In late April we started to have occasional visits from Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, once every few days. Male hummers were first on the scene,
Male Ruby-throated Hummingbird
followed by visits from females about a week later. Continue reading
Insects and reptiles are waking up, birds are gathering nesting materials, and early wildflowers are covering the forest floor. Spring has finally arrived!
Spring Beauty (Claytonia virginica)
Several friends mentioned seeing a dark butterfly with yellow or cream borders, wondering what it was. These early flying beauties are Mourning Cloaks.
Mourning Cloak (Nymphalis antiopa)
Antifreeze-like chemicals called glycerols in their blood enable Mourning Cloaks to survive the winter as adults, using loose bark, other crevices in trees, or a pile of branches to shelter from the elements. They are able to raise their body temperatures by shivering, enabling them to generate enough warmth to fly in cool temperatures. They often drink sap, but will also nectar at flowers. I have seen them feeding on Red Maple flowers (Acer rubrum). On a walk on one of our favorite trails in the Sourlands the other day, we saw two spiraling skyward together.
With the exception of a few summer-like days, the temperatures have been warm enough for flowers to emerge and bloom, but cool enough to preserve the blossoms for many days. Early spring wildflowers flowers are gracing the trails and hillsides. These delicate but tenacious plants manage to push their way through their winter blanket of fallen leaves, like this Spring Beauty (Claytonia virginica).
Spring Beauty (Claytonia virginica)
Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) carpeted the woodland floor over the past week or two.
Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis)
Wild Leek (Allium trioccum), also called Ramps, are gathering energy from the sun, preparing to produce their flowers many weeks from now.
Wild Leek (Allium trioccum)
Cut-leaved Toothwort (Cardamine concatenata)
Cut-leaved Toothwort (Cardamine concatenata)
and Rue Anemone (Thalictrum thalictroides)
Rue Anemone (Thalictrum thalictroides)
are beginning to bloom.
This lovely Trout Lily (Erythronium americanum) exuberantly flung out its leaves, welcoming the sun’s energy while beckoning potential pollinators with its brightly colored flowers.
Trout Lily (Erythronium americanum)
In order to protect their pollen from the elements, Trout Lily flowers face downward until they are pollinated, then they rise upright. To leverage its chances of reproductive success, another strategy Trout Lily employs is to open half of its anthers one day, offering the rest the next. In the photo below, you can see three of the flower’s six anthers splitting open to release their pollen.
Trout Lily (Erythronium americanum), orange anthers opening to reveal pollen
A Mining Bee, probably Andrena erythronii, is the pollinator visiting the Trout Lily below.
Trout Lily (Erythronium americanum) with Mining Bee, probably Andrena erythronii
The female members of this bee species collect pollen and nectar to feed their larvae, storing this food on the hairs (called scopae) on her upper rear legs until she can return with this bounty to provision her brood cells. Andrena erythronii specializes on Trout Lilies, but it is able to use the pollen and nectar of other plants to feed its young if Trout Lilies are unavailable.
Trout Lily (Erythronium americanum) with Mining Bee, probably Andrena erythronii, gathering pollen
Other critters are emerging from their winter slumbers. As I walked, I saw Garter Snakes basking in the sun. This one stood its ground as I carefully moved around it.
Garter Snake (Thamnophis sirtalis)
Wood Ducks hid in the shadows of a pond’s edge.
Wood Duck (Aix sponsa)
A special treat for me was seeing Round-lobed Hepatica (Hepatica Americana; synonym Anemone americana) growing from rock crevices and through leaf litter, in colors ranging from deep violet to pure white.
Round-lobed Hepatica (Hepatica Americana; synonym Anemone americana)
Round-lobed Hepatica (Hepatica Americana; synonym Anemone americana) showing last year’s leaves
Round-lobed Hepatica (Hepatica Americana; synonym Anemone americana) showing last year’s leaves
Round-lobed Hepatica (Hepatica Americana; synonym Anemone americana) with fresh leaves
Round-lobed Hepatica (Hepatica Americana; synonym Anemone americana) with mottled leaves
Round-lobed Hepatica (Hepatica Americana; synonym Anemone americana) with mottled leaves
Round-lobed Hepatica (Hepatica Americana; synonym Anemone americana)
Round-lobed Hepatica (Hepatica Americana; synonym Anemone americana)
Resources
Cech, Rick; Tudor, Guy. Butterflies of the East Coast. 2005.
