Faster, further, stickier! Dwarf mistletoe (Arceuthobium sp on salt cedar) coat their seeds with glue and spit them at 80+ km/h in hopes that they will stick to the right sort of tree. Their roots grow into the bark and suck the xylem (water) and phloem (food) directly from the host. In BC alone this leads to a loss of more than 3.7 million m³ of coniferous forest per year. [DOI:10.1038/ncomms7262]
2022-12-12 Bosque del Apache NWR, San Antonio, NM
The final stage of fruiting: seed dispersal. In this case a spring catapult which hurls the seed three meters from the plant (±25%). Plants in the Geranium family have a modified seed pod with one chamber sterile and elongated to form the spring and the other holding a single seed. G. maculatum is optimized for distance, with a streamlined heavy seed released at 45°, leaving the seed pod attached to the plant looking like a fishhook. Others, such as Redstem stork's-bill (#292), carry the pod with them, using the spring as a humidity-driven drill to bury itself in the dirt. [DOI:10.1111/j.1095-8339.1984.tb00998.x]
2023-05-22 Bethesda, MD
Large and cute, but Longistigma caryae is still an aphid. In late summer when the sap is flowing from the leaves a clone army emerges, drilling through the bark like rigs on an oil field. They are responsible for the sticky dew that rains down from the trees, coating cars and lawn furniture and nourishing a sooty mould that can damage the paint.[1]
2023-04-29 Carter Barron Amphitheater, Washington, DC
[1] https://influentialpoints.com/Gallery/Longistigma_caryae_giant_bark_aphid.htm
A song bird singing in a tree, giving an occasional "naw" rather than the continuous "caw, caw" of the American crow (it's the anatomy, not the melody). Not as efficient fliers as gulls. They know this because they managed to convince two crows to fly 15-20 min in a wind tunnel at 30 km/hr while wearing an oxygen mask. The other three candidates were having none of it. [DOI:10.1242/jeb.58.2.401]
2023-05-11 Whetstone Lake, Gaithersburg, MD
Watching the watcher, hoping for a handout? They don't eat bread but instead will take some if it is handy. They carry it to their favourite fishing spot and drop it on the water to see what shows up. When the bread is waterlogged and starts to sink they will reposition it and continue waiting. Green herons are also known to fish with bait.[DOI:10.2307/1522044]
2023-05-11 Whetstone Lake, Gaithersburg, MD
Living plush: The babies are even fluffier than the mommies. With silent wings and acoustic dishes around the eyes to concentrate the sound they can hear a mouse rustling in the leaves when gliding through the forest.
2023-05-01 Dyke Marsh, Alexandria, VA
Bubo virginianus napping on a branch. What a grip! At 30 lbs it is enough force to hold 10 owls. This is a lower limit: they measured by sitting the owls on a perch and pushing until they couldn't hold on,[DOI:10.1093/auk/119.4.1052] which seems as much a measure of stubbornness as it is of mechanics.
2023-05-01 Dyke Marsh, Alexandria, VA
Rubus flagellaris, one of dozens of species of bramble in the area. A biennial perennial: canes emerge from the perennial root, grow for a year, bear fruit the next year, then die off. The berries are tasty, but one also eats shoots (peeled—they are brambles after all!) and leaves (in tea).[1]
2023-04-15 Billy Goat C, Potomac, MD
Hooks on seed pods of Geranium maculatum.
