Eli's Native Plants

@elisnativeplants.bsky.social

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The diversity of life is sacred. The diversity of human cultures too. I'm a gardener #NativePlants, vegan, programmer, physics PhD, seed keeper. Trying to stop the 6th global extinction by reconnecting humans with the rest of the living world. /|\

A White Meadowsweet plant with a few stems pushing up between sedges, ending in dense panicles of white flowers, with yellow centers of clustered stamens. The 5-petalled blooms and many stamens are a hint that this is in the rose family.
A fence, densely covered in the waxy, 5-leaved sprays of Virginia Creeper foliage. There are little red-stemmed clusters on the tiny flowers and a cadre of bees that aren't visible. A little Asiatic Bittersweet foliage is sticking out on the left and at the bottom. The pale conifer branch at the bottom is Common Juniper, loaded with berries.
Sign board at the part entrance. No motorized vehicles A map Multiple signs about rules for pets. Clean up after them. Don't let them run wild — my paraphrase
The Red Maple fell over 60ish years ago, when it was over 30, I think. It grew branches straight up and one became the new trunk. This shows the L-shaped trunk in an oak/maple forest
Parched lawn under a red oak, with Northern Dewberries creeping out into the sun, flat along the turf.
Smooth Sumac and Hedge False Bindweed blooming. The view from the top shows the spiraling of the spire of the Rhus panicle and the compound leaves of the sumac below. Sumac stems are purplish, with a blue-green bloom thickly masking the base color. The false bindweed is the white, morning glory-like flower climbing the sumac leaf at the top of the image.
Striped Pipsissewa (Chimaphila maculata) blooming in morning dew. The cluster of nodding, bell-shaped flowers is hanging from slender, reddish-brown stalks (peduncles). Each flower consists of four fused petals forming a tubular corolla that flares out at the top. The tips of the petals are reflexed (curled backward), revealing numerous yellow stamens. Evergreen leaves clustered near the base of the stems are elliptical to lanceolate in shape, dark green, glossy, with a lighter green or whitish midrib running down the center of each leaf, contrasting with the darker blade. The leaves appear leathery waxy, wet. The pine duff around is probably acidic and rich in the mycorrhizal fungi with which these associate. The shiny trios of leaves in the bottom right is some dewy Poison Ivy.
Looking directly at the trunks of a White Oak (Quercus alba) and White Pine (Pinus strobus), in an otherwise open area in a friend's yard in Grotton, MA, 7/4/26. The White Oak is the whitest I've ever seen, a sun-bleached by the dappled light let through by the canopy. The White Pine is stark and dark. The 'lawn' is soft green sedges and small native herbs. Much Canada Mayflower in the back corner before the road. A little Hillside Blueberry (Vaccinium pallidum) in the back R before the road.
The power lines: an open section between shrubby areas, with Goldenrods in the bottom of the image, raising up to small shrubs of lowbush blueberries and huckleberries, then highbush blueberries and hazelnut along the deer track, framing the telephone (/power) pole in the distance. The large oak, hickory and White Pine trees frame the powerline cut further, and the sliver of grey sky above the deer track.
White star-shaped tubular flowers of Swamp Azalea, over sprays of the ovate, waxy leaves
A young butternut, like and elongated, sticky black walnut, green with brown bruising, on the pavement.
Image shows a close-up of the Carolina horsenettle (*Solanum carolinense*) flower, displaying several key anatomical features: **Petals:** The flower has five white petals that are fused at their bases and reflexed (curved backward), creating a star-like appearance. This is characteristic of many Solanaceae flowers. **Stamens:** Five prominent yellow anthers are visible, arranged in a cone around the central pistil. The anthers appear elongated and slightly curved, with some showing brownish tips where pollen may have been released. This distinctive yellow stamen cluster contrasts sharply with the white petals. **Pistil:** A single pale green-white pistil extends from the center, though it's partially obscured by the surrounding reproductive structures. **Calyx:** Green sepals form a protective cup beneath the flower, appearing fuzzy or glandular-hairy. Some developing fruit buds are visible nearby, still enclosed in their calyxes. **Overall structure:** The flower exhibits the typical zygomorphic symmetry of nightshade blossoms, with its parts arranged in fives—a hallmark of the Solanaceae family. The combination of white reflexed petals and bright yellow anther cones makes this species quite recognizable when blooming.
Flat-branched Tree Clubmoss growing in oak/pine duff with a few blueberry branches in the background. This looks like a little conifer except for the strobili reaching up from the top like giant (wrt the rest of the plant) green cones. ~15cm tall
A Swamp Dewberry spreading leaves just above the pine duff, with a 4-petalled roughed up (missing a petal -- should be 5 for Rubus) little white flower. Triplets of waxy, dark green, simple, toothed leaves. 8cm tall at most, with short sprawled canes under the pine needles.
Chimaphila maculata growing in White Pine duff, with the white-veined dark green, glossy lanceolate leaves in decent focus and the out-of-focus white berries forming on stems upright but nodding above the spray of nearly basal leaves.