Eaton, Eric R.; Kauffman, Ken. Kaufman Field Guide to Insects of North America. 2007.
Gracie, Carol. Spring Wildflowers of the Northeast. 2012.
Mader, Eric; Shepherd, Matthew; Vaughan, Mace; Black, Scott Hoffman; LeBuhn, Gretchen. Attracting Native Pollinators: Protecting North America’s Bees and Butterflies. 2011.
Winter doesn’t want to quit!
Feeling like spring will never arrive? Let’s fantasize a little. Let’s think about gardens in bloom. And butterflies. We’ll soon be seeing them. Really!
When you think about a butterfly garden, shade may not be the first attribute that comes to mind. But really, maybe it should be. Or at least it should be one of the first.
Ok, maybe not shade for shade’s sake, but for the food plants that cast it.
When you think about it, many butterflies rely on woody species – trees or shrubs – as food plants for their caterpillars. For example, of the six species of swallowtail butterflies that are possible where I live in New Jersey, four require trees or shrubs as food plants, and one uses a shade tolerant vine. Most of the hairstreaks, many of the azure and brushfoot species, and the Hackberry and Tawny Emperor all require trees or shrubs as their caterpillar food plants.
Hackberry Emperor
Other butterflies have evolved to use shade tolerant herbaceous species like violets, Black Cohosh, and Golden Alexanders as food plants. So a shade garden can be a really valuable asset to the butterflies in the neighborhood.
Violets
My husband and I chose our house because we like the natural woods that surround us on two sides, preserved 24 years ago by the developer. Even though we live in a townhouse community at the edge of a small town, the woods give us the illusion of living in the country. We love the trees for their own beauty as it evolves through the seasons. And we love the birds they bring to feast on the fruits and insect protein that are abundant here.
Tufted Titmouse in Blackhaw Viburnum (Viburnum prunifolium)
Carolina Wren
Somewhat to our surprise, we found we also had butterflies. As we learned more about them, we realized we had some very desirable territory for butterflies, and other critters, too. Finally, I understood when I saw an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail flitting high up in the White Ash or Tuliptrees, that it was a female laying her eggs on their leaves.
Tuliptree (Liriodendron tulipifera) blossom
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
The Mourning Cloak may have been drawn here because of the elm trees in the woods behind the house.
Mourning Cloak nectaring at Red Maple (Acer rubrum) blossoms
Why were Spicebush Swallowtails visiting our woodland garden? It’s the food plants, silly; their namesake Spicebush is present here, and so are Sassafras trees, which they are also willing to use.
Spicebush Swallowtail with Purple Giant Hyssop (Agastache scrophulariifolia)
The birds and butterflies have a somewhat mutually beneficial relationship. It’s true that the birds may be interested in eating the butterflies sometime during their lives, but on the plus side, birds keep insect predators of butterflies in check. As a bonus, birds also provide dietary supplements for butterflies that are inclined to dine on mineral sources. The Silver-spotted Skipper pictured here is sipping the nutritious offerings conveniently left by one of the local birds in the form of its droppings.
Silver-spotted Skipper getting minerals from bird droppings
After stoking up, this little butterfly was off, maybe in search of an appropriate place to lay her eggs, like a near-by Black Locust tree.
Red Maple, White Ash, Sassafras, Flowering Dogwood, Blackhaw Viburnum, and a Crab Apple all grow in the common area along side our house. As the trees grew over the years, they shaded out the lawn surrounding them.
Before the shade garden
Moss developed where grass once grew. Chickadees plucked the moss until their beaks were full, gathering the soft lush material to line their nests. This was great!