2023-04-29 Bethesda, MD
A Cherokee medicinal herb used for diarrhea, wounds and mouth sores, and to counteract love potions. Having seed pods with "hook-like features", Geranium maculatum was one of the medicinal plants that prevented "escape", such as from the bowels, from the blood stream, or from the home. If you believe your partner is going out flirting, sneak some geranium into their tea. Maybe drop some in the water to hook some fish or sprinkle it near your snares to hook a rabbit. The plant is high in tannins so it happens to be effective in the first few. [10.1002/9781118930717.ch3]
2023-04-16 Bethesda, MD
Spider silk is designed to attract water, softening the strands and making them stickier.[10.1242/jeb.084236] In the early morning when the humidity is peak, an orbweaver will rebuild the capture area of her* web, eating the old web beforehand. Not only does she recover nutrients such as choline which she cannot produce herself, but she also gets a bit of a drink to help make up for water she loses to evaporation.[10.1636/JoA-S-19-066]
2021-08-22 McKee-Beshers WMA, Poolesville, MD
* Probably "her". Young males do build webs but as they get older they are too busy searching for mates to bother much with food.[10.1093/icb/12.3.445]
Oxalis dillenii adds lemony bite to your native garden salad, but use sparingly: Oxalis species have a long history in herbal medicine.[1] The original illustrations may help you find the right one.[2]
2022-04-16 Bethesda, MD
[1] The Native American Ethnobotany Database. http://naeb.brit.org
[2] von Jacquin, Nikolaus Joseph Freiherr. Oxalis: Monographia, iconibus illustrata. Apud Christianum F. Wappler, 1794.
Ranunculus bulbosus, introduced from Europe. You may want to wear gloves to control it: "Cunning beggers do use to stampe the leaves, and lay it unto their legs and armes, which causeth such filthy ulcers as we daily see (among such wicked vagabondes), to moove the people the more to pittie." DOI:10.1016/S0007-0785(64)80042-9
I remember smearing buttercup flowers on our faces as kids, saying something like, "Do you like butter?" Probably a different species (there are more than 1700), but many of them are toxic.
2023-04-15 Billy Goat Trail C, Potomac, MD
Leucauge venusta: white dawn beauty. You can catch more flies with a smile, but it helps if you put drops of glue on your capture threads so they don't bounce off your web. Even better, make it stickier the harder they pull so you capture the fast insects. DOI:10.1038/ncomms101
2023-04-15 Billy Goat Trail C, Potomac, MD
Dragonfly fishing. Let's dangle Toxomerus geminatus from a pole and see how dragonflies react. Do the wasp-like yellow stripes give them pause? Not so much. But given the choice of an actual wasp and a hover fly they will take the hover fly every time (even when the wasp is painted black). DOI:10.1016/j.anbehav.2005.03.009
2023-04-15 Billy Goat Trail C, Potomac, MD
This cutie stuck to the front windshield on the drive home from the river, with speeds of up to 50 mph. Hairy feet have good traction, providing 10 to 14 mN of force on smooth surfaces. Procedure: Put the spider to sleep with CO₂. Attach a human hair to its back with a dab of wax, and attach the other end to a force sensor. Wait 15 min then give it a push. Repeat for various surface roughness. DOI:10.1242/jeb.061507
2023-04-15 Billy Goat Trail C, Potomac, MD
Not definitive. The colour variation within each species makes it impossible to identify them from photographs. Instead Agelenopsis species are defined by the sex organs,[DOI:10.1636/k14-35.1] a spiral ending in a hook for A. emertoni males and the corresponding epigyne (entrance to the ovary) for females. Such complicated structures have to be stable within the species: if the parts don't match then the genes don't transfer.
2022-10-01 Bethesda, MD
Modern junk food. As atmospheric CO₂ increases the protein content in pollen decreases, leaving these carpenter bees ill-equipped to survive the winter. Protein concentration in Solidago altissima has fallen from 18% to 12% over the past 150 years as CO₂ approaches 400 ppm. DOI:10.1098/rspb.2016.0414
2021-10-13 NIH pond, Bethesda, MD
Glide ratios get messed up when you carry twice your bodyweight. With 43% of her body mass in the flight muscles, the female Sphecius speciosus is an excellent flier that can intercept cicadas mid-air and paralyze them. Then comes the challenge of hauling them home. They are too big to loft from the ground so she drags them up a tree and "falls with style" toward her burrow. Repeat. The cicadas are stored in deep underground larders, one cicada per male egg and two per female egg. A girl's gotta eat to put on the milligrams (females grow to 2.5 times the size of males so they can carry home the prey). DOI:10.2307/3546021
2022-07-31 McKee-Beshers WMA, Poolesville, MD
Polistes dominula, a European invasive identified by her orange antennae (males have seven visible tail segments). They are more successful than native Polistes because they have a broader diet, they hide their nests better, and they start foraging a week earlier. Unlike honey bees, colonies are started each year by groups of unrelated females after they emerge from hibernation.
