Weather Whinging, Camouflage, Violets & Mosquitoes

Bombus rufocinctus queen climbing Jacob's Ladder in a rare ray of sunshine

Those of you who make a habit of reading this blog already know that I make a habit of whinging about Edmonton's weather. Although I have taken every opportunity to point out its failings, the Weather has yet to improve one bit. I give up! If it wants to rain every day in June, then let it. Instead here are a few interesting bugs and flowers from those rare moments between showers. Goldenrod is a great flower for insects, and so, always a joy to see in bloom (even though it means 'summer' is ending), but not especially interesting before it blooms - except this year. 

What the ...? 

Synchlora aerata (Fabricius, 1798), otherwise known as the Wavy-lined Emerald is a new visitor to the Home Bug Garden. Or at least I think it is - the first one I saw looked more like bits of leaves stuck in a spider web than a caterpillar and I wonder how many I'd missed in the past. Also known as the Camouflaged Inchworm (aka Looper), this geometer larva likes to eat a variety of composites - and adorn itself with bits of leaves and flowerheads. Many geometer caterpillars do very good imitations of twigs or are pale green with light longitudinal lines that blend into vegetation, but this was the first I've seen that dresses up the better to not be seen. Miklos Treiber studied some of these caterpillars and found the process was more or less continuous - as the fragments dried out the inchworm added new bits of plant (using a glue-like substance from its mouth).

Synchlora aerata (Fabricius, 1798) inching along

Anyway, there is lots of goldenrod, gayfeather and Joe Pye Weed in the Home Bug Garden, so the Camouflage Inchworm should feel right at home. Also popping up in a brief bit of sun is another native plant, the Prairie Violet Viola pedatifida. 

Prairie Violet Viola pedatifida

Also called the Crowfoot, Birdfoot or Larkspur Violet because of its dissected leaves, unlike most violets, this one likes it relatively hot and dry - gravelly hillsides and prairie grasslands being it usual habitats in Alberta. 'Hot and dry' are not appropriate terms for a garden in Edmonton, but two of the three plants I put into the southwest corner of the Home Bug Garden survived the winter and bloomed. 

AKA Crowfoot, Birdfoot and Larkspur Violet

Finally who can resist the charms of Edmonton's most famous flying insect, the mosquito. We bug paparazzi flock to them whenever we see them and try to annoy them as much as they annoy us. Here's one mugging for two cameras.

Two views of one mozzie.

Blue-eyed Grass & Wild Sarsaparilla

'Blue-eyed' Grass Sisrynchium montanum

I tend to be an impatient gardener. I usually buy plants when they are in bloom and the gratification is both immediate and guaranteed. The long winters here, though, and the pictures in the seed catalogues that start to arrive with the new year can set my mind to wandering, although usually in the direction of next summer's fresh veggies (and, this being Zone 3, those with the fewest days to maturity). Sometimes, though, as with last week's Anomalous Peony, I'll settle in for a longer wait.

Grass-like leaves and buds of Blue-eyed Grass (an iris)

Here's another example - Sisrynchium montanum, a Blue-eyed Grass, finally blooming four years after the seeds were planted. This species is a native and very attractive in bloom, although the flowers are only about 15 mm across and close when the sun is not shinning.

Closed flowers and seed pods on a gloomy Sunday

Some species of Sisrynchium do have pale blue tepals, but this Alberta native looks more like a Purple-eyed Grass to me, although the only other common name I found is Strict Blue-eyed Grass. It grows in meadows and other damp, open areas around the Province and much of North America.

Looking more like an iris, but no bluer, a German Iris ignores the gloom

Blue-eyed Grass is very modest compared to the horticultural varieties of its relatives in the genus Iris, but I'm quite happy with my little patch. On sunny days several dozen flowers have been in bloom and, although I have yet to see a pollinator, it seems to be seeding freely. When it comes to the Wild Sarsaparilla, though, the flowers are not the attraction.

Umbel of Wild Sarsaparilla Aralia nudicaulis

This is another Alberta native that can also be found throughout much of North America. My rhizomes were planted in 2007, so that makes it another 6-year wait, but this plant delivered interesting foliage from its first season.

Wild Sarsaparilla over Nodding Onion

I also admit to a bit of collectoritis - the Araliaceae otherwise being absent from the Home Bug Garden. Still, I find the leaves attractive and they seem to blend in well with my other shade-loving plants. Also, although the berries are usually described as 'insipid' or 'inedible', I thought the berries of the parent material quite tasty.

