mushrooms or limpets?
I love when nature finds a good form or algorithm and then repeats it in different applications: the Fibonacci series (golden spiral) being the best know example. But yesterday, as I was clipping the teeny tiny stems off these nameless mushrooms that pop all over the yard after a soaking rain, I suddenly saw the caps as nearly undistinguishable from limpet shells. I love limpet shells; looking like miniature rice paddy hats. Before the house fire, I had a nice collection of limpet shells from Florida and the Mediterranean. Today, I have ephemeral mushroom caps instead. I am okay with that.
unidentified small mushroom caps
calling all gardeners
Do you know this plant? I happened on this preposterous plant for the first time ever just this week. Someone had planted several along their boulevard. There was a grouping of about a dozen plants, all about 8 feet tall and now mostly stripped bare of their cold intolerant non-native leaves, so that just these magenta colored flowers were bobbing and weaving in the September sun at the ends of their absurdly thin stems and branches. I was so mesmerized by the site, that I made Steve go see the spectacle a day later. And then, because the Twin Cities is really just a big small town, it turn out that the owner of the flower patch was getting her mail, and she was…a tax client of Steve’s. And permission was granted to take a couple stems. I know many of you are gardeners. I’m curious, are you familiar with kiss-me-over-the-garden-gate? I think it might win for best colloquial name ever.
kiss-me-over-the-garden-gate (Persicaria orientalis)
-
Aren’t they just gorgeous!? And I love its charming common name :) I consider persicaria to be a somewhat unused old-fashioned flower that seems to be enjoying a resurgence in popularity. I have never grown it, and didn’t know it got that tall! Surely you have its weedy little relative growing on your land, the one called smartweed/knotweed, less than a foot tall?
How fortunate that the gardener turned out to be one of Steve’s clients (and you didn’t have to acquire the stems surreptitiously, heh heh).reply
common backyard mushroom
This is a fairly common backyard fungus, both in North America and Europe, found growing among short green grass after a rain. It’s called Dunce Cap, but that feels a little antiquated to me: Tilted Lampshade feels more modern to me.
white dunce cap mushroom (Conocybe apala)
amor y amargo
Amor y Amargo is a bar in the east village that has a deep history in our family. It is an amaro bar introduced to us by our friend Erik Eastman, and it has long been our favorite bar in New York City. As part of my son and husband’s ongoing and very idiosyncratic search for native plants that can also be used for food and beverages, they planted this bottle gentian last spring. Gentian root is the bittering agent for many if not most amari, and lo and behold we have one that is native to Minnesota. In related news, Amor y Amargo means “love and bitterness” in Spanish, and as of this afternoon, there is a mostly friendly war in our household between my newfound love of these spectacular fall wildflowers, and my boys’ desire to dig them up for their bitter roots. I don’t think i’m going to win this one.
closed bottle gentian (Gentiana andrewsii)
-
Oh no! Surely you and the boys can find some middle ground. You each should have your own patch of these delightful beauties. American Meadows sells the seed, so maybe y’all should grow some? Expand your population :)
PS – ever since you posted the pic of Jerusalem artichoke/sunchoke blossoms, I have been wondering whether the boys have done anything interesting with their edible tubetsreply -
*tubers
reply -
This is magnificent! I gasped when I saw it.
reply
an unusual fall color
My daughter has been in town for six days for a family wedding. She leaves today–back to California. I will miss her dearly. We are great art partners. Both of us messy, experimental, carefree, and most importantly…finishers! In other words, we get a lot done. As a result of her visit and all the family events the past two weeks, I haven’t been getting into the woods as often as I like. But I did find this today. It’s red elderberry leaves which is a ubiquitous shrub around here. But the color on this particular plant is not ubiquitous at all. It shone in the dark woods like a flood light.
red elderberry leaves (Sambucus racemosa)
Aren’t they charming? Mother Nature finds a design/pattern/shape she likes and thinks, “Oh! This is good. Let’s do more of this”. How often have you noticed this? Probably quite often, since STILL is all about noticing.
As a child, my name for limpet shells was volcano shells, collected primarily on Sanibel Island, FL. Seems I remember you had a collection of coquina shells, too?
Sorry you lost so many lovely collections, but it gives you the excuse to go places again, to begin anew.