Chickadee in Blackhaw Viburnum (Viburnum prunifolium)
So we decided to embrace the shade. It was futile trying to maintain a lawn that disappeared by July every year. We got permission from our homeowners’ association to plant a shade garden under the trees and in place of the lawn that once grew next to them. This was a win for our association, since money would no longer have to be spent fruitlessly reseeding, fertilizing and mowing the lawn, or more accurately, the mud.
Now we have a constantly changing display of blossoms, ferns, sedges, foliage, and fruits. We took advantage of the moss, encouraging it to cover a winding path through the garden. There is always something blooming from about mid-April to the end of November; sometimes longer if the Witch-hazel is especially happy. After that, the fruits offer visual appeal for us, and food for our local residents. The birds love the new habitat, and we have more butterflies than ever, enjoying nectar and other food sources, and looking for a place to start the next generation.
Our wildlife-friendly shade garden
I have my desk facing a second floor window so I can be easily distracted by birds, or watch a female Spicebush Swallowtail pause on a Sassafras leaf to lay an egg, then float down to lay another on the Spicebush that entices her below.
In future episodes, I’ll tell you more about the plants here and the critters we see enjoying them.
Note: This is part one of a 3 part series. For part 2, click here, A Butterfly Garden that Embraces the Shade – Spring. For part 3, click here, Embracing the Shade: Summer and Fall
This article was adapted from one that was published in the Winter 2012 issue of Butterfly Gardener, a publication of the North American Butterfly Association.
Beaked Hazelnut Flowers
Need some reassurance that spring is on the way? Well, there may already be some shrubs blooming near you. Look for the flowers of my favorite harbinger of spring, American Hazelnut (Corylus americana), or its close relative, Beaked Hazelnut (Corylus cornuta). Hazelnuts can be found in rich woodlands, wood edges, thickets and along roadsides. They’re blooming down the road from me now.
American Hazelnut
With separate male and female flowers on the same plant, both species of hazelnut enlist the assistance of the wind in their pollination efforts. The flowers bloom before the leaves emerge, increasing the odds that the wind will successfully transport the pollen grains from the male flowers to a compatible female flower, since there are no leaf surfaces to impede the pollination effort.
Cream colored catkins containing the male flowers are visible from fall through winter, hanging stiffly from the hazelnut branches. As the winter winds down, the catkins grow longer and looser, their color evolving to include a hint of yellow. At maturity, thousands of tiny grains of pollen are released from the cluster of male flowers encompassed by the catkins, traveling on the wind in search of a female flower as a mate, preferably on a nearby compatible hazelnut. Pollination with a separate plant expands the gene pool, and increases the likelihood of successful offspring.
American Hazelnut Flowers
The female flowers are wonderfully gaudy in a subtle, inconspicuous way. Usually found at the tips of branches, the buds appear to be small and reddish brown during the winter. In bloom, the female flower parts resemble tiny, bright magenta sunbursts. There are several female flowers inside a single bud, with only their stigmas emerging to catch the wind blown pollen. Check the hazelnuts branches to see these petite, spidery female delights when the catkins containing the male flowers elongate and move freely in the wind.
American Hazelnut Female Flower
If the flowers are successfully pollinated, nuts are produced, ripening by late summer. While the shrubs are fruiting these two species of Hazelnut are easily distinguished. The flowers of the two species are very similar, but the nuts have very distinctive coverings. American Hazelnuts have a leafy sheath with a ruffled edge.
American Hazelnut
Beaked Hazelnut’s coverings are long, tubular and beak-like, giving this species its name.
Beaked Hazelnut
The nuts, also called filberts, are edible, although these North American species have generally not been grown as a commercial crop. A European species with larger nuts is grown commercially. Scientists from the Hybrid Hazelnut Consortium, whose members are Rutgers University, Oregon State University, Arbor Day Foundation and the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, are working to develop hybrid hazelnuts as a sustainable crop that can be grown in much of the United States and Southern Canada, to produce food, feed or bio-energy.
Humans are not the only consumers of hazelnuts. Squirrels, chipmunks, rabbits and fox are among the other mammals who eat these tasty treats. Birds with beaks strong enough to open the shells for a meal include woodpeckers, Blue Jays, Wild Turkey and grouse.
