Pincushion Fruit

Photo by Matt Ball 10/23/2012

Like many fruits of plants in the cactus family, Pincushion (Fishhook Pincushion Mammillaria grahamii) fruit contains lots of tiny seeds. These fruits are edible, but there's not much to them!
Answer to yesterday's question: (Nearly all) adult insects have wings. If you see an insect with wings, you can say with confidence that it's an adult.

Flowers and Flyer, too

Photo by Marty Horowitz 11/7/2012

This beauty is a Buckeye butterfly perched on blooming Smartweed (Persicaria lapathifolia).
How do you know that this butterfly (insect) is an adult? Answer tomorrow!

Flowers and Flyer

Photo by Marty Horowitz 11/7/2012

Bursting with color, this Flame Skimmer dragonfly has landed on Smartweed  (Persicaria lapathifolia) by the creek. Look later for the fruits.

Keel Appeal

Photos by Ned Harris 11/13/2012

What ARE this things? I'm glad you asked! They are nymph and adult Keeled Treehoppers [link is to a photo by Margarethe Brummermann; who will be at the 4th Avenue Street Fair  - 7-9 December, 10am-dusk - with her wonderful watercolor art - booth #626].
The nymphs are in various stages (like all insects, they have to shed their exoskeleton to grow); you can see them most clearly in the top photo. The adults have keels, which scientists think are actually fused wings (thus not breaking the 'rule' that adult insects have wings : -)
The herds pictured were all over Sacred Datura (Datura wrightii) plants in the riparian area by the dam. (You know that fruit, too.) These are the same type of bugs that eat other plants in the Solanaceae family - like tomato plants.

Who's got the button (bush)?

Photo by Ned Harris 11/14/2012

Yes, these are Button Bush (Cephalanthus occidentalis) fruits - some still developing. The 'button' is composed of dozens of individual flowers. Note the long, thin style [one of the female parts of the flower] sticking out of some of them. Each flower can grow a seed, provided the flower is pollinated [with pollen from the male parts]. The plant is a real magnet for insects when in bloom, so there's usually no problem getting the pollen where it needs to go!
Answer to yesterday's fruit question: Common Cocklebur (Xanthium strumarium).

Fruits and Flyer

Photo by Ned Harris 11/7/2012

Great Spreadwing damselfly - the exception to the 'rule' that damselflies hold their wings over their bodies when perched - on a fruit you know. Which one? Answer tomorrow.

We interrupt this plant rant...

Photo by Ned Harris 11/14/2012

... to bring you a frog blog. I nearly stepped on this little guy on the main path at about 10.30am on Wednesday. Fortunately, Ned was there to document this cold and lonely Red-spotted Toad, and I moved him/her to a safe place.