Mary Isabelle

We went to the arboretum today to walk through the glades and prairies, see what flowers might still be blooming, insects, how dry the creeks and ponds are after a so-far HOT and drought-y summer. When we got there at 8:30 it was 87 degrees. When we left two hours later it was 100 already. All-in-all, plants are seeding. Ponds are low, some creeks dry. We did see lots of bees. Here’s a sampling.

Passion Flower (Passifloracea). Of the passion flower, Alice Lounsberry in Southern Wildflowers and Trees (1901)  says: “So unlike the majority of wildflowers is this one that it seems strange through the south to see it climbing up and down the rail fences bordering fields of corn or those of sorghum, or again embellishing railway embankments and winding in and out of its fantastic blossoms, long thought to be emblematc of the passion of our Lord.”

Gray-headed coneflower (Ratibida pinnata) on the prairie

The pond where the goldfinches and other birds come for water was getting low.

And this creek bed, usually bubbling, was dry.

The glade was also very dry. For comparison, here’s the glade last year, on July 10, 2011

Pictures of the glade over time are here:

https://pinguid.wordpress.com/2011/04/25/glade-over-time/

Darner

This bee was getting quite a load of pollen, judging by those bulging yellow pollen sacs.

Beech nut

Compass plant

Blazing star