During their growing season, hazelnuts may provide food for many beneficial insects, including the caterpillars of some of the most beautiful giant silkworm moths such as the Cecropia and Polyphemus Moths.
Polyphemus Moths Mating
Beaked Hazelnut may also be used as food by Early Hairstreak butterfly caterpillars. According to Douglas Tallamy in Bringing Nature Home, over 130 species of butterflies and moths may use the hazelnuts as caterpillar food plants. Birds rely on these insects and others as an important source of protein, especially during the critical period when they are feeding their young families.
The fall color of the leaves may vary from yellow to deep reds. At Bowman’s Hill Wildflower Preserve, near New Hope, Pennsylvania, you can see the two species of hazelnut growing next to each other. At that location, the leaves of American Hazelnut turn luscious shades of red, peach and orange.
American Hazelnut in Fall
Beaked Hazelnut’s leaves at the same spot are bright yellow. Makes me wonder about the difference in their chemical make-up.
Beaked Hazelnut in Fall
These multi-stemmed shrubs grow to a maximum height of about eight to ten feet, and can expand to a ten foot width. They make good candidates for a hedge row, either alone or with a mix of other shrubs. American Hazelnut can tolerate shade to sunny conditions, and moist, well-drained to dry soils. Beaked Hazelnut prefers a bit more sun.
American Hazelnut is native to the eastern two-thirds of the United States (except Florida), and to Quebec, Ontario and Manitoba provinces in Canada. Beaked Hazelnut’s native range includes the Canadian provinces from Newfoundland and Nova Scotia west to British Columbia, and much of the northern tier of the United States, southward in the east to Alabama and Georgia, and in the west to California.
See if you can find a hazelnut growing near you. When spring arrives, think about planting this versatile shrub to attract birds, butterflies, moths and other wildlife to your yard. It will also provide welcome assurance that spring is just about here.
Resources
Bringing Nature Home, 2007, Tallamy, Douglas W.
The weather this winter has been very variable, with warm temperatures and foggy conditions one day, followed by cold, wind and snow the next. On one of the recent warm foggy days, I went for a walk at Bowman’s Hill Wildflower Preserve, just south of New Hope, Pennsylvania. The misty air exaggerated everything – silence, sounds, colors and images.
Fog in the woods
Soft light intensified the bright white and green of the Lumpy Bracket (Trametes gibbosa) mushroom, causing it to jump out and catch my eye.
Lumpy Bracket (Trametes gibbosa)
The changeable weather makes it challenging to adjust to the season, not just for people, but for plants, too. I saw Golden Alexanders (Zizea aurea) in bud, a plant that typically blooms in early May in this area in eastern Pennsylvania. A little scary!
Golden Alexanders (Zizia aurea)
Two White Ash (Fraxinus americana) trees were sentinels on the approach to the meadow…
White Ash (Fraxinus americana) trees at the edge of the meadow
…where the grasses were beaded with water droplets.
Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum)
Indiangrass (Sorghastrum nutans)
There were many signs of life in the meadow. A spider successfully blended in with the dried fruit capsules of Culver’s Root (Veronicastrum virginicum).
Culver’s Root (Veronicastrum virginicum) with spider
Chinese Mantis (Tenodera aridofolia sinensis) egg cases were very common.
Chinese Mantis egg case on Indian-hemp (Apocynum cannabinum) fruit capsules
Much less common was the egg case of a native, the Carolina Mantis (Stagmomantis carolina). I only found one.
Carolina Mantis (Stagmomantis carolina) egg case
The mantises are pretty indiscriminate about where they deposit their egg cases. They are not plant specific, but will use any sturdy structure that’s handy – a shrub, a perennial, even a fence will do. Each egg case, or ootheca, may contain hundreds of eggs. The young will all emerge at the same time in the spring. (Unless they’re eaten by another insect first!)
