plants – Page 3 – Urocyon's Jaunts 2.0

Appalachian Summer, 2018, Volume Twenty-Two: Swamp Milkweed. As the first milkweeds of summer – Asclepias syriaca and tuberosa – fade away by mid to late July, swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata) rises to assume their important roles within Appalachia’s summer ecosystem. A gorgeous perennial herb of wet meadows, marshes, and stream edges, swamp milkweed bears upright clusters of pink flowers at the top of a tall, branching stem, whose leaves are narrow,

lanceolate, and opposite with smooth edges. As with those of its relatives, swamp milkweed’s flowers are arranged in a “hoods and horns” structure with five downward-swooping petals surrounding a central crown of five upward-pointing horns. The petals are a light pink to deep rose shade and contrast vividly with the pinkish white to cream-colored crown. Swamp milkweed, also known as rose or pink milkweed, plays a critical role in the life-cycles of the monarch and queen butterflies, both as a food source for their caterpillars, which eat the foliage, and their adult forms, which consume the nectar from the flowers. The flowers attract a wide variety of butterflies, bees, and other insects, as well as hummingbirds. You can find a good resource here for growing milkweeds as monarch and queen butterfly host plants.

Source: vandaliatraveler

botanyshitposts:

this is the competition/showroom…….i wish I could post more than 10 pics

eriospermum:

Larryleachia marlothii ( N.E.Br. ) Plowes
basionym : Trichocaulon marlothii N.E.Br.

Source: eriospermum

growlithops:

Lithops, 3 years

It’s been 3 years since I started these from seeds and they look fantastic (they’re really self conscious about their size, so I’ll avoid commenting on that).

dendroica:

Monarch Caterpillars on Butterfly Milkweed (via USFWS Midwest Region)

We spotted these monarch caterpillars eating butterfly milkweed at Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge in Minnesota.

Photo by Courtney Celley/USFWS.

turecepcja:

Tree roots winning their battle against concrete

Source: turecepcja

hollowedskin:

dr-archeville:

ayellowbirds:

andymisandry:

ayellowbirds:

pixiebutterandjelly:

Poison Ivy as a kindergarten teacher

no, but really: flytraps use up a LOT of energy closing their traps. You know a lot of other plants that move that much? Tricking them into closing when there isn’t food there is indeed mean.

B-but… they’re plants… they’re devoid of sentience, right? They don’t “feel,” they’re more like little wind-up machines. Right? They don’t act on instinct, they’re… well… traps. You can’t actually be mean to a plant. Right??

I’m of the opinion that meanness is about the nature of the action, not awareness on the part of the target of the action.

Tricking them into closing their traps is actually harmful to them, since the energy expended in closing and then re-opening the trap isn’t replenished by having a tasty insect to digest.

I’m of the opinion that meanness is about the nature of the action, not awareness on the part of the target of the action.