Blooms from the End of September

Some people don't like yellow flowers but I do.  It may not go with your decor but yellow brings joy to my heart!

Giant Sunflower

This flower derives its name from being tall and is sometimes called Tall Sunflower.

Taller Than Me Giant Sunflower

I used to love photogaphing them!

Giant Sunflower

This is a  combination PhotoMatix and Helicon Focus series of shots.  The photomatix series were exposure compensation of -4, -2,-0,+2,+4,  The captures for image stacking were 44.8 to obtain depth of field.  I just love the yellow.

Jerusalem Artichoke

This plant is sometimes cultivated as an herbaceous perennial plant and a substitute for potatoes.  Save some of the tubers for Spring replanting.

Jerusalem Artichoke

They are all so beautiful!

Vivianite

Vivianite

Pure vivianite is colorless and the color comes as the mineral oxidizes which it does easily.

Viviante

It was named by Abraham Gottlov Werner in 1817, the year of his death.  It was named after John Henry Vivian, a polition, mine owner and mineralogist from Truro, Cornwall

Vivianite

 

Fe2+Fe2+2(Po4)2·8H2O

Vivianite

Creek Stone

At the onset of Winter I used to walk the stream bed looking for interesting rocks.  This is one I picked up on about Dec. 22, 2010.  I brought it home and tossed it in the tumbler to clean it up.

Feldspar, Flint

The last ID check said it was Feldspar.  It was a good source.

Stones in the that creek come from the Terminal Morain of the Glacer of 10,000 years ago. 

Terminal Morain Soil

In places where the stream has cut its way through the forest floor you can see the gravel in it.  As the stream washes the banks down the rocks and stones wash into its flow and are abraded. We live in a location where these rocks and stones are plentiful.

Glacial Deposits of Ohio

Upon closer examination of the map you can find Richland County and see that we have End Morain and Lake Deposits.

A Dragonfly Story

Blue Dasher

I had either no or almost no experience with dragonflies when I started at the nature center.  I found that one can not be there long before dragonflies cross your path.  They are on the wing from June until November and they made good targets for my camera.

This story is not about a species but a family.  They all have two sets of wings and fly, some better than others.  Some even migrate south in the autumn.

Common Whitetail

The mature dragonfly is the one that propagates the family.

Green Darner Pair

The male has a grasp of her "neck" and they fly around while she lays eggs in the water.  The female oviposits without the male ocassionally.

Green Darner Female Ovipositing Eggs

Dragonfly Larva

The eggs hatch in the water and a larva forms.  It goes through different stages in the water called instars.  Finally the larva is ready for the final moult and exits the water.

Dragonfly Exuvia

The larva climbs a reed until it is ready to exit its exoskelton.

Green Darner

 The newly moulted insect stays with the exuvia while its body pumps fluid into the wings.  When its body is ready it flies away to its new life.

Anthurium

Anthurium

AKA, Anthurium, Tailflower, Flamingo Flower are native to the Americas.  They also grow as Epiphytes, they don't need soil.

A X Roseum CV White Anturium

The flowers are often found on the spadix, often taking the form of a spike but can have other shapes.  The spathe a kind of bract is below the spadix which has variable shapes also.  The fruit forms on the spadix and assumes variable shapes and colors as well.

Thanks to Wikipedia for the information above.

Descloizite

Descloizite

This sample is from Gold Hill, Utah.

The mineral was discovered in 1854 in Cordoba, Argentina and was named in honor of a French minerologist, Alfred des Cloizeaux.

Descloizite

It is a mineral having the formula (Pb, Zn)2 (OH)VO4. 

Descloizite

Descloizite occurs in oxidized portions of veins of lead ores in association with Pyromorphite, Vandadinite, Wulfenite, Mottramite, Mimetite and Cerussite.

More Common Milkweed Visiters

More Common Milkweed Visiters

Monarch Butterfly on Milkweed

These butterflies were frequent visitors of the Common Milkweed when I was at the nature center.  Their numbers began to subside and in my last year there I saw very few.

The eggs they lay on the leaves hatch into the caterpillar. 

Monarch Egg

Monarch Caterpillar

The caterpillar eats milkweed leaves continuously and exclusively.  When it has eaten enough it attaches its tail to the plant and spins itself a cocoon.

Monarch Caterpillar

This caterpillar is beginning the process of spinning its cocoon.  It is in captivity, the reason for which, is because it crawls off to a secret location to do this.  I have watched them every day on the milkweed until one day they are gone.  I've searched high and low to know avail.  Hence, this one in captivity.

 

Red Milkweed Beetle

I think I neglected to mention that the milkweed leaf contains toxins which would kill a creature not immune to their poison.

I sincerely enjoyed watching the drama unfold and I miss it.