Goldenrod galls were evidence of insects overwintering. A gall is a growth that is a plant’s reaction to being used, or colonized, by another organism. Galls generally don’t cause any harm to the plant.
Goldenrod Ball Gall
One of the easiest galls to recognize is the goldenrod ball gall, a spherical growth found on the stems of some goldenrods, caused by the goldenrod gall fly (Eurosta solidaginis), a fruit fly. There are many species of goldenrod, but the goldenrod gall fly is very particular about which species it will use; it specializes primarily on Solidago altissima, but Solidago giantea may also be a host. (Solidago altissima goes by many common names: the USDA calls it Canada Goldenrod, but other sources may use Tall or Late Goldenrod. Solidago giantea is Giant Goldenrod according to the USDA, but it is referred to by other sources as Late or Smooth Goldenrod. So confusing! This makes the need for a standard scientific name clear.)
The adult female goldenrod gall fly lays an egg in the leaf bud of the goldenrod before the leaves unfold. After hatching, the larva bores into the stem of the plant, and begins to eat. This stimulates the plant to generate additional nutrients and the gall tissue, a process that takes about three weeks to complete. The gall provides food and shelter for the insect for the remainder of its stay. After spending the winter in a dormant state, called diapause, if the insect is lucky it will pupate in spring and then emerge as an adult from its winter home.
But there are many dangers that could cut the life of the goldenrod gall fly larva short while it takes shelter in the gall. Other insects, including two chalcid wasp species, Eurytoma gigantea and Eurytoma obtusiventris, may eat the insect larva and take possession of the gall. If the goldenrod gall fly larva manages to avoid these and other predators, a Downy Woodpecker or a Chickadee may make it a tasty winter meal.
This Goldenrod Ball Gall has been excavated by a Downy Woodpecker
The goldenrod bunch gall resembles a flower, but it is actually a rosette of leaves caused by the entry of a goldenrod bunch gall midge (Rhopalomyia solidaginis) larva into the stem of its host goldenrod species, Solidago altissima. This stops additional upward growth in the stem of the plant, although leaves will continue to sprout, forming the rosette. Additional growth is through side shoots branching off from the stem below the gall. The presence of this gall actually increases the diversity of other insect species where it is present, by providing additional habitat for them.
Goldenrod Bunch Gall
I found a wonderful, complex, twisted, origami-like structure made in the leaves of Indiangrass (Sorghastrum nutans) that remains a mystery to me.
Mystery shelter
Could it be a winter shelter for a butterfly caterpillar, maybe a Pepper and Salt Skipper? This butterfly is possible, although not common in this area, and its caterpillars spend the winter in rolled grass leaves, including Indiangrass. Maybe some other skipper? Or did a spider make this refuge? If you have any idea who could be hiding inside, let me know!
If you are lucky enough to have custody of a meadow, you may be wondering how to maintain it without killing the critters that live there. To prevent a meadow from evolving into a forest, you will have to mow it. But this will disrupt habitat for the resident insects, birds and mammals. To minimize the damage, try mowing at a height of 12-16 inches, in a mosaic pattern if possible, and don’t mow more than a third of the meadow in a year. For the sake of birds and mammals, mow as late in the winter as you can. These techniques will help preserve life, and increase the diversity of the residents in your meadow.
Chipping Sparrow on Indiangrass
Resources
Eastman, John. The Book of Field and Roadside. 2003.
Eiseman, Charley; Charney, Noah. Tracks & Sign of Insects and Other Invertebrates. 2010.
Mader, Eric; Shepherd, Matthew; Vaughan, Mace; Black, Scott Hoffman; LeBuhn, Gretchen. Attracting Native Pollinators: Protecting North America’s Bees and Butterflies. 2011.
Special thanks to Beatriz Moisset, who was generous with information about goldenrod galls, including pointing me to some helpful information on Bugguide.net: http://bugguide.net/node/view/324012
I found this paper especially interesting: Host-plant Genotypic Diversity Mediates the Distribution of an Ecosystem Engineer, by Kerri M. Crawford, Gregory M. Crutsinger, and Nathan J. Sanders
The Natural Web 