I spotted this beautiful flower last week while mowing a path down the power line. You have to look for it out there because, being only a foot or so in height, it appears to be peeking at you from the tall grasses. But it is actually quite common. Carolina Wild Petunia, Ruellia caroliniensis, is a southeastern U.S. native wildflower that resembles the familiar ornamental petunias, but is not related. It grows well in sun to partial shade and tolerates a wide range of soil conditions, although does best in well drained sites. I found it scattered out in the open sun under the power line and under the shade of trees along the edge.
Wild Petunia
The one inch wide flowers are lavender or blue in color and have a narrow tube connecting them to the stem. They often occur in pairs and are short-lived, blooming only a day or so each. But the plant has a long blooming period from late spring to early fall. They apparently are good nectar sources for butterflies and are reported as a host plant for the larvae of Buckeye butterflies, a common species in this area.
The seeds are produced all summer long in small capsules that dry and then explode, shooting the seeds away from the parent plant. After reading about this shy beauty, I plan to gather a few seed capsules and spread them closer to the house to see if I can get this hardy wildflower growing where I can enjoy it every day next summer.
Yesterday while walking along a path in the woods, I encountered a spider web at about head height along the trail. I suppose it is one of the “hazards” of summer woods-walking around here. But I always enjoy seeing who the maker is and what they have had for dinner. This one was the tightly woven web of one of the most common, and unusual, spiders in this area – the Spined Micrathena. Females of these oddly-shaped spiders are adorned with stiff spines along the abdomen, presumably as protection against predators. Males are much smaller and lack the spines. Webs are typically 3 to 7 feet off the ground and strung between small trees and shrubs, often along pathways, perfect for ensnaring small flying insects or distracted woods-walkers. Luckily, these beautiful creatures are harmless, unless you are the size of a leafhopper.
While mowing a path through the meadow this week I noticed a bright pinkish-purple flower in the grasses. I remember seeing the unusual flowers of Eastern Sensitive Briar a few years ago in the Sandhills habitat at the North Carolina Botanical Garden in Chapel Hill. And now I am thrilled to discover it here, growing in several patches under the power line. This native species, Mimosa microphylla, grows throughout the southeast in sandy or gravelly soil in open woods, fields, and disturbed habitats like roadsides and power lines. And yes, this is related to the non-native invasive tree we call Mimosa, and both are members of the pea family.
Sensitive Briar flowers and leaves
Unlike its invasive tree cousin, Sensitive Briar is a semi-woody plant that spreads in a vine-like manner among other vegetation. Stems are 3 to 4 feet long. The delicate-looking leaves are bipinnately compound, meaning that each leaf is divided into leaflets, which further are divided into leaflets, giving the plant a somewhat airy or lacy appearance.
Sensitive Briar flowers
Initially, the flower is the most noticeable part of the plant. The round flower head is pinkish to purplish and about the diameter of a nickel. The flowers consist of clusters of individual tube-shaped flowers. Long, brightly-colored stamens tipped with yellow pollen protrude from these flowers, giving them a puff-ball appearance. Unopened flowers look like an unripe blackberry.
Sensitive Briar stem
Another common name for the plant is “Cat’s Claw”. A close look at the re-curved spines that cover the stems, leaf petioles, and even the seed pods, and you can see how it got that name. These tiny thorns may also play a role in how this plant got its other common name, Sensitive Briar.
The reason for this plants’ name is because the leaves curl closed when touched. The left photo above shows the typical leaf position – the right shows that same leaf after it has been lightly touched. This is a prime example of what is called rapid plant movement. This movement of the leaf is caused by the rapid movement of water in the cells of the leaf. When touched, the affected leaflets quickly lose water pressure (osmotic cell pressure or turgor) and the leaflets collapse or seemingly wilt. So why would the plant bother to do this? One theory relates to the re-curved spines. As soon as a plant-eater trying to make a meal of the Sensitive Briar touches it, the leaflet collapses out of the way, exposing the sharp prickles to the would-be diner, making the plant much less appealing. The closure takes only a second or so. Collapsed leaflets will regain their position within a few minutes if left alone.
Bush Katydid nymph on Sensitive Briar
While I was photographing the plant, I noticed several insects on the flowers – a hover fly, a tiny grasshopper, and a brightly colored nymph with black and white bands on its antennae. A quick search on Bug Guide ( a great web site for insect identification) leads me to believe this is the nymph of a Bush Katydid. The unusual flowers of this plant made a perfect back drop for this tiny bug – both look like they are dressed for a festive occasion.
