Monday morning, July 21: it’s in bud.
Only about six inches tall.
Update on Mystery Plant from 7/12
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Flower of the Day: Common Arrowhead
aka watato, wapati, katniss, duck potato (and many more); Sagittaria latifolia; Alismataceae (water-plantain family)
I found a stand of arrowheads in an unlikely place: halfway up one of the rocky bluffs that jut into the Potomac near the trail. This bluff had a lot of pockets, though, including one that looked wide and deep enough to stay wet (from flood or rain) year ’round. And so, a small rocky pond 15 feet above river level.
Common arrowhead is found in most of the US and Canada. It’s listed as both potentially invasive (by the Southern Weed Science Society) and endangered (by the state of Illinois). The rhizomes were eaten by Native Americans (also by muskrats and beavers), and the seeds are eaten by ducks.
Bird of the Day: Barred Owl
aka Hoot Owl; Strix varia
So I was walking along the towpath, looking down for flowers of course, when this loud FLUMPH! startled me. I’d just been strafed by an owl! He disappeared into trees across the canal with a loud call. I couldn’t find him, but then I heard the sound again, in two different places. In the deep, deep shade of a sycamore and some pawpaws were two birds. One was clumsily flapping around, down to the ground, then to a low branch, then back up to perch near the other bird, which was stationed on the same branch the entire time. I’m pretty sure the one bird was a fledgling. Go to owlpages.com, scroll down to “calls”, and click on “juvenile” to hear what I heard.
I don’t have any sort of zoom lens. I zoomed as much as I could with the 55mm lens, used a wide open aperture and as slow a shutter speed as I dared, ISO 6400. At home I used Lightroom to zoom in to the subject (in the untouched photos all you can see are dark blobs). I took 70 photos in 17 minutes. Here’s a completely untouched pic; click on it and zoom in to see the bird perched in the V of the tree.
Very excited and happy. I hear these owls at night fairly often, but the is the first time I’ve ever seen one – or three.
Flower of the Day: St. Andrew’s Cross
Hypericum hypericoides; Clusiaceae (garcinia family)
A very close relative of the St. Johnsworts, but note that the blossom has only four petals. The plant is low-growing, with pleasantly light green foliage and dainty flowers. You might have to click on this next picture to see the flower in the lower right: 
Apparently it can be found in many different habitats, from wet to dry, but I’ve only ever seen it in the drier, rockier soils near Carderock (never close to the river).
Flower of the Day: Horse Nettle
Solanum carolinense; Solanaceae (nightshade family)
Not really a nettle, despite its common name, but closely related to potato (Solanum tuberosum) and eggplant (S. melogena), and less closely related to tomato (Lycopersicon species), chili pepper (Capsicum species), and tobacco (Nicotiana species). I write this because I can find nothing particularly interesting to say about horse nettle; its inclusion in the Solanaceae is the only thing about it I find remotely interesting. It is an ugly little flower on a weedy-looking, ugly little plant.
Gardeners define a weed as “a plant growing where it isn’t wanted”, so I can’t just call this thing a weed, but according to the USDA, seven US states consider it a “noxious weed”. In Arizona it’s a prohibited noxious weed. Apparently it’s very difficult to remove, as broad-spectrum herbicides have little effect on it, and tend to kill its competition instead. Yay.
Oh, and it’s poisonous.
Elizabeth's Wildflower Blog 