Wild Sarsaparilla, Epimedium, Hellbore, Bloodroot, Bedstraw, Vetch, Wild Lily-of-the-Valley and Sweet Cicely cohabiting in the shade

Wildflower of the Week: A Mystery in Spurs

Spurred mystery plant

Last summer Mrs Home Bug Gardener and I, while walking a trail on our land that we had traipsed a hundred times before, encountered a plant that we'd never seen before. We had no idea what it might be, but it was very strange indeed: purplish, spurred, and square-stemmed with somewhat fleshy opposite leaves - more like a visitor from another planet, than a normal denizen of the Great North Woods.

Scrophulariaceae, not

Alas, none of our pretty picture books of Albertan flowers was of any use. So, it was off to the flora of last resort: EH Moss's completely picture-free Flora of Alberta. Alas and alack, it wouldn't key to family! Not a mint, not a snap-dragon (Scrophulariaceae - the family I thought most likely), not any of the families with 4 stamens and 4 petals! That left only leafing through each family and trying the generic keys - and final success on p. 455: Halenia deflexa (Sm.) Griseb., American Spurred Gentian.

American Spurred Gentian Halenia deflexa

Well, gentians aren't always 5-merous, a good thing to know, and finding a flaw in a key always makes me feel virtuously smug, but why spurs? Obviously there must be some interesting long-tongued pollinators coming to the spurs. So, off to the literature - for a frustrating round of fruitless research. Although there are 22 species of spurred gentians around the world, and one is considered an important medicinal plant (Tibetan Medicine - Halenia elliptica), and there are many papers published on the anti-oxidants the plants possess, their pollination ecology is a complete mystery!


Reference
KB von Hagen & JW Kadereit. 2003. The Diversification of Halenia (GENTIANACEAE): Ecological Opportunitey versus Key Innovation. Evolution 57(11): 2507–2518 

Wednesday Wildflower: Marsh Marigold

A bright spot in the mid-May HBG

Even in a relatively good year, the first half of May in Alberta is not a colourful time of the year. Browns and greys still dominate in the bush and in Edmonton, even with its advantage of a strong Urban Heat Island effect, we depend for colour on those with the forethought to have planted bulbs last Fall.

Facing West in the afternoon sun

The one striking exception is the native Marsh Marigold Caltha palustris Linnaeus. Ever since we added it to our bog garden in 2005, the Marsh Marigold has been up as soon as the snow melts and blooming before the Ides of May. In the warmer springs before 2008, the blooms were opening in the first week (2-5 May), but since then it has been near the end of the second week. This year the first bloom was on May 8th, no record, but an indication that this Spring has been milder than the previous four.

Volunteer in foreground, progenitors in background

The bumble bees spend most of their time in the willows, coltsfoot, or the early spring bulbs, but they do forage at Marsh Marigold and no doubt contribute to seed set. Hoverflies seem especially appreciative of the flowers, although they are rather secretive about their identities. The one below may be a species of Eupeodes, but many Syrphini look very much alike to me.

Hoverfly (Syriphidae)

We now have several more Marsh Marigolds than we started with, but they are in no sense weedy. The flowers are gone before summer, but the glossy leaves are attractive too. All-in-all, Marsh Marigold is a rather excellent native addition to a damp spot in the garden.

Fruits of Marsh Marigold

Wildflowers of the week: Canada Buffaloberry & Beaked Hazelnut

Female flowers of a willow

 Spring has finally started popping in the Home Bug Garden, but in the bush things are still a bit subdued. Coltsfoot and Creeping Buttercup are adding some colour, and this week, wild violets, but most of the forage available to the bees is much less easy to notice - the catkins of shrubs and trees, willow and hazelnut in particular.

Tiny flowers of Canada Buffaloberry

 Among the moose grazed hazelnuts, however, is one shrub with more flowery, if tiny, blooms, Shepherdia canadensis (L.) Nutt., also called Russet Buffaloberry. Last week we mistook it for hazelnut, but this week, with the leaf-buds burst, we were quite clearly wrong. The scale-like appressed hairs that cover buds, stems, and leaves should have clued us in - Elaeagnaceae, the Oleaster family that includes things like Wolf Willow (Elaeagnus commutata) and Russian Olive (Elaeagnus angustifolia). 

