What to See This Week

Rainy and humid weather combined with high temperatures speeds up the growth of mushrooms across The Arboretum. Pictured here are pinwheel mushrooms, a species that only pops up in wet conditions as they dry out easily. They are tiny and easily overlooked but reliably pop up in numbers after a rain. They have widely spaced gills, a cap with a dimple in the center, and grow on wood.

Although most woodland wildflowers have finished blooming, this notable species can still be found beneath the shaded canopy. Black cohosh is hard to miss with some flowering stalks reaching above 6 feet tall! While parts of the plant are poisonous, extracts from the roots are available as a type of herbal medicine.

The official start of summer is a great cue to start paying attention to the tinier things. Throughout The Arboretum, amongst the beautiful flowers in the garden or leaves of the trees, insects are abundant. Pictured here is the egg of a beloved native butterfly: the zebra swallowtail. Swallowtail eggs are smooth and visually perfect spheres. The best way to identify which swallowtail egg you have found is to take note of what plant the egg is laid on. In the case of the zebra swallowtail, their only host plant in our area is the common pawpaw. Another newly hatched caterpillar was nearby so we will check the area in a couple weeks in hopes of getting a look at one of the stunning late stage caterpillars!

The camouflaged looper is a fascinating caterpillar. They feed on species belonging to the sunflower family including ironweed, goldenrod, or in this photo wild quinine. The coolest thing about camouflaged loopers is their behavior. In order to help them blend in with whatever flower they are feeding on, they take small pieces of the flowers and attach them to their backs using silk. The white bits of wild quinine have browned over time affixed to the back of the caterpillar, but it still blended in to its surroundings quite well as I almost overlooked several caterpillars on this single plant. Camouflaged loopers are the larvae of the wavy-lined emerald moth, a beautiful little green moth.

This leafhopper was also hiding in the Pollinator Garden but stands out instead of blending in. Many species of leafhopper are a pale green, helping them hide amongst the leaves, but the red-banded leafhopper packs a lot of color into such a tiny insect. With variations of red, orange, blue, and green they are a beautiful bug despite their small size. 

While many birds are incredibly busy collecting insects to raise their young this time of year, one species has been involved in a lot of drama in the Bird Watching Garden lately. Hummingbirds are known to fiercely guard a food source, whether that is a patch of ideal nectaring flowers or a feeder. This little lady has been spending all day perched on the nearby hydrangea chasing off any other hummingbird brave enough to stop by attempting to feed. If this happens at your own hummingbird feeder the best option is to get another hummingbird feeder and place it several feet away or out of view of the first feeder to ensure all the birds are able to get the food they need.