Butterflies & Dragonflies at Fairview Farm

Beth and I took a trip to the butterfly garden at Fairview Farm yesterday to scout for a "Beginner's Butterflies and Dragonflies" trip I'm leading there this weekend. Here are some pics that Beth took.

Cabbage White (Pieris rapae) love is in the air. The one on the bottom is a more yellow variation of this common critter.


A Northern Broken-dash (Wallengrenia egeremet) on some Purple Coneflower.


Pearl Crescent (Phyciodes tharos) hanging out on parsley


Blue Dasher (Pachydiplax longipennis) - a small, common dragonfly of ponds and streams


White Beardtongue (Penstemon digitalis)

Chicory Coffee

I can't remember when I first read that the roots of Chicory (Cichorium intybus), a common roadside alien plant, make a decent coffee substitute. I remember being intrigued and planning to try it. Years went by and I never bothered. This Christmas I got an awesome coffee grinder and French press from my sister. The wheels were set in motion.

Chicory is pretty abundant right now, but Beth and I weren't able to find a spot that was easily accessible (AKA not in the middle of a main road) to pick some. Lucky for me, Beth brought me home a gift yesterday – a big bunch of Chicory!

I cut the roots off and composted the remains (although we could have eaten the leaves I guess). I cleaned the roots with a scrub brush and lots of water, then cut them into small pieces. I had read that I should roast them at 250 degrees for 2 hours. I laid them on a cookie sheet and popped them in the oven. After an hour, the root chunks had reduced to about half the size and looked like little twigs. There was also a distinct nutty aroma in the kitchen. The "twigs" looked pretty dry to me, so I took them out.

I let them cool, then ground them up into what looked like sawdust. I decided to make a brew of half coffee (shade-grown of course!) and half chicory. Beth had read that pure chicory coffee is very bitter. After tasting the concoction, I couldn't really discern any distinct flavor, but I did notice that the coffee tasted less bitter normal. Beth quickly quipped, "Well, that's probably because you used half as much." Good point.

So, I feel like I still don't know what chicory tastes like. Perhaps I didn't roast it long enough to bring out its flavor or perhaps mixing it with coffee was the wrong approach. I have a little of the chicory left so maybe I'll try a pure chicory coffee tonight.

In retrospect, I should have taken some pictures of this effort. Sorry readers! For an excellent history of chicory and chicory coffee, check out Coffeeproject.com.

Bog Plants: Orchids and others!

On Saturday, Beth and I made our second visit of the year to Webb's Mill Bog (map) in Ocean County, right in the heart of the Pine Barrens. This bog is home to many rare plants including several species of orchids and representatives of most of NJ's carnivorous plants. The weather couldn't have been better for our trip.

After finding the slightly hidden entrance to the bog, we were quickly greeted with several species we had never seen before. Light-pink and dainty Rose Pogonia orchids were everywhere. Interspersed among them were Calopogon, or Grass-pink, with its groups of blush flowers with yellowish lips.

Rose Pogonia


Calopogon, or Grass-pink

Hundreds of yellow flowers of various species speckled the landscape. Bladderworts (Utricularia) of several species poked through the surface on their threadlike stems. Bladderworts are one of the more unique species of plants (definitely read the link above). They use the bladder-like sacs on their roots to capture tiny zooplankton in a sort of lightning-fast gulping action.


I believe this is Horned Bladderwort (Utricularia cornuta)

Other yellow flowers present included Golden-crest (Lophiola aurea) with its fuzzy yellow flowers and fuzzy white buds.


Golden-crest - very fuzzy

The last yellow flower we saw was Bog Asphodel (Narthecium americanum), a NJ endemic species restricted to the Pine Barrens. Its bunch of yellow flowers with feathery centers rounded out the sprinkling of sunshine color in the bog.


Bog Asphodel

Thread-leaved Sundews (Drosera filiformis) were also in bloom with their pink flowers. The other species of sundews did not appear to be blooming and seemed less numerous than on our last visit in May.