Moth sipping at Buffaloberry flower

 The catkins of Beaked Hazelnut Corylus cornuta Marsh. also are 'in bloom', but not very flowery. We've managed not to even notice them until this year, when we corrected our misidentified Buffaloberries. Eventually, they do yield small hazelnuts - tasty if difficult to extract.

Beaked Hazelnuts

 We originally intended to plant Beaked Hazelnut in the HBG to provide some wildlife food and the odd snack. That was before red squirrels decided to colonize our attic, though, and on second thought we decided not to do any more to encourage them. There is nothing like removing 1557 spruce cones from attic insulation to make one appreciate that maintaining a distance from wildlife is in both our interests.

Nymphs of a hazelnut lace bug

 Another reason we decided against planting Beaked Hazelnut is that in the bush it is heavily infested by lace bugs (apparently Corythucha coryli Osborn and Drake, 1917) and look quite ratty by the end of summer. If the lace bug populations are out of control in the bush, where presumably their parasitoids and predators are abundant, then they are likely to be just as bad or worse in an urban garden.

Adults of Corythucha coryli

Wednesday Wildflower: Meadow Rue

Male Meadow Rue

With April's second blizzard descending and about to bury the few tulips and squill near the house that have dared to poke their leaves above ground, a brightly coloured wildflower seems out-of-place. So instead I offer one with muted tones: Meadow Rue (Thalictrum spp.). Four species of Meadow Rue grow in Alberta, and this one is probably Veiny Meadow Rue (T. venulosum). Gender varies with the plant in Thalictrum, some are male, some female, some both. This plant is a male with dangling anthers and looks to me as if he's expecting the wind to do his pollinating. Although not as fancy as the species grown commercially, we like this unobtrusive relative of the buttercups (Ranunculus spp.). Meadow Rue and Buttercup may not look much alike, but we can report that Meadow Rues do have yellow roots.

Creeping or Shore Buttercup Ranunculus cymbalaria

I'm not exactly sure of the origin of Linnaeus' genus Thalictrum. Timothy Coffey's The History and Folklore of North American Wildflowers gives Thalia (Θάλεια) 'the blooming one', and the Muse of comedy and pastoral poetry. Thalia, in turn, is derived from the Greek for 'to flourish or be verdant'. However, Kathleen Wilkinson's Wildflowers of Alberta gives credit to the Greek thallo 'to grow green'. This may be all much of the same, but Linnaeus did describe another genus as Thalia - the Alligator Flags of the southern US.

Wikipedia has Thalia as named after Johannes Thal, a German Botanist. But Peter Bernhart in his entertaining Gods and Goddesses in the Garden, considers Thalia as a bit of Linnaean fun, honouring both Thal and yet another Greek Thalia (Θαλία): the Grace of festivities and luxuriant banquets. Given the abundance of flowers and the rather greyish foliage characteristic of Meadow Rues, I think I'll go with the Muse.

2 for 1: Wednesday Wild Flower + Pollinator of the Week

Two for the price of one: Purple Peavine & Greenish Blue

Purple Peavine, aka Purple Vetchling, Veiny Pea (Lathyrus venous), stretches across North America to just barely make it into central Alberta, but I'm glad it does. A relative of the domesticated Sweet Pea (Lathyrus odorous), but without the selection for large and fragrant flowers, it still makes a fine wildflower.  Disjunct populations also occur on the West Coast; so perhaps, some earlier inhabitants of Alberta also liked these peas and took them with them on their wanderings.

Greenish Blue Plebejus saepiolus from above

The Greenish Blue (Plebejus saepiolus) is just one of the bewildering diversity of tiny 'Blues' that occur in Alberta including the Spring Azure, Western Tailed-Blue, Silvery Blue, Arctic Blue, Rustic Blue, Northern Blue, Acmon Blue, and so on. Every now and then we see enough characters to be reasonably sure of identity, but not often.

Mystery Blue

The caterpillars of the Greenish Blue feed on clovers (Trifolium spp.). Since Alberta has no native species of clover (the closest 'native' species occur in Montana and British Columbia), I suppose that means we owe our Greenish Blues to introduced, 'weedy' clovers. Most true clovers aren't really very weedy, but several are important crops and all a good source of nectar and pollen for bees and other pollinators. So, I prefer to think of clovers as nascent Albertans.