Spending some time with this unusual plant and the associated fauna made for a pleasant hour on an otherwise hot and humid morning. I’ll be checking the plant in a few weeks for the seed pods in the hopes of getting some Eastern Sensitive Briar started near my garden.
Okay, monster is a bit too strong a term for this beauty, until you have been bitten by one, that is. Luckily, most horseflies are merely bothersome to me relative to the many other types of flying biting things that attack us here in the southeast – mosquitoes and deer flies being much more aggravating in my opinion. The reason being that most horseflies are both noisy fliers and are relatively slow to react, so you can hear them coming and swat them. They also tend to come at you in smaller numbers than the squadrons of deer flies and swarms of mosquitoes that occasionally partake of my blood. This is all true unless you happen to have both hands occupied when they attack. Such was the case last week when I was working to replace the worn out screening on the porch. Two hands and my mind occupied with holding and stapling equals horsefly advantage. That moment when the painful bite hits you is when they become a monster.
Horsefly mouth-parts – the serrated edges are along the long center column
Male horseflies are nectar feeders and are incapable of biting, as they lack the modifications of the mouth-parts found in females. But a female horsefly has a Swiss Army knife of adaptations for slicing into your flesh. One writer said the mouth-parts of the female are modified into the equivalent of miniature scalpels or steak knives ideal for cutting the skin. That pretty much sums up the strategy – rip open the flesh and then lap up the blood of the victim. This is why a horsefly bite is so much more painful than that of a mosquito – the mouth-parts are for tearing and lapping, not piercing.
Horsefly showing mouth-parts
As in many other blood-sucking insects, the female’s saliva contains anticoagulants which help the victim’s blood flow so she can secure enough nourishment for egg laying. In spite of the impressive “jaws” of horseflies, what I notice about this particular species (I think this is probably Tabanus fuvulus) are its eyes – incredibly complex and beautiful green eyes.
Green eyes of Horsefly
While trying to find some information on the unusual stripes in their eyes, I came across some interesting research on the vision of horseflies. In a paper published in March 2012 in the Journal of Experimental Biology, researchers investigating the evolution of the striped patterns of Zebras made a fascinating discovery. Horseflies use polarized light hitting water as a guide to places to mate and lay eggs. They also use such light hitting dark mammal hides as a way to find a blood meal. By setting up models of varying colors and stripe patterns, the researchers demonstrated that a zebra-striped horse model attracts far fewer horseflies than either black, brown, grey or white equivalents. Because the coat reflects light in alternately polarized and non-polarized patterns, the Zebra “is more difficult to single out relative to the surroundings.” It is, in effect, camouflaged to flies as well as to lions.
I know what I am wearing the next time I screen a porch.
During a brief respite from one of the downpours this past week I went out to the garden to see what was out and about. I noticed some movement on a flower stem and a close look revealed this well-camouflaged insect, a planthopper. Planthoppers appear to be less common than the generally smaller leafhoppers in my garden and meadow. And though they can hop to escape, they often walk with a slight waddle along their plant stem or remain motionless to hide. I coaxed this specimen onto my finger and brought it inside for some pictures.
Green Cone-headed Planthopper
This particular species appears to be the Green Cone-headed Planthopper, Acanalonia conica. They feed on a variety of plants by piercing them with their mouth-parts and ingesting the plant nutrients. Females lay eggs in the stems of various plants in late summer.
Green Cone-headed Planthopper
It is amazing how well the intricate wing patterns resemble the venation in a leaf. By setting the camera on a tripod I was able to move the lights around to better highlight the textures. This little guy was a cooperative subject and stayed on the stem all afternoon, probably thankful to be out of the monsoon that was happening out in the garden. I returned it at days end to continue its plant hopping ways.
They look like tiny bees or wasps zipping around the garden flowers, but they are Flower Flies. They are also known as Hover Flies for their ability to hover and even fly backwards, a feat that few other insects can match. Their resemblance to insects that sting most likely affords them some protection as they go about their business…and their business is quite useful in the garden and elsewhere.
Flower Fly showing halteres
By the way, you can distinguish these flies from their look-alike bees by their wings – Flower Flies have two wings (as do all flies) and bees have four. If you look closely, you can even see the halteres, the highly modified hind wings of flies (consisting of a stalk and knob at the end) which vibrate up and down in time with the wings and act as gyroscopes in flight.
Flower Fly on Beardtongue flower
As a group, Flower Flies are considered important pollinators for a variety of flowers, both in our gardens and in the natural landscapes around us.
