Fred's photos from Wheaton Labs

Sorry to interrupt...

Next there is a nest of cute baby deer mice.

Last is Golden Clover (Trifolium aureum). It is a biennial nitrogen fixer.

Some of my planting efforts are finally starting to make themselves know. Now i just wish it would rain again (sorry Evan). Here are a corn and squash seedling.

Even though it's been a while since in rained, i'm still finding mushrooms. Here is a nice grouping of some polypore mushrooms growing with some moss.

A Lorquin's Admiral (Limenitis lorquini) butterfly found it's way into wofati 0.7 and stayed on the kitchen window a while until i moved it outside. Wikipedia claims these butterflies are territorial and attack trespassers (including large birds), but i can't see how a butterfly attacks anything.

Assassin bugs are normally beneficial insects, but this one caught a native bee that came to this oxeye daisy.

I found a bunch of blooming blanket flowers (Gaillardia aristata) today. It is a perennial and it was growing in a pretty dry area. Some Plateau Indian tribes used it to treat fevers and wounds.

Fred Tyler wrote:Jocelyn was just telling me about salsify and then i found a good example of it in bloom. Found a growie with very hairy leaves, felt a little sticky, and a yellow and purple veined flower. I couldn't track down an ID on that one.

Thanks, now I know what one of my mystery plants is!

I haven't had any luck figuring out what this first plant is any ideas?

Found some Showy Fleabane (Erigeron speciosus) blooming near wofati 0.8 when i was giving a tour to some of the many people arriving for the PDC. The dried plants are believed to repel fleas.

The snowberry clearwing (Hemaris diffinis) is a moth that flies around (mostly by day) to drink nectar like a bumblebee or humming bird. This unfortunate fellow was found on my window sill.

Fred Tyler wrote:I haven't had any luck figuring out what this first plant is any ideas?

Miner's lettuce maybe?

that first picture, plant ID is Claytonia Perfoliata - aka Miner's Lettuce. it does look quite different though, than the ones i find, perhaps because of the local conditions. but the flowers make it clear thats what it is.

btw, awesome photography =) you definitely have a good sense of framing the images, and some talent there =)

Oh! Showy fleabane! Maybe I should have looked at your thread before I posted about how mysterious that flower was. Nice id work, Fred!

Re Fred's photo captions. It is hard to tell exactly, but I am 99% sure that your approximately 20th picture, labeled comfrey, IMG_0727.JPG. is not comfrey but the herb borage.

Lee Kochel wrote:Re Fred's photo captions. It is hard to tell exactly, but I am 99% sure that your approximately 20th picture, labeled comfrey, IMG_0727.JPG. is not comfrey but the herb borage.

Hmm, the borage I grew years ago had very blue flowers. These look purpley to me.
What characteristics make you think it's borage?