Tag Archives: Plants

Beautyberry 2025-06-15

Beautyberry fruits are setting: the flower petals are falling off and revealing the berries.

Not only are the flowers and berries pleasing violet colors, the leaves repel insects and ticks, and you can make jelly and wine from beautyberries.

[Beautyberry fruit setting, 2025:06:15 10:36:03]
Beautyberry fruit setting, 2025:06:15 10:36:03

Once the berries get some color, you’ll see why it’s called beautyberry. They’re a pleasing violet color. The flowers are an even lighter violet. Also, the whole plant smells good. Continue reading →

Seepage slope and bog plants 2025-06-15

Twenty one species in a thousand feet down the Not-a-Driveway from piney woods through seepage slope to beaver pond.

Plus Canis familiaris and garden variety human. While we did not see any beaver, Castor canadensis, there was quite a bit of evidence of them.

Species identifications are by Seek by iNaturalist, which is usually pretty reliable. I do doubt a few of them.

For example, what seek identifies as Pineland hibiscus, Hibiscus aculeatus, sure looks to me like halberd-leaf rosemallow, Hibiscus laevis.

Far more species than these live in our subtropical paradise. These are just the plants (and fungi) I happened to focus on today.

BB

[Ten-angled pipewort or bog button, Eriocaulon decangulare, 2025:06:15 09:52:26]
Ten-angled pipewort or bog button, Eriocaulon decangulare, 2025:06:15 09:52:26

Continue reading →

Yellow Jessamine 2025-02-17

A sign of spring.

[Yellow Jessamine, Gelsemium sempervirens]
Yellow Jessamine, Gelsemium sempervirens

Its yellow flowers grow on vines, Gelsemium sempervirens.

Often you will see the flowers on the ground and have to seek upwards to find where they fell from.

-jsq

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