WiseAcre Gardens

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Aster schreberi

The lower leaves are very large and have deep notches where they attach to the stem. This helped in the identification since many of the white flowering asters have similar looking blooms. The Peterson Field Guide to Wildflowers is illustrated and relying on the pics wasn’t enough, thank goodness it mentions the basal leaf difference.

Photo taken Sept. 13, 2008 with a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ28 using the ‘flower’ macro mode.

My Audubon Field Guide to North American Wildflowers does have photos but the Schreber’s Aster isn’t listed. Between the two field guides I can usually make a positive ID but in this case I had to take the basal leaf clue and go on-line to confirm my guess that this flower was indeed a Schreber’s Aster.

After getting the photo I headed home. This isn’t quite a ‘Make Way for Ducklings’ scene but I still stopped. It wasn’t out of concern of some turkey crossing the road. They are harder to run over than people think. But it did look like another good photo op. To bad I only got one shot, they move too fast to focus on them.

Why did the turkeys cross the road?

Lophocampa caryae

Photo taken on Sept 13, 2008 with a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ28 using the ‘Flower’ macro mode.

Some people report that this is a ’stinging hair’ caterpillar and have symptoms including rashes, itching or burning sensations. From some of the things I’ve read it seems the hairs act like Porcupine quills. I didn’t touch it so I wouldn’t know.

Moths appear from May to July. Eggs are laid in clusters of 100 or more on the undersides of leaves. The caterpillars build cocoons on or near the ground in late summer - early fall and winter over.

Host trees around my home include hickory, butternut, apple, basswood, birch and elm. Young larvae feed in groups. Older caterpillars are solitary.

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Cladonia

I could very well be wrong but after looking at numerous web sites and plenty of images I decided it was fairly safe to call these lichens by their first name.

I’ve learned a few things along the way. First the ‘golf tee’ looking things are called podetia. The second is the podentia are fruiting bodies. And lastly I’ll always be guessing when attempting to identify a Lichen.

These have taken a lichen to rock. I found them on a stone wall in a swampy area in a spot that gets a fair amount of sunlight. I’ve seen them in shady spots but the podetia are not nearly so numerous.

No matter where I’ve seem these lichens they’re always accompanied by moss. So I imagine the same thing goes for them - A rolling stone gathers no podentia - only momentum going downhill. The following photos were taken in the woods where direct sunlight only shines during the cold months.

While the podentia all look similar even those in the same group show differences. If you look closely at their base even more differences appear. Now you can see why i won’t make an identification call.

EDIT: OOPS (my company motto)  I forgot to give this post a title.

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