#fringed polygala

[vandaliatraveler]

I finally got back into the mountains this weekend. My escape consisted of short hikes between successive waves of cold, soaking rain. Salvation nonetheless. Photos are from multiple stops along Rt 219 and its byways, including Garrett State Forest (MD), Cranesville Swamp (WV and MD), and Cathedral State Park (WV). The hawthorns are gorgeous this time of year, not to mention the second wave of spring wildflowers now coming into bloom, including fringed polygala (Polygaloides paucifolia), dwarf ginseng (Panax trifolius), red chokeberry (Aronia arbutifolia), painted trillium (Trillium undulatum). and golden ragwort (Packera aurea).

[geopsych]

Last week I saw a lot of native wildflowers but never got around to posting most of them. Here are three species I saw today: fringed polygala, dwarf ginseng, and bluets. The dwarf ginseng was about at its peak but the other two are just starting. I saw carpets of rue anemones so they get a separate post. Pretty many wood anemones too. It was good.

[cricketchirp]

Eyes on the World About Us

Sometimes we hike with a purpose, My Guy and I. And on those days, he actually slows his pace down. And opens his eyes wide, much like the Red Squirrel–ever on the alert. Was it the Fringed Polygala, aka Gay Wings he sought? No, but I certainly did. Those petal-like wings are actually sepals. Two of the petals are fused into a tubular structure, thus giving this plant a “bird-of-paradise” form.…

[krnaturalphoto]

Exciting Sighting | Finding Fringed Polygala at Tanglewood

I always love finding new flowers to photograph. Something I have never seen before always piques my interest. Several years ago I saw these tiny little purple flowers growing along the edge of the woods where we live. I started photographing them and looking for them every year. And the flowers returned every year. Always blooming in the same little area of the woods. Never seeming to…

[day-poems]

5/16

Either spring is late again this year

or I am just getting more impatient

in my old age. And what does “late

again” mean? If it was this late last

year then why would I think it is

late “again” and not just occurring

on a new schedule? Is my seasonal memory

reliable enough to gauge such things?

I doubt it. I go by the wildflowers…

the trilliums and lady slippers and

the two bead lily…the foam flower

and mayflower and the fringed polygala.

The only lady slippers that are in

full bloom are the bunch below

the observation deck at Rachel Carson,

overlooking the river, where the sun

hits the little hillside most of the day.

Everywhere else, even on the front

side of the Carson loop, they will

be a good week yet. And no sign of

angel wings at all, though I found

a few mayflowers in bloom and the

foam flower is going by. Hard to say

by that, just where the spring is

in relationship to the calendar.

I assume someone is checking

to make sure the calendar is not

slipping out of sync with the appropriate

celestial events. It has happened

before…but I guess not with this

calendar. When all the springs are

late, though, you have to be suspicious.

I mean if we can not count on the

seasons, what can we count on?

[mmwm]

I Know Nothing Else But Miracles

I Know Nothing Else But Miracles

As to me, I know of nothing else but miracles, Whether I walk the streets of Manhattan, Or dart my sight over the roofs of houses toward the sky, Or wade with naked feet along the beach, just in the edge of the water, Or stand under trees in the woods, Or talk by day with any one I love — or sleep in the bed at night with anyone I love, Or sit at the table at dinner with my mother, Or look…

[asgardian--angels]

bruh that last post had me wanting to list like every wildflower, moth, and bird in new england like. yall dont know how much im constantly holding back on dropping species all the time, I hate simplifying and broadening to major taxonomic groups, ‘sparrows’ WHICH SPARROW is it a Lincoln’s? Nelson’s? Seaside? White-crowned? Vesper? Clay-colored? As an ecologist unless you narrow it down it gives me very little information, they all have different niches!! 

part of me wants to keep reblogging that post with more categories of organisms ok. also tumblr cut me off with the tags i was going to keep adding more about plants lmao

once you learn tree names one shade of green becomes 50. once you learn insect songs a background chorus becomes a symphony of a thousand unique voices. your world will expand ten thousand fold like seeing shrimp colors ok!!

anyway my inbox is always open, I know I don’t talk much on here directly but this in fact what I do for a living so I never want to shut up about it

[conspectusargosy]

A variety of Polygala, colloquially known as milkwort. The name ‘milkwort’ was given to it because it was believed to increase milk yield in cattle. The third petal is called a keel petal and is distinct in having a frilled end on it. At a glance the flower resembles those from the Fabaceae family, but while they share an order, Polygalaceae is a distinct family within the order.

[just-a-beagler]

Fringed Polygala Polygala paucifolia

A beautiful little flower from Tioga, Pennsylvania

[heaveninawildflower]

1) Marsh Marigold (Caltha palustris)

2) Sabbatia (Sabattia chloroides)

3) Fringed Polygala (Polygala paucifolia)

4) Oswego Tea (Monarda didyma)

5) Monkey Flower (Mimulus ringens)

6) Early Golden-rod (Solidago juncea)

7) Arrowhead (Sagittaria latifolia)

8) New England Aster (Aster Navae Angliae)

9) Cone-flower (Rudbeckia hirta)

10) Evening Lychnis (Lychnis alba)

Some more botanical illustrations taken from ‘Field book of American Wild Flowers’ by F. Schuyler Mathews.

Published 1912.

This file comes from the Biodiversity Heritage Library.

Wikimedia.

[vandaliatraveler]

Winter made an encore appearance to the Central Appalachians this past week, with some locations above 3000 feet receiving a foot or more of snow. By Friday, all that nasty cold and freezing precipitation had moved out and spring returned with a vengeance today, with temperatures in the upper sixties to low seventies. It was a perfect day to explore the ancient sphagnum bog at Cranesville Swamp Preserve, whose boreal wetlands community owes its existence to the cool temperatures provided by the frost pocket in which it nestles. From top: small cranberry (Vaccinium oxycoccos) and eastern teaberry (Gaultheria procumbens) grow from a sphagnum hummock; lowbush blueberry (Vaccinium angustifolium); eastern skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus) growing in a damp spot near the bog’s edge; fringed polygala (Polygaloides paucifolia); dwarf ginseng (Panax trifolius); goldthread (Coptis trifolia); and downy serviceberry (Amelanchier arborea).

[geopsych]

Fringed polygala and a tree shadow, May 2018.

[penemues-quill]

Fringed polygala.

[krnaturalphoto]

Tiny Forest Floor Flower | Fringed Polygala | New York

Tiny Forest Floor Flower | Fringed Polygala | New York

Fringed Polygala. I never knew these tiny little flowers existed until I moved to where we live now. These tiny little wildflowers grow in the same area at the edge of our woods every year. The Fringed Polygala never seem to expand or grow larger. They never seem to fill in more space. They grow in small groups and as individuals. Fringed Polygala flowers pop up in seemingly random…

[proteusolm]

I thought this wildflower was interesting! Internet says it is common, but I'd never personally noticed it. I probably wouldn't have spotted it out of flower if I have come across it, the leaves are pretty low profile and strongly resemble wintergreen. My mother actually picked a leaf to smell and check that wintergreen hasn't secretly had peculiar bright purple flowers all along.

Fringed polygala, Polygaloides paucifolia

[mmwm]

A Tangle of Bright Moments: A Magical Garden in Space

A Tangle of Bright Moments: A Magical Garden in Space

“…for someone visiting earth for the first time, the real treasures here would all be free.  The smell of a sunlit prairie, the taste of a cold cup of spring water, the crunch of trackless snow underfoot, these are some of the earth’s supreme treasures.  On intergalactic maps, if there are such things, the place where we live must surely be designated as a magical garden in space, a place of…