2021-07-23 Bethesda, MD
Phragmites australis, used for construction and crafts around the world since forever (walls, floor mats, thatch). Also used as fuel and fodder. It is a fast growing wetlands plant so it doesn't compete with other agriculture (up to 4 m below the surface if the water is clear enough!) The European variety spreads by root fragments and has larger salt tolerance, so it is considered invasive elsewhere.
2022-10-09 South Cape May Meadows, Cape May, NJ
Köbbing, JF; Thevs, N; Zerbe, S (2013). "The utilisation of reed (Phragmites australis): a review." Mires and Peat 13(1) 1-14
Looks like a mallard, quacks like a mallard, but not a mallard (olive coloured bill and no white outline for the purple "speculum"). Also breeds like a mallard: 1/3 of Atlantic and 1/4 of central populations are hybrid. Historically eastern North America was primarily woodlands, which favours black ducks. DOI:10.1002/ece3.4981
2023-02-11 Lake Bernard Frank, Derwood, MD
No "Beware of Birds" sign needed: Rigid PVC appears to be inert. Flexible PVCs such as PET are another story since many softeners have been shown to disrupt fertility. DOI:10.3390/suschem2020020
2022-10-22 Frederick, MD
Less showy than the guys, her mottled features let her blend with the tall grasses where she nests. She will lay up to a dozen eggs, which is good. You need large families when you lose a third of your population each year to predators (and that's only counting humans).
2022-12-27 Lake Lily, Cape May, NJ
Also called a "gray", this is one of the more popular ducks. Decoys $10-$20 each. Call whistles $12.
2022-12-27 Lake Lily, Cape May, NJ
Anthocarsis midea, an east coast butterfly emerging in spring. Though that chrysalis is really comfy, so maybe they will skip a season and emerge the next year. This is not uncommon: many Pierids require a cold snap to trigger emergence.
2023-04-06 Blue Mash Nature Trail, Laytonsville, MD
[1] Shapiro, A. S. (1981). "Egg-load assessment and carryover diapause in Anthocharis (Pieridae)". J. Lepid. Soc. 34 (3): 307–315.
Enjoying the winter retreat on the balmy Chesapeake Bay. It's a long way back to the summer breeding grounds on the Arctic Ocean. Flight plans are registered with the USGS (satellite tracking data). The different populations move together across the continent, with only one in a thousand crossing over to another group. [DOI:10.5066/P9KBR79C]
2022-02-19 Thomas Point Park, Annapolis, MD
Even in the off-season a little posturing helps to remind each other who is who. After all, a pair still wants to keep its spot when breeding season comes. They mate for life, but if a partner should die, the survivor will pick up a younger spouse to share their territory. The good spots will have plenty of grass for food (8 pounds per day!) and nesting.[1]
2022-12-27 Lake Lily, Cape May, NJ
[1] Cornell Lab of Ornithology. 2019. All About Birds. Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Mute_Swan. Accessed on 2023-04-03.
Lythrum salicaria, a noxious weed imported from Europe via ships ballast (see #564). It is an ancient medicinal plant used to treat gastro-intestinal conditions. DOI:10.1016/j.jep.2015.05.017
2022-08-06 Belle Haven Park, Annapolis, MD
A mourning dove sits
amongst autumn leaves and rocks.
A high coo echoes.
Or for those more inclined toward factoids,
Crop-milk: cottage cheese
pigeons, flamingos and penguins
make for their hatchlings.
2022-10-15 Bethesda, MD