Category Archives: Plants

Blueberry Scacrecrow 2024-05-24

This scarecrow in the blueberries seems to be working. We’re actually getting some blueberries before the birds do.

[Scarecrow and scaresnake in the blueberries]
Scarecrow and scaresnake in the blueberries

And here’s a better view of the scaresnake. It has since disappeared. Didn’t seem to blow off, since it would be nearby, and it isn’t. We guess a buzzard thought it would be a treat. Continue reading →

Halberd-leaved rose mallow 2024-05-27

It’s summer when we see this flower. Each bloom lasts one day.

[Halberd-leaved Rose Mallow]
Halberd-leaved Rose Mallow

But each halberd-leaved rose mallow plant has many blooms of Hibiscus laevis.

The plant likes wet soils, but this one is in the middle of upland piney woods.

-jsq

Okra, Squash, Scarecrow 2024-05-27

Update 2024-05-30: Blueberry Scacrecrow 2024-05-24.

Maybe the scarecrow will keep the critters off the okra and the yellow squash.

[Okra, squash, scarecrow]
Okra, squash, scarecrow

Also known as straightneck squash, the Abelmoschus esculentus is producing quite a bit.

The okra, Abelmoschus esculentus, hasn’t bloomed yet, but maybe it will soon.

Got a few more taters to dig, too, adding to the many we already dug.

-jsq

Butterfly Milkweed 2024-05-22

This Butterfly Milkweed is growing where pine beetles, hurricanes, and thunderstorms have left few trees standing.

[Two clumps of butterfly milkweed]
Two clumps of butterfly milkweed

Asclepias tuberosa attracts butterflies with its color and its nectar. It is native to eastern and southwestern North America.

-jsq

Longleaf 2024-05-14

A bolting longleaf pine tree.

[Bolting longleaf pine tree]
Bolting longleaf pine tree

Longleaf pines, Pinus palustris, have an interesting life cycle, from big seeds with wings that only sprout on bare soil, to grass stage that looks like a clump of grass 18 inches in diameter and can stay that way for years if not weeded while a root goes down, to this bolting stage with the trunk extending, to sapling and then tree stage.

The furry-looking stuff up top is the candle it grew just this spring, about two feet long.

A mature longleaf can grow 100 feet tall in about 100 years, and can live more than 300 years.

You don’t see many mature ones these days, because while they used to be the main forest from southern Virginia to eastern Texas along the U.S. coastal plain, 98% of them were cut down for ship masts and lumber.

In the few scraps of longleaf pine forest that are left, such as on my land that my grandfather bought in 1921, species diversity is greater than anything outside a tropical rainforest.

Most of the diversity is in the undergrowth such as you see in this picture.

Yes, this area needs to be burned. Weather and time permitting, it will be this winter.

-jsq