Immature Green Lynx Spider with Flower Fly prey
Adults feed on nectar from a variety of flowers and often fall victim to sit-and-wait predators like Ambush Bugs, Crab Spiders, and other spiders. Earlier this week, in a rare moment of sunshine, the garden was alive with insects visiting the various wildflowers. I found three immature Green Lynx Spiders lurking in the blossoms – two had captured Flower Flies and one a small bee.
Flower Fly looking for nectar
The larvae of many species of Flower Fly are major predators of aphids and thus perform valuable pest control services on many species of our ornamental and crop plants. Pollination services, pest control, superb flying ability, mimicry, beauty, variety…the next time you are out among your wildflowers take a few moments to look for, and appreciate, these tiny beneficial insect hovercraft.
I remember the first time I noticed one of these a few years ago…my reaction probably included a statement or two like Holy $%*^!! Look at the size of that thing! I had heard a few people make remarks like this about Crane Flies, which are not mosquitoes, but are sometimes mistaken for giant blood-suckers. But this really was a mosquito, and a really big one at that. The other thing I noticed that day was how beautiful it was – the very long legs, long proboscis, and the iridescent colors and stripes combined to make an elegant insect.
Elephant Mosquito male on Buttonbush
My giant bug turned out to be the aptly named Elephant Mosquito, Toxorhynchites rutilus. It is our largest species of mosquito, with a wingspan reaching almost 1/2 inch. Unlike most mosquitoes, both male AND female adults feed on nectar, not blood, as most female mosquitoes of other species do. Male Elephant Mosquitoes, like the one pictured above, have very feathery antennae which they use to track the females.
Elephant Mosquito on flower
Elephant Mosquitoes lay their eggs in small bodies of water like knot holes in trees (hence their other common name, Treehole Mosquito), bird baths, and other man-made containers. Unlike other mosquito species, the larvae of Elephant Mosquitoes are predators on other aquatic insects, especially the larvae of other species of mosquitoes. A single Toxorhynchites larva is said to be able to consume up to 400 larvae of other mosquitoes so they even have been reared and released as biological controls in some areas.
So, before you swat, take a moment and see if that giant mosquito is iridescent blue and is sipping nectar…if so, leave it alone, it is your friend.
Despite the heat and humidity, I decided to take a stroll down the mowed path underneath the high voltage transmission line that borders the property where I live. This area has an interesting mix of grasses, shrubs, and small trees and contains a diversity of animals and plants not usually found in my woods. This diversity intrigues me and has made me realize the importance of power line right-of-ways as habitat. These areas stretch for miles across our state, are a minimum of 200 feet wide and have limits on what can be done in them in terms of buildings. My conservative estimate is that there are at least a couple hundred thousand acres of transmission line right-of-ways in NC which makes their area as large as that protected in the entire NC State Park System (currently about 218,000 acres when you add the acreage in all state parks, recreation areas, natural areas, state rivers and state lakes). That is a lot of early successional habitat! I decided to let the area near me grow up this year and keep a mowed path through it to reduce the tick and chigger quotient when taking a walk. Here are a few of the things happening now…
Butterflyweed
The Butterflyweed, Asclepias tuberosa, is in bloom. The flowers of the wild plants here are tinged with more red color than the ones I have in my garden, which are more pure orange.
Horsenettle
Horsenettle is in bloom in both my garden and the meadow. This thorny, weedy relative of tomatoes and potatoes is toxic and produces an orange-yellow fruit later in the season.
Eastern Tailed-blue
This dainty little butterfly is fairly common throughout much of the state. The larvae feed on various members of the legume family and secrete a substance favored by ants, which in turn provide some protection for the larvae from potential invertebrate predators.
Metallic Wood Borer beetles
These Metallic Wood Borers are feeding on the flowers of Black-eyed Susans. Larvae tunnel through wood of various tree species.
Yellow Bear caterpillar?
This looks like an early instar of a the variable Yellow Bear caterpillar.
Female Blue Dasher dragonfly
A common dragonfly in our area, Blue Dashers can be seen perched on the tips of twigs and vegetation near any type of water. They often perch with their wings cocked forward like this female.
Immature Green Lynx spider
One of my favorite spiders, this small Green Lynx will grow to be a large, efficient predator by the end of the summer. These spiders do not build webs to catch prey but rather stalk and pounce like their namesake big cat. They are frequent predators of bumblebees and wasps when they are mature.