Here's the sundew with its flowers

In addition to the flora, there was one very interesting insect that Beth was able to photograph. Below is a photo of an Elfin Skimmer (Nannothemis bella), the smallest dragonfly in North America! This little guy is about an inch long, smaller than most damselflies. There were tons of them here.



For excellent reading about bog and swamp plants, check out John Eastman's The Book of Swamp and Bog: Trees, Shrubs, and Wildflowers of the Eastern Freshwater Wetlands. We're hoping to go back to Webb's Mill a few more times this year to see what other blooming seasons will present. Thanks to my woman, Beth, for the photos!

Book Review: Wildflowers in the Field and Forest

Last year, the "Through Binoculars" series by Oxford University Press published Wildflowers in the Field and Forest: A Field Guide to the Northeastern United States by Steven Clemants and Carol Gracie. Beth and I bought it at the tail-end of the wildflower season, so we didn't get to make much use of it. Recently, I finally sat down and really looked through it and also used it to ID some plants.

The introduction of the book discusses the structure of flowers, some terminology, and wildflower gardening. The authors also introduce the identification key. A plant field guide is only as good as its key. The key uses color and plant structure to narrow down your choices. Your initial choices take you to a specific set of species accounts where additional features help you narrow your choice (hopefully) to your final answer.

The species accounts use photos as opposed to illustrations found in other popular guides like Newcomb's Wildflower Guide and Peterson Wildflower Guide. For the most part, the photos are crisp and each shows a small line dictating the actual size of the flower. Many photos have inset photos showing leaf shape or other important features. The descriptions of the flowers are short and to the point. They describe all of the parts of the plant and the key features are bolded. Endemic and non-native plants are labeled accordingly. (And in this author's opinion, there are too darn many non-natives!)

A key feature that sets this book apart from other wildflower guides is the range map included with each entry. Most other books include descriptions of range, but don't get as detailed as these maps. The maps are also color coded to indicate blooming season (Spring, Spring-Summer, Summer, Summer-Fall, Fall, Spring-Fall).

Despite these great features, this book does have a few flaws. First, there are many terms used in the descriptions of the plants that are not properly defined in the glossary or elsewhere in the book. I was forced to reference other books in order to understand these terms. Second, it seems that the book was rushed to print. There are some typos and some page references that are missing page numbers (it says "p. xxx" instead of a number). Third, some of the plant names, both common and scientific, are different from other books. This is by no means a problem with this book specifically, but a problem as a whole for any book dealing with plants. There is a constant change in naming as scientists learn more about each plant. Plants with scientific names that have changed are listed under both names in the index, but do not have those same references in the species accounts. It would have been helpful to include that in both places. Finally, the book is printed on glossy paper for the photos which does make it a bit heavier than other guides. To me, it's not a big issue, but some may feel otherwise.

Overall, this book is a great addition to any naturalist's library. Until I use this book more, I'm not sure if I can give up my Newcomb's guide 100%. With the range maps and photos in this book combined with the detailed illustrations in Newcomb's, I have a great one-two punch for identifying almost every wildflower I encounter.

Crown Vetch

If you've spent time out birding during the summer in the east, you may be familiar with Crown Vetch (Coronilla varia). This attractive member of the Pea family has been planted along slopes on highways and roadsides since the 1950s. Its strong root system helps prevent soil erosion and the pink/purple flowers are very attractive. Like many things, though, too much is never a good thing. Crown Vetch is native to the Mediterranean and has become invasive in many areas where it has been planted. It is very aggressive and will easily crowd out native plants in dune and grassland habitats. The plant has a "nitrogen fixing" ability whereby it helps replenish the nitrogen in the soil where it lives. This can adversely affect some native plants that may require infertile soil to grow.

All is not bad in Crown Vetch land. A small butterfly, the Wild Indigo Duskywing, has added the Crown Vetch to its list of caterpillar host plants. The prevalence of this plant has increased the population and expanded the range of this cryptic butterfly.

Many states have reduced or eliminated the planting of Crown Vetch. I'm sure enough has spread around to sustain the Wild Indigo Duskywing population for many, many years