Blue Lobelia

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This blue counterpart of the Cardinal Flower blooms bright blue in late summer. Lobelias have 2-lipped flowers with a 2-lobed upper lip and a 3-lobed lower lip.

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The preference is wet to moist soil and partial sun. I often see it at this time of the year growing along the Ohio & Erie Canal.

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The nectar and pollen of the flowers attract primarily bumblebees and other long-tongued bees. Its species name, siphilitica, is a reference to the old folk medicine belief that extracts made from the plant could cure syphilis.

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Great Blue Lobelia is one of my favorite plants and it provides some welcome diversity with its violet-blue flowers during late Summer or Fall.

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Yellowbelly Slider

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This species is one of the most conspicuous basking turtles throughout its range. They are wary when basking and slide into the water whenever disturbed – hence, the name “slider.”

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This is a large freshwater turtle reaching a shell length of 12 inches. It is native to the southeastern United States, though I’ve seen at least two (the turtles in this post) in Ohio this year. The yellow blotch behind the eye is the most conspicuous marking and is most prominent in juveniles and females.

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As you might  expect, their bottom part of the shell, called a plastron, is creamy lemon yellow in color, and they use its smooth surface to help them slide from riverbank to water at the first sign of perceived danger.

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Adults also prefer a high-protein diet when it is available. But slider turtles can subsist on a vegetative diet, although their growth rates may be significantly lower than that of turtles whose diet is mostly meat.

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The Yellowbelly Slider is a habitat generalist, living in slow-moving rivers, floodplain swamps, marshes and permanent ponds.

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Sliders, as well as other species of turtles, can live for more than half a century. The distribution of Yellowbelly Sliders is actually much wider than it was historically and includes places as distant as Europe, Africa and Asia.

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That’s because millions of baby sliders were raised and sold in pet shops here and abroad as “dime store turtles.” Of the relatively small percentage that survived during captivity, many were dumped into local waterways when the owners tired of caring for them.

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Oyster Mushrooms

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The Autumn forest is brightened with the delicate, translucent, caps cascading from the surface of dead hardwood trees. This is a mushroom that lives up to its name — it looks, smells, and tastes like oysters.

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Oyster Mushrooms are wide and fleshy. They can be white, gray or brown. The caps can be up to eight inches wide and are usually in a semi-circle shape.

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The white, hairless gills (which become yellowish with age) descend the short, stub-like, lateral stalk.

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They grow throughout North America. If it rains enough and it’s not too hot or cold, you can find them during anytime, although they’re most commonly seen around this time of year.

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Oyster Mushrooms, like other fungi, are good food and habitat for small creatures, such as insects. These small animals also help spread spores (like seeds of a plant) so that new Oyster Mushrooms can grow in new places.

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Larger animals like to eat this fungi too, like Eastern Box Turtles, White-tailed Deer and Eastern Gray Squirrels. They are also an edible favorite among wild mushroom collectors and are cultivated on farms for human consumption.

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Ebony Jewelwing

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The Ebony Jewelwing is a damselfly. Damselflies are closely related to dragonflies and they look very much alike.

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The easiest way to tell dragonflies and damselflies apart is to look at the wings. Dragonfly wings stick straight out from the body when the dragonfly is resting. Damselfly wings usually fold back above the body.

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This two-inch insect is easily recognized by its all-black wings and iridescent metallic green body (the body may also appear black or blue depending on the light). Females have a white spot on their wings.

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Ebony Jewelwings are found wherever there are shady forest streams. When they fly they look a lot like a butterfly because they flutter. They often stop to rest on leaves or twigs. Both sexes can be found together; males often face off in slow, circular “dances” that call to mind World War I aces squaring off for battle.

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Ebony Jewelwings can be seen flying from May to August. They are not only beautiful, but beneficial, eating large numbers of gnats, aphids, flies, and other insects.

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Hawthorn

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Hawthorns comprise the single largest group of trees and large shrubs that inhabit the woods and fields of Ohio, about 60 species.

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They are known primarily for their white Spring flowers and Autumn fruits, which can be yellow, orange, or red in color. Here are some flowers from back in May.

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Hawthorns have a sturdy yet enchanting presence that exudes a mighty strength for such a relatively small, twiggy, thorny tree.

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These trees tend to colonize pastures, where their thorns prevent animals from grazing on them. Heights range from 10 to 25 feet, and widths about 15 to 30 feet.

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Hawthorn berries have been used to treat heart disease as far back as the 1st century. The extract from this tree’s leaves and berries are still used today to treat diseases of the heart and blood vessels.

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These trees are so named by a combination of an alternative name for its fruits (haws) and the plentiful thorns found singly on its twigs.

