Seemed like a relatively cold and rainy week for early May,18th week of the year. Here are some of the noticeable changes in the Cloverlea/Rolandvue area.
Last week we showed the Dogwoods but inquiring minds want to know about the other white flowers around the neighborhood. A good general guess is probably Viburnum and two are illustrated here, double file Viburnum and Snowball Viburnum. These were toward the end of Wagner on the north side. Being more in the gardening area I will only mention that Viburnum is also called arrow wood. Otzi the glacier man,discovered after centuries under ice in the Alps, was carrying arrows made of viburnum.
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| Two viburnums,double-file to the left and Snowball to the right |
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| Two close -ups of the Double File |
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| closer view of the snowball viburnum |
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| the tiny flowers surrounded by showy bracts. Would you rather be the flower or the bract? |
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| hairs on the leaf veins are common with Viburnum but here very subtle |
We saw web worms in the trees last fall, shown in an earlier post. They tended to be on the ends of branches. Now the tent caterpillars are infesting some of the fruit and nut trees. They are at the more central junction of branches and the trunk. Caterpillars cluster like this to feed as a group, to control their temperature and affect predation risk. The "Web" is moderately unconcerned about the long term effect on the trees but it can be fatal.
The Wood Poppy is on the south side of Cloverlea near the entrance of Cloverlea Lane. They are in a compost heap, suggesting they may have been transferred with the mulch. There are some look-a-likes but I am going by the fuzzy bud, matches the wood poppy illustrations. There is also the typical yellow to orange sap.
As you scan the ground cover in the woods there is a purple color attributed to at least four plants: Violets, Vinca, Ground Ivy, and Purple Dead Nettle. The violet flower is the easiest with the parallel lines on the lower petal to guide pollinators. So edible the flowers are on restaurant salads. The leaves are a little more pointed than the others. The Vinca is more cultivated but does escape and appear in the woods. Ground ivy and Dead Nettle are both in the mint family, square stems, aroma when leaves are crushed, but the dead nettle is purple on the stem and the top leaves. The violets were along the driveway at the top of Cloverlea but all four are widely scattered.
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| The lower petal shows the linear marks,can vary in color. |
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| More pointed leaf tip than the others,less margin indentation. |
Here is the Vinca from the north side of Cloverlea. Trailing stems can take root helping to spread into broad patches, Vinca is not mentioned by the foraging references. Vincristine a chemotherapy drug is isolated from a relative, so pretty active little chemical factories.
This is a patch of creeping charlie,or ground ivy on the south side of Cloverlea. Note the leave margin ,tendency to grow like a vine, the flowers growing in pairs or whorls from the stem rather than the top. Stem is square so there is a smell of mint.
This is the purple dead nettle. Slight purple on the top and the stem, flowers from the top,maybe less notching at the leaf margin, also square stem. Ground ivy and dead nettle are more or less edible but seem to be used for teas given their mint family connections. It's "dead" nettle in the sense of no prickers.
Missing from the common ground covers is henbit, but probably also present. A lot of Chick weed but no obvious henbit? All are moderately invasive but there are those suggesting they make a better ground cover than grass.
The Princess trees are on the west side of Charles near Charles Way. Their purple blossoms are out and petals are on the bike path. No purple flowers along Rolandvue so if there was a Princess Tree it may have been edited.
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| Purple flowers could be the purple version of a Locust or Wisteria but high power view below is Princess Tree |
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| Presumed Princess Tree blossom |
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