Pink scruffy blossoms of Rosa virginiana over a riot of foliage fills the bottom of the image. One of the many humming Bumblebees is visible on one of the upper flowers. Above that, there are 4 horses grazing on a close-cropped green pasture with some scattered trees, some of which are being subsumed by Asiatic Bittersweet. A grey-blue sky is visible between the trees in the top of the image.
The BONAP map for Hypericum perforatum, showing that it's officially invasive on the West Coast of Turtle Island, and not so in the East. While the invasive species lists focus on the worst offenders, botanists and ecologists here have warned that it's pushing endangered species out of their habitat here as well.
Elliot, our little grey dog, scratching in frustration because I'm walking too slowly and taking picures
Cheerful yellow flowers if St. John's Wort. Many flowers and a mess of little leaves of the Hypericum and larger Solidago leaves. PictureThis or Seek/iNaturalist can easily tell the invasive from the native species of St John's Wort when they are flowering.
The shiny green triplet of a Wild Sarsaparilla (Aralia nudicaulis) plant, with the seemingly separate, leafless stalk (caulis) of the flowers/berries below. First floor is a healthy duff, mixed white pine and oak leaf litter. There's also some PI and Canada Mayflower
A 6cm tall clump of Swamp Dewberry (R. hispidus) flowering among sedges in classic Rubus style: 5 white petals and many stamens. The leaves are tripartate, tough, and sawtooth-like. Petals are thin enough to leave more gap than petal, but longer than the meager petals of R. occidentalis (Black Raspberry). Certainly not as full and impressive as those of R. allegheneisis (Allegheny Blackberries) though. This is on a wet woodland edge. They can also be found in wet woodlands, and I met my first in Hickory-rich woods bottom.
Crown Vetch growing in a clump at the bottom edge of a hedge. Pink pea-like flowers in small clusters that look like clovers from a distance, pinnately compound leaves with rounded leaflets. They clump up a shrubby edge in messy clumps.
Walking in on woodchips and plank paths through the marsh, in low light, with a light mist softening the world. Attaching limbs of many trees, clumps of many sedges.
Wapato, triangular leaf with a triangular cut out from the bottom to where the stem meets the leaf. 4 sections of the leaf, defined by the direction of the with arching veins. A wet soil, sedge, and Wapato leaf background.
Sweetfern nutlets with a dark green seed showing where I broke off some of the some of the light yellow-green burr-like exterior. Background is Sweetfern leaves and stems
Crataegus suborbiculata Lineage 1989 Canada Univ. of W. Ontario, Canada On an aluminum tag at the base of the tree
Bright green, soft (as compared to Cockspur Hawthorn) leaves and the immature fruit of a Hawthorn that I suspect is Fireberry Hawthorn (Crataegus chrysocarpa). I will need to see the flowers next Spring to be anything like sure of this tentative ID. The leaves have smallish, sawtooth-like lobes, 2, 4, or 0 with fine serrations of alternating sizes. Fruits are small and green, and similar to those of Crabapples. Image shows a branch that reaches out of the hedgerow (forest edge actually) and over the mowed path, with a lawn for background around the edges that aren't filled with leaves. Green on green.
Cockspur Hawthorn (almost certainly), and a view of Cole Hill, under which my Grandpa's grandparents and great-grandparents are buried, so I learned this past weekend. Leaves and stems and a view of a mowed path and a meadow sloping down and away to the South, and hills in the distance. The central hill is Cole Hill, up which Cole Hill Road runs, in Albany NY. The stones on the W. at the foot of the hill are my great-great-grandparents markers. They have been kept neat in recent decades.
Two Does, one landing and one leaping high above the meter-tall grasses and herbs of the lush, green level area by the top of the hill that the 35 acre meadow.
Red Spotted Purple Admiral butterfly, wings folded, feeding on a Silky Dogwood flower. The butterfly is standing in the sun, surrounded by bright green leaves in sun, with some shady depths of the hedge adding dark contrast behind the wings
Ezra, my 50lb poodly, long-faced dog, with one side dark and a start shadow in the 8am sun, on a mowed path around a rolling sloped green field, with the occasional tree. View looking upslope. Foreground is a portion of the meadow that was mowed last year and it's mostly grasses and herbs
A Tulip Tree (Liriodendron tulipifera) flower, with creamy yellow petals that have orange V-shaped markings showing in bright contrast inside the flower, and more muted contrast on the outside. The background contains a wavy lead and some blurry branches further back.
A dried stem and seed head from last year's blooms, with the green young foliage of this year's Wild Bee Balm (Monarda fistulosa) coming in.
A patch of Sedum acre growing in rocky soil with scattered White Pine needles. The little succulent is bursting with yellow star-shaped flowers.
Large elm logs, bark mostly intact, in a field at the forest edge. Virginia Creeper vines are taking over the logs up front. A young Black Walnut reaches a meter above the logs before leafing out. Mature Golden Oyster mushrooms are exploding in many flushes, bigger than footballs, on the logs. Some random old beams have been piled in with the logs. Gallium and grasses surround the logs in lush green.
