Category: Nature

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Prairie

Prairies are a part of Indiana’s natural heritage, I’ve been told, according to this rest stop sign anyway.

The girls were inside and I was walking the whippets.  I noticed from afar, across the manicured expanse of Kentucky bluegrass, what appeared to be an informational board for the casual passerby.  Naturally curious (and myself being a casual passerby), I trekked through the grass to read this beacon of knowledge.

Perhaps the sign itself was a victim of fire?  Or maybe it’s yet one more icon of yesterday, fallen into disrepair.  Judging from the number of toll roads I had to pay to get through Chicago, it’s apparent that the national Interstate budget isn’t sufficient anymore.  Sad, although it was kind of amusing to see that this sign still remained, all the way out in what is obviously not native prairie.

The field was also littered with structural foundations, but I couldn’t figure out for what.  Another mystery lost to time.

–Simon

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Mantis (Part 2)

I noted recently that my jalapeño has a guardian.  Then, while making my regular rounds, I noticed that my mustard plant too has one of these garden sprites.

Its abdomen looks like a mustard seed pod

Its not very big, and I had to fight my phone’s auto-focus to get that picture, and by then it was growing weary of my presence and had started to crawl away.  Hopefully he’s off to eat mosquitoes.

–Simon

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Caterpillar

Who doesn’t like a fuzzy little caterpillar, even if they might have small amounts of toxin in their barbs?  I noticed this on my rain barrel as I was tending to my pumpkins:

Acronicta americana

It would appear to be an American dagger moth.  I reviewed a number of sites, but the general consensus is that it’s pretty benign, content to simply munch on a few tree leaves.  Very well, young moth.  You may stay, but I shall not extend such courtesies to your hornworm cousins.

–Simon

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Swallowtail

During the Lubbock years, mom grew a lot of dill.  I don’t recall her ever using it, but I do remember her saying that she mainly grew it for the swallowtail butterflies, as they had a preference for it.  I still remember those beautiful little creatures and their iconic striped larvae.

So I’m naturally pleased whenever I see them now.  They had a fondness of my garden a few years back.

A female Palilio polyxenes

Recently, as I went to harvest some dill for my pickling endeavor, I noticed one of these little caterpillars, so permanently etched into memory.

But, despite me actively using the dill, he can stay.

–Simon

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Mushrooms (Part 2)

To reiterate, mushrooms are creepy.  And yes, that’s based on traumatic childhood events.

Liz was trimming back the mint, which as expected was overwhelming the herb garden, and uncovered this:

Crucibulum laeve?

At the time, she recoiled a little at the sight, and exclaimed that there was a bee nest in the mint.  It did indeed look like a nest of some kind–sort of papery, like a wasp’s.  I certainly don’t mind the majority of arthropods, but I don’t relish coming into contact with them either.  If it was indeed a nest, and those were larvae within, then…gross.

But I’ve never encountered any sort of nest like that, nor did it seem like a good nesting spot, so I had my doubts.  Anything this weird, if not an insectoid machination, must be fungi.  I snapped this picture and decided I would look into it later.

Later came after attending a résumé-building session.  I was asked to coach.  Interesting, that sometimes people want to know what I have to say.  I’m more accustomed to shouting into the void.  But anyway, I needed a respite, so I pulled up my photos and saw this.  The search began.

I did not find any insect nests that resembled this, so I pursued my second theory.  It wasn’t long before I discovered Bird’s Nest Fungi.  It was one of the easier fungus identifications, due to it’s unique appearance.  There’s a variety of species of course, but the family is Nidulariaceae.  It’s possibly Crucibulum laeve.  Wikipedia says they are not edible, they grow in mulch (appropriate since they were growing in potting soil), and release spores when struck by raindrops.

One more fungus species added to the catalog.

–Simon