I was driving home the other day, and on a bank, under an oak tree, there were some electrifyingly-orange mushrooms cascading down a small slope. BYGL-alert screamed out at me, so let’s take a look. Delightful as they looked to the eye, these would seem to be jack-o’-lantern mushrooms, probably Omphalotus olearius. This mushroom may cause serious gastric distress to those who partake. It is a reminder that you really need to get a positive identification before taking a chance on nature gone wild.

 

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This is the time of the year when it seems that praying mantids are everywhere.  I collected this mantid today from our window screen.  However, the perception that there are more mantids at this time of the season is based on the size of the mantids, not total numbers.

While checking on the status of goldenrod bloom in a park in southwest Ohio yesterday, I kept finding myself surrounded by hordes of hop happy grasshoppers and katydids.  Each step that I took launched hundreds.

  Northern bayberry (Myrica pensylvanica):  Very aromatic foliage, a great winter food source for birds, tolerates salt spray and poor soils, along with being a native, this certainly makes northern bayberry a consideration for many landscapes. 

“Sometimes I lie awake at night, and ask, 'Where have I gone wrong?' Then a voice says to me, 'This is going to take more than one night.'”  (Charlie Brown).

 The months-long florescent reign of seven-son flower, Heptacodium miconoides, is about to begin. The common name of this small tree (will grow to 15-20 feet or more) comes from the candelabra-like seven-pronged flower stalks.

  In northern Ohio the fragrant white flower petals are just now emerging from flower buds. After several weeks to a month the white petals, together called the corollas, will give way to a month or more of ripening ornamental salmon-pink sepals, the floral envelope behind the petal collectively called the calyces. It is a great sight against a blue...

Wheel bugs (Arilus cristatus) have completed their development and adults of these large, unusual looking bugs are now lurking among the leaves of trees and shrubs in Ohio in search of prey.  Although caterpillars and sawfly larvae are favored table fare of this impressively large predator, they will not turn their beaks up at other arthropod meat morsels.

  Today I met with OSU horticultural great Kenny Cochran at his garden in Wooster and we enjoyed checking out everything from his sweet cherry tomatoes to the two-toned leaves of his silver linden tree. One plant which gave us concern was a seven-son flower tree (Heptacodium miconoides). More on the tree later in an upcoming Tree of the Week post, but some stem dieback amidst the just-coming-into-flower panicles is what got our attention. Shoots with brown leaves amidst perfectly healthy-looking shoots with green leaves. 

 

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I ran into this spider today; literally.  Not the very same spider.  I last saw that one scurrying away on the ground after dropping from the front of my shirt accompanied by some high-pitched sounds I didn't know I could make.  No doubt the mad spider would have also made noises - if it could - after I blundered through its beautifully constructed orb web.

   Two species of impatiens have carried on in eastern woodlands despite the roar of impatiens downy mildew on bedding impatiens in our landscapes.

There are some reports of their susceptibility to the downy mildew pathogen Plasmopara obducens, but it has not been reported on these species in Ohio. Woodland walkers are sure to recognize these other impatiens, though you may know them by other names, such as jewelweed or touch-me-nots. Their given Latin names are: Impatiens capensis, with orange flowers and Impatiens pallida, with pale yellow flowers....