The flowers of a Black Walnut (Juglans nigra) with the bases of pinnately compound leaves spreading outward. Background is the mowed lawn and paths of the Acton Arboretum
A close image of deeply loved Geranium leaves and pink flowers on a shady tree line.
Image of Steve Cohen from the track AIPAC site, with his $125k haul (second largest in TN) from pro-Israel PASs listed.
A round red-spotted green 1.8" globe of an Oak Apple Gal forming out of a deformed young leaf of an Oak, with a leafy backdrop
A short bowing stalk of Downy Solomon's-seal (Polygonatum pubescens) with alternating, lanceolate entire, parallel-veined leaves (a monocot) going to either side, and individual (rather than paired) flowers hanging like bells from the leaf nodes. The ground around is carpeted with a patchwork of oak leaves and Canada Mayflower (Maianthemum canadense).
A 2' tall sedge flowering, with separate male (brown spikes at the top, with pollen) and female (lower down and pale yellow-green) flowers. The image is centered on a few small clumps emerging from still water that is reflecting the Red Maple (Acer rubra) limps above. I suspect that this is Carex vesicaria (Blister Sedge) but I'll do a study after it sets seed, and figure out for sure.
Dense webbing of Eastern Tent Caterpillars where the tree limbs leave the trunk. Image shows limbs nibbled leaves and flowers of Prunus americana, and a black oak in the background, at this first edge.
Black Huckleberry flowers, red urn-shaped flowers, hanging from fresh green twigs off woody stems of this small shrub in the understory of a forest, with dappled light coming down through the oaks. Image shows a close-up of tiny flowers and the stems, with the forest as the blurred backdrop, from brown oak leaf litter to the dappled light emerging from a spring green canopy.
A raceme like an 8" cylinder of white 5-petalled flowers with yellow on the many stamens and slightly shiny leaves. Further south, the leaves are waxier to handle drought. The background is mostly foliage with a few other budding flowers.
A wet Red Maple lowland forest a couple of weekends ago, after the maple flowers has fallen, and before they tinged red again with growing seeds. The trees look bare. The ground is green with rosettes of Skunk Cabbage, which are done blooming. Little patches of green Sedge are peeking out among the Skunk Cabbage, and there's far more green than brown on the forest floor.
Burning Bush stem without 'wings.' stem is ruddy, starting to seem a little angular/fluted. Leaves are finely serrated but otherwise resemble blueberry leaves: oval with a pointed tip. Image is a little blurry. My apologies
A forest with a bare forest floor, except along the edges of the path the photo was taken from, and haze of light green that fills the understory from 3-6’ above the ground, as the invasive Burning Bush (Euonymus alatus) leafs out. Instead of spring ephemerals, Partridgeberries, viburnums and blueberries blooming in diverse profusion, we have Burning Bush over hummus for acre after acre.
Main description in the main text. Note the pubescence on the leaves, stem, and bud. I think they're fuzzy little cuties. Note the parallel (rather than webbed -- they do come to meet at the leaf tips) veins in the leaves and buds. Most orchids (75%) are monocots. It is very strange for a family to be mixed monocot and dicot: be careful making generalizations about the large, diverse Orchidaceae. These orchids, like many others, have a close relationship with mycorrhizal fungi. The seeds are dust/spore-like, lacking an endosperm (nutrients) as they rely on finding their fungal partner to get started.
The two remaining Pink Lady's Slipper sprouts, small green pairs of leaves emerging from oak/pine duff. I replaced the earth between them, where the poacher took the cluster of plants.
Azure Bluets: tiny, 4-petalled spring ephemerals in Middlesex County, MA, 5/5/26
Sedge inflorescence with both male and female flowers
Flowers and leaves on a stem of a tree in genus Prunus. I suspect that this is a Wild Plum.
A bunch of callery pear flowers on the end of a limb. 5 white petals and 15 stamen on each of the 2cm flowers.
A bunch of Crocuses, blooming, with a cluster of light lavender blooms on the left and darker lavender blooms on the right. Low grass, leaves, and dirt surround the flowers and a boulder emerges behind them.
The Moon, cradled in the branches of one of a duo of White Pines (Pinus strobus). Lens flared 96% full moon through the branches of tree silhouette
Garlic Mustard is one of the first things to sprout in the spring. It has rounded teeth, and a distinctive through variable leaf shape. Sprouting early is one of the advantages that allows it to infiltrate so quickly.
A shoot, white, dead skin on a conical, split shoot tip which is pale yellow-green and fleshy at the base, emerging from wet leafy mud with three red (darkly speckled red with green speckled red barely expressed on a few tops) spathes (exterior hood/sheathe formed from bracts)
A White Pine trunk, grey on the ridges, brown in chips and forrows, with a White Breasted Nuthatch standing upside down, examining a crack