Leafhopper
This colorful Leafhopper is one commonly referred to as a Sharpshooter. The name has many possible explanations – their piercing-sucking mouth parts leave tiny holes in vegetation like miniature bullets; these insects produce droplets of liquid as they feed which they rapidly and forcibly expel; their rapid hiding behavior when approached is similar to a sharpshooter in the military hiding behind tree trunks and other obstacles when approached by the enemy.
Leafhopper nymph
A tiny nymph of a Leafhopper (probably a Sharpshooter).
Look for future posts on the diverse flora and fauna of the meadow beneath the lines.
To be whole. To be complete. Wildness reminds us what it means to be human, what we are connected to rather than what we are separate from.
Terry Tempest Williams
Bison silhouette in Lamar Valley
I could blog for another week or two on the beauty and majesty of my recent trip to Yellowstone. But, I will be back, with more experiences and more stories, and so I post this one last blog from the trip with a few of my favorite images.
Mule Deer in marshy area in Lamar ValleyAspen grove in BeartoothsBlack Bear in creek near RooseveltYellow-headed Blackbird male at Floating Island LakeBighorn Sheep lamb on cliff in Gardiner CanyonBison swimming Lamar River near the ConfluenceElk skull and antlers in Little AmericaGray Wolf at Soda Butte CreekBison calf restingBison at pool in Little AmericaMountain Bluebird at nest cavity in Little America
But if one steps off the road, even a few hundred feet, and listens, there is a calm to the land, a certain wild rhythm, that is closer to the surface than in most places.
One of the changes I’ve noticed in the 25+ years I’ve been going to Yellowstone is an increasing number of Pronghorn in recent years. It used to be that you saw them mainly around the Gardiner area, but now they have greatly increased in numbers across the northern range, especially in Lamar Valley and Little America. Although the genus name, Antilocapra, means antelope and goat, Pronghorns are neither. They’re the only surviving member of a North American ungulate (hoofed mammal) family.
Pronghorn buck
These graceful animals get their name from their unusual horns. Both male and female Pronghorns have horns, but only the males have the distinctive prong the juts forward halfway up from the base. Males can also be distinguished by their black cheek patches, absent in females. The horns consist of a bony interior attached to the skull covered by a black keratinous sheath. The sheath is shed annually like antlers. Male Pronghorns use their horns in competitions during the rut and may deliver serious piercing stabs to their opponents.
Pronghorn running
Pronghorns are well-known as the fastest mammal in North America, able to reach speeds of over 60 mph and sustained speeds of up to 40 mph. They are also one of the fastest mammals on Earth – one reference said a Cheetah could outrun a Pronghorn in a short sprint but a Pronghorn would quickly pull ahead as the Cheetah tired. Pronghorns may have evolved this running ability to escape the now extinct American Cheetah, and adults can easily outrun any of the modern-day predators they encounter. They can run across a football field with as few as 10-12 bounds in as little as 3 seconds. Pronghorns have several adaptations that allow them this speed. Their heart, lungs and trachea are several times larger than similar sized ungulates; their blood is rich in hemoglobin; and their long legs have light-weight, yet strong, leg bones.
Pronghorn with rump hairs raised
They have several other adaptations that enhance their survival in open country. The hairs on their light-colored fur are hollow, and can be controlled to lie flat and provide a protective shield against wind and water, or selectively raised to allow heat to escape. The bright white hairs on the rump can be raised and serve as an alarm signal that can be seen from great distances, much like the warning flag tail on our White-tailed Deer.
Pronghorns have large eyes and long eyelashes
A Pronghorn feature that is quite noticeable are their large dark eyes with what seem like very long eyelashes. It turns out the long eyelashes help protect their eyes from the intense sun in their open habitat. When a pronghorn looks at you you really notice their large bulging eyes on the sides of their head.
Pronghorn face showing placement and size of eye
They have the largest sized eye of any North American ungulate in relation to their size with each eyeball measuring about 1 1/2 inches in diameter (about the size of the eye of a horse). The size and placement of their eyes gives them over a 300-degree arc of vision without moving their head, a useful trait for detecting potential predators at great distances. One reference said a Pronghorns’ vision is equivalent to that of a Peregrine Falcon and they may be able to detect movement up to 4 miles away.
Pronghorns may once have been almost as numerous as Bison on the Great Plains. Their numbers were greatly reduced by over-hunting and by fences placed throughout their range, blocking their migration routes. While numbers in the West have increased through conservation efforts, there is still concern over the relatively small population of a few hundred Pronghorns in Yellowstone. Hopefully, ways can be found to protect the Pronghorn migration routes to their wintering grounds outside the park so that future visitors can enjoy these incredible icons of the northern range.
Roads End Naturalist 