Repeat Performances

[At the bottom of this page there is a picture of a rat snake in a position which, I have to admit, even I find a bit creepy, and I am a huge fan of snakes!]

Welcome to the latest entry in my "Year in the Woods" series, where I document all the native plants I can find in our woods in one year.

We have some repeat appearances in this week's post. For starters, we have our second showing of Goldenrod, although this is a different species from what we saw last time (I still need to get them sorted out, but the genus is Solidago). 

Next we have another appearance of Grape Fern (Botrychium dissectum). I posted a photo of a rather sad looking specimen in early June, but now it seems to really be in its prime.

Here's one that puzzled me for several weeks, so I'm happy to finally get it worked out. It's called Indian Tobacco (Lobelia inflata). Just shootin' in the dark here, but just maybe the scientific name has something to do with that balloon shaped seed pod in the second photo.

Here's another example of a rather dull plant, except that it stands out when there's not much else blooming. It's Eupatorium hyssopifolium, related to Joe Pye Weed and likely an important plant for pollinating insects.

And now for some bonus sightings. We'll start with this purple mushroom. How cool is that!

Next we have a bright green dragonfly. It keeps getting better!

Here's an American Lady butterfly on the non-native lantana in my flower bed.

There are several species of lepidopterans in the "Hummingbird moth" category, so named because they flit about like their namesake. This one is the Snowberry clearwing (Hemaris diffinis). You can read more about them here. They are hard to photograph as they always seem to be on the move, so I was happy to catch this one resting on a marigold leaf in my garden.

Here's a Pearly Eye we saw in the woods. [Warning, creepy snake photo is next]

And finally, the creepy photo of the rat snake (another repeat appearance on these pages). This is the second time I've come across one in this position, all kinked up, which must have something to do with temperature regulation. Cool!

To see additional posts in this series, click the "yearinthewoods" label in the left column.

For a list of all the plants I've found, click here.

Here's a description of my wildflower "hunting" techniques and the references I use to identify them:

http://timberwalkers.blogspot.com/2015/05/how-to-find-native-wildflowers-and.html

Here's a description of how I take photos:

http://timberwalkers.blogspot.com/2013/07/how-to-take-half-decent-photos-of.html