Flora and a Little Passing Fauna

Being stuck at home with only the occasional drive in the country with Laurie, I’ve been noticing the little things…not just food…around our house and at the edge of our woods. (We still have a number of trees at the back of the house, with woods across the street and on one side of our property)

With Covid-19 and the resulting economic downturn, I’m guessing that building around the country will be significantly slowed down.  We’ll probably retain our remaining trees for another 2 – 4 years before construction regains its pre-corona virus head of steam.

In any case, onto the topic at hand…

Our Aucuba japonica, aka spotted laurel or (USA) gold dust plants behind our garage are having a great spring!  These bushes produce small 4-petal purplish-brown flowers and red fruits (drupes) that birds avoid.  These bushes can grow up to 16 feet high but much depends on their soil.  They are survivors, even in shaded and dry conditions.

Laurie figured out what the name is of these plants with the ‘puff ball’ flowers.  They are Mount Airy Fothergilla or ‘witch alder’.  This family of flowering plants are native to woodlands and swamps in the southeastern USA.  These are slow growing shrubs but they can grow up to 10 feet tall.  The bottle-brush/puff ball like flowers are actually produced on terminal spikes before the leaves appear.  The flower doesn’t have any petals…but instead consists of a cluster of white stamens.

We have several of these Mountain Fire Japanese Pieris bushes around our yard.  These ornamental broadleaf evergreen shrubs feature fiery red emerging leafs and chains of small white bell-shaped flowers hanging below the branches in early spring.  Parts of these plants are toxic to humans and animals.  Deer leave them alone!

These dogwood trees at the edge of the woods in the backyard are all dressed up in their springtime glory… A few remaining redbud flowers help accentuate them.  Flowering dogwood trees are found in most of the Eastern portion of the USA.  In the southern part of the country they can grow up to 40 feet tall.

 

I was surprised to learn that those beautiful white flowers are really bracts. (Modified leafs) The flowers themselves are small and inconspicuous but the flower-head (actually a group of the tiny flowers) is surrounded by white, pink or red ‘petals’, which are actually the bracts.  In any case, the resulting show each spring is beautiful and these trees are also an important late summer and early fall source of food/fruit for many birds.

It had been weeks since we’d spotted deer in our yard.  Laurie spotted a group of 4 wandering along the back of the house and I managed to snap a couple of photos…including the rear end of one of our passersby… She also spotted a fox running down our street the other night but he/she was way too fast for us to grab a camera.

We have three Loropetalum shrubs, 2 right in front of the house and this one that is off to one side of our front yard.  The 2 in front of the house are kept trimmed so as not to block our windows.  But this one is rarely trimmed and it is a colorful monster measuring at least 9 feet high.

 

This time of the year our Loropetalum shrubs are covered with bright purplish flowers.  Other varieties can have white, reddish or pink blooms.  Each flower consists of 4 to 6 slender ‘strap like’ petals.  Loropetalums are related to the witch-hazel family and its native to China, Japan and southeastern Asia. All our native birds love to sit in our Loropetalum bushes all day. Great cover & good hiding place!

That’s all for now.  Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Stay Safe and Take Care, Big Daddy Dave