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The wild berries are consumed by birds and other wildlife. People eat the berries as well – and they are made into jellies, jams, pies and tarts.

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Indigo Bunting

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The sparrow-sized, brilliant turquoise blue, male Indigo Bunting is one of the most eye-catching birds around.

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Indigo Buntings have no blue pigment; they are actually black, but the diffraction of light through the structure of the feathers makes them appear blue.

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Male Indigo Buntings sing from treetops, shrubs, and telephone lines all summer. They favor brushy pastures and edge habitat where fields meet the forest.

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As with many birds, the adult female has less spectacular coloration and is mostly brown. In both sexes, the upper beak is dark contrasting with a whitish lower beak.

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These birds perform a valuable service to man by consuming grasshoppers, cankerworms, flies, mosquitoes, weevils and other insect pests. Their diet also includes fruit and seeds.

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The sights and sounds of Indigo Buntings are a pretty good indication that Summer is in full swing.

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Fiery Searcher

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I saw a large, unusual shape clinging to the underside of a leaf on some low-growing vegetation and discovered this beetle. The Fiery Searcher is one of the largest ground beetles. It can grow to almost to one and a half inches long.

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Not only is it sizeable, but it is also quite colorful, being mostly a metallic green. It has a fierce appearance; if you look at the head of this insect, you will see sharp, curved jaws, used for grabbing prey. Fiery Searchers live in open woodlands, meadows and gardens. They are often under rocks, logs, leaves and bark. Both larvae and adults eat caterpillars. This beetle’s nickname is the “Caterpillar Hunter.” It will climb trees and plants to look for food.

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This is considered to be a beneficial creature, as Fiery Searchers eat more Eastern Tent Caterpillars and European Gypsy Moth caterpillars than any other type of caterpillars. These particular caterpillars do a lot of damage to trees.

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Although they run fast and bite hard, they have an additional trick up their sleeve to deter predators, which is releasing a noxious, bad-smelling spray when threatened.

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The Fiery Searcher is indeed interesting and appealing. It was awesome to encounter for the first time this Summer.

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Pitcher Plant

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This is the first time I’ve ever seen this plant in the wild. The leaves of the pitcher plant have reddish-purple patterns, which resemble flowers. Each leaf forms a “cup” that is partly filled with water. The “flower mimic” causes some of the insects investigating the potential source of food to become food for the plant.

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Once an insect enters the hollow leaf, it is faced with waxy walls leading to a pool of water. The pit-fall trap of the pitcher plant further reduces its prey’s chance of escaping by having downward-pointing hairs to make getting out more difficult.

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In addition to using visual cues to attract prey, scent is utilized. The outer edge of the leaf produces a sweet-smelling substance. Ants are attracted to the smell and are trapped in a similar manner as flying insects.

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Pitcher plants reside in bog habitats in eastern North America. Carnivorous plants tend to live in nitrogen-poor soils. They augment the inadequate nitrogen in the soil by capturing and consuming insects.

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In the Summer, this plant produces a large maroon-to-red colored bell flower, 2-3 inches wide, which droops from a single, tall leafless stalk.   The Pitcher plant is indeed mysterious. With its unique ability to obtain food, it has inspired us to reshape our concept on how nature really works.

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Four-toed Salamander

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This small, slender salamander is orange to grayish brown above, sometimes with small black and bluish speckles on the sides. This is Ohio’s smallest salamander – and the first one I’ve ever found. Adults are 2 to 3 inches long; their tails make up over half their length.

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Though it ranges throughout much of the state, it only occurs where boggy ponds or spring-fed creeks are available in or near damp wooded habitats. As its name implies, this amphibian has only four digits on its front and hind feet.

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Four-toed Salamanders can voluntarily detach their tails, which continue to wiggle to distracting predators. This autonomization of their tails in unique. The tails of most salamanders must be grasped to come off.

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It was cool to finally meet this uncommon and secretive creature in the wild.

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Crown-Tipped Coral Mushrooms

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These tend to grow on wood that has been dead for a very long time. They will grow on both hardwood and coniferous logs. This coral fungus or coral mushroom is appropriately named because it looks like coral from the ocean floor. It is rather small, as it Latin species name, pyxidata, hints at.

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Crown-Tipped Coral Mushrooms are actually one of the duller-colored coral fungi. There are some very striking, brightly-colored coral fungi, especially west of the Great Plains.

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Like so many fungi, this species exists as a network of cells that obtains nourishment by digesting the rotting wood that it lives within. Most of the mushroom hidden. When ready to reproduce, the branching “fruiting body” develops outside the wood, which is a reproductive structure.

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Crown-Tipped Coral Mushrooms, like other fungi, perform an important feat of breaking down once-living matter to release carbon, oxygen, nitrogen and other matter back into the soil and atmosphere.

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