Goldenrod Soldier Beetle

I had no idea what sort of beetle this was when I photographed it in Glenwood Gardens last week, but as it was helpfully perched on a goldenrod flower, that did help me narrow it down. I was able to find it by looking through the beetle families on Bug Guide's helpful web page.

Soldier beetles are a large family, there being somewhere around 450 species in North America alone. The larval stage lives in leaf litter and is carnivorous, while the adults are nectarivores feeding primarily on nectar, pollen and sometimes aphids. Soldier beetles are also nicknamed "Leatherwings" for their soft, cloth-like wing coverings. In shape and size they resemble fireflies, to which they are closely related.

The Goldenrod Soldier Beetle, as the name suggests, are often found on goldenrod flowers but they'll also feed on other late summer blooming flowers such as asters and sunflowers. They are welcome addition to any garden as the larva eat other pest species and the adults are great pollinators.

Cedar Bog

I'm not sure how Cedar Bog managed to elude me all the years I've been hiking around Ohio, but it had until today. It's located just outside Urbana and it's largest calcareous bog (actually a fen) in Ohio. I learned from Sally, an enthusiastic and knowledgeable guide, that a bog is a geographic formation characterized by standing water while a fen is flushed at least periodically by fresh water and therefore the soil in a fen is richer in nutrients and less acidic than that found in bogs. Cedar Bog was formed when a retreating glacier left a shallow depression in the earth at the end of the last ice age. It is home to several species of plants and