Red Clover - not a 'native'

Wild Flower Wednesday: Golden Fumitory

Corydalis aurea - a fumitory

Alberta's two species of fumitory (Fumariaceae), Corydalis aura (Golden Corydalis) and C. sempervirens (Pink Corydalis), are attractive if ephemeral delights. Unlike the 'perennial' commercial varieties, both Alberta natives are biennials. 'Corydalis' is from the Greek for a lark - usually credited to the Crested Lark. 'Cory' also means 'helmet', so the bird name probably derives from the prominent crest and the fancied resembles of the flower to the lark's head, well, from fancy.

Golden Lark's Head anyone?

Golden Corydalis is easy to miss in its first year, but the fern-like leaves are attractive. I suspect that 'fumitory' comes from the fancied resemblance of of the finely divided, greyish green leaves of the related Earth Smoke (Fumaria officials) to smoke, but Wikipedia claims the origin of the name is uncertain. Since Pink Corydalis is common after wildfires, perhaps the 'fume' refers to a similar habitat preference in Fumaria. The 'perennial' commercial species have larger and more showy flowers, and the pale blue varieties are especially attractive, but we've had no luck with ours surviving the Zone 3 winters.

Wednesday Wild Flower: It rhymes with hurtica

Urtica dioica

The very first 'wildflower' transplanted to the Home Bug Garden was a bit of root that fell out of a soil core. Rather than let the unknown root die, my wife brought it back and stuck it in a new bed along the walkway in the side yard. Next spring some interesting looking leaves sprouted and we anxiously awaited flowers so we'd have some idea of what we had. However, while weeding the bed, I was able to identify the new plant by the unpleasant stinging sensation in my hands.

Yes, nettle has flowers

Stinging Nettle (Urtica dioica) isn't an unattractive plant, but it's flowers don't seem to inspire the lyrical joy of many other wildflowers. After brushing against our rapidly going bundle of nematocysts one too many times I donned the leather gloves and grubbed it out.

Milbert's Tortoiseshell caterpillars feed on Nettle

If I'd planted it in the back of the garden rather than next to a sidewalk, I may have let it thrive. Actually, I'm a bit sorry I didn't move it to the back of the garden. After all, it is an important food for many caterpillars that turn into attractive butterflies. The young shoots are edible, and reputedly make a tasty pot herb. Also, a friend of ours made wine from the flowers - and the taste was interesting (although after a couple of tastes, the rest went into a stew). Well, maybe some day we will try a patch.

Wild Flower Wednesday: Wild Strawberry

Fragrant and tasty - Wild Strawberry

What could be more natural than the desire to add one of Alberta's more common, delicately attractive, and tasty native ground covers to a home garden? Admittedly, Wild Strawberry rarely produces fruit, but the white flowers have plenty of charm, the trefoil leaves are attractive, and the runners are red. They also spread freely and vigorously across garden beds and mulch, crowding out less competitive plants.

Ascending toothed margins, short terminal tooth, and an upper leaf surface without hairs give you Fragaria virginiana.

Alberta actually has two species of wild strawberries: the common Wild Strawberry (Fragaria virginiana) and the more restricted Woodland Strawberry (Fragaria vesca). The latter has leaves where the teeth on the margins diverge, a longer terminal tooth, and a hairy upper surface. I'm not sure if Woodland Strawberry is less aggressive, but Wild Strawberry is not a good choice for the garden. I've been aggressively weeding my sprawling horde for over two years and am barely keeping ahead.

Hybrid Commercial Strawberry

The hybrid commercial strawberry - which is said to have resulted from crosses between Wild Strawberry and the West Coast Beach Strawberry (Fragaria chiloensis) - has leaves that look a bit like Woodland Strawberry. Moreover, commercial strawberries are just as attractive as their wild relatives and put most of their energy into producing fruit, and much less into producing runners.

Small Sweat Bee enjoying Pink Panda

If you like the look of strawberries in your garden, but don't so much like strawberries, then Pink Panda (Fragaria ‘Frel’ x Potentilla) is a good alternative. The pink flowers are highly attractive to pollinators, start blooming early and last all summer, but set very few fruit. We've had them slowly spreading through the Home Bug Garden almost as long as Wild Strawberry, but rarely need to weed them. They make a nice ground cover.

Fragaria Pretty-in-Rose

If you like your ground covers a bit more gaudy, then Fragaria Pretty-in-Rose may be a good choice. I'm not sure what they crossed a strawberry with to get this particular shade of reddish pink, but our 2010 plantings survived last winter and produce moderate numbers of large, tasty, but strange-looking fruit last summer. I'm hoping they pull through with this winter's sparse snow cover.

Fruit of Pretty-in-Rose

Wild Flower Wednesday: Twinflower

Two pairs of Twinflowers: Linnaea borealis

Personally, I tend towards liking the smaller things in life. If given the choice between a dinner-plate dahlia and a tiny and delicate wildflower, I'd choose the latter every time. I guess it's good I didn't try to earn my living as a gardener. That would be especially true here, because I have not done very well by this tiny beauty.

Twinflower thriving under aspen

Twinflower is a relative of honeysuckles and snowberries, both of which may feature in some future Wednesday Wildflower. They are interesting plants, but pale in comparison to their tiny cousin. My particular HBG experiment came via an accidental severing of a Twinflower while taking a soil sample. I couldn't bear to toss it out, so I've tried to nurture it along. Maybe the soil isn't acid enough, or maybe some essential mycorrhiza didn't make the transition, but my plant barely made it through the last two winters. It's not happy. I'd suggest trying a nursery bred plant if your are interested, and if you can find one.

Thrips like Twinflower too

I'm not alone in liking Twinflower. It is claimed that the great systematist Linnaeus also loved the plant, and apparently coerced a colleague into naming it after him. Wikipedia has what seems to be an informative write-up - and a great picture of Linnaeus mugging with the flower. The subtle attractions of the Linnaea continue into modern times and I especially like this doubly twinned vignette.

Wild Flower Wednesday: Alberta's Provincial Flower

Longhorn Beetle  Clytus ruricola  probably doing a fair job of pollinating an Alberta Wild Rose

What better way to re-start Wildflower Wednesday than with the official Provincial Flower of Alberta: Prickly Wild Rose Rosa acicularis (aka Arctic Flame)? Well, there are roads reputed to be paved with such good intentions. I've assumed our wild roses were acicularis, but a little bit of research shows that there are actually 4 species of wild rose reported from Alberta.

Flower colour varies within a species and in age of bloom, but this bumble bee is a good pollinator: Bombus ternarius

 The USDA lists Rosa acicularis, arkansana, blanda, and woodsii in Alberta. Unfortunately, the USDA maps show distributions only by state/province. If the species is there in said political entity, then the whole province gets coloured-in. Finer details like ‘does it grow on my land’ are obscure. Still, painful experience assures me we don’t have Smooth Wild Rose (R. blanda) – it has few thorns. Also, the above ground canes of insidious thorns persist, so it seems unlikely we have Prairie Rose (arkansana), which dies back each winter.

Looking more globular than pear-shaped,
these hips are probably Rosa woodsii

That leaves us with the Provincial Flower, Prickly Wild Rose, and the other, just as prickly, Wild Rose (Rosa woodsii). For most characters, these species overlap – and in fact they hybridize - so intermediate forms may be common where they overlap in distribution (aka where I live). The easiest way to tell these species apart is by the distribution of prickles and glandular hairs in relation to the stipules, but this is getting pretty technical and not possible to resolve from photographs. I will say that I did key out one plant to acicularis, but most of the pictures I have on hand seem more likely woodsii. I probably have a mix of both species.

Added bonus - prickly leaf galls caused by
minute gall wasp Diplolepis bicolor

Seems like I will need to wait until next summer to do a more thorough analysis of what wild roses our lands are supporting, including the one started from a cutting that is now occupying a good portion of the backend of the Home Bug Garden. Until then, take my word for it – both are excellent for pollinators and both host a diversity of other interesting insects. One great example, is a tiny wasp (Diplolepis bicolour) that causes Prickly Rose Gall on the leaves. And these galls, in turn, host other insects. You can barely discern one to the left in the picture below - another tiny wasp artfully inserting its eggs into the gall - probably so its larvae can eat the wasp that made the gall.

Tiny chalcidoid wasp putting its eggs into a Prickly Rose Gall

Colourful fungi like the rose rusts (Phragmidium spp.) also make use of our wild roses. As long as they leave our domestic roses alone, I don't think I mind the rusts eating the wild roses.

Aecial stage of rose rust on Wild Rose (probably R. woodsii)