What to See This Week

Along the Auto Tour behind the Japanese Garden or up near the Visitors Center, look for katsura trees. Katsura trees have heart-shaped leaves with a scalloped edge. As more and more of the leaves begin to change color, you may notice a sweet smell in the air. As sugars within the leaves begin to break down, the scent can be picked up in the wind.

Ohio is home to over 30 species of aster, and we are in the peak bloom of many of them! Calico asters have small white inflorescences and when they first bloom the center is yellow. As the flowers mature the center turns into a pinkish color, leading to variations in color on the same plant.

Milkweed pods are ripening and splitting open, releasing their seeds. The floss helps the milkweed seed disperse in the air, sometimes traveling significant distances. Due to properties of the floss and how common the milkweed plant is, the floss became an important material in World War II. Milkweed floss was used to stuff military life jacks and millions of pounds of pods were collected for this purpose!

This verbena in the Pollinator Garden is often covered in butterflies, including this painted lady. Painted lady butterflies are some of the most widespread butterflies in the entire world. There is a closely related common species called the American lady that can only be distinguished by looking at minute details on the wings. For the upper wing surface, the painted lady lacks a particular tiny white spot that is seen on the American lady.

As we jump into fall, jack-o’-lantern mushrooms are a festive symbol of the season. Jack-o’-lanterns produce large clusters of bright orange mushrooms. These were seen around the base of a tree in the Japanese Garden. Jack-o’-lanterns are especially incredible due to their bioluminescence. When fresh, the gills emit a faint green glow. Don’t mistake these mushrooms for any edible lookalikes; jack-o’-lanterns are toxic and if eaten will make you extremely sick.

Old man of the woods is unlike any other species of bolete mushroom. Such a black, shaggy-looking mushroom is a rare sight. Just like other boletes, the underside of the cap consists of a layer of pores from which the spores are released.

This time of year, we are saying goodbye to a ton of our favorite migratory birds. This is a female rose-breasted grosbeak. They have a distinctive bright white eyebrow and thick beak that is perfect for cracking open seeds. Shortly they will migrate out of the United States south into Central America and the Caribbean.

Chipmunks are busy in the Bird Watching Garden. Unlike some other mammals that rely on gaining body weight prior to winter, chipmunks collect several pounds of seeds and nuts to store in their burrows to get them through the winter. Chipmunks do not hibernate but go into a state of torpor, a shorter-term and milder reduction in body temperature and metabolism. They wake up every few days to eat and on warmer days throughout the winter can even be seen emerging from their burrows.