yellow Flowers

 Every season has its colors. For our area, spring starts out yellow, with daffodils, dandelions, coltsfoot, and these - forsythia and willow. What color(s) does Spring wear in your area?

 

 

 

Explore Outdoors ~ emerging daffodil

Watching flowers is like watching birds ~

but slower.

Sure, they don't have wings

but they do have showy colors

and they make your heart sing! 

 

This week check out the flowers opening up in your neighborhood. 

• Do they hang out in groups?
• What colors do you notice? 
• Are your flowers on trees or shrubs?
• How many petals do your flowers have?
  

 

 

Explore Outdoors ~ Rosehips in the Snow

 

Rosehips provide nutritious lunches for birds and squirrels. But - look at those spiky stems! You've gotta be tough to harvest these tasty vitamin-packed berries.

This week, look for roses in your neighborhood. If you find some rosehips, look for bite marks or other evidence that they're being nibbled by local wildlife.

Explore Outdoors ~ Shades of Winter Flowers

 This week pay attention to the colors of the flowers around you. The roses in one neighbor's garden displayed a range of hues from beige to faded peach to walnut and even colors of desert sand. Jot down the colors and shades you see. If you need some ideas for naming colors, drop by a paint store and check out the paint chips.

Winter Garden

The roses in my garden are beige, tan,

the color of espresso crema

or cafe con leche.

They remind me of desert sand

(depending on which desert),

a fortune cookie,

grade A maple syrup,

tortilla chips,

peanuts in the shell, 

peanuts out of the shell,

pecans and walnuts, 

amber, honey,

a faded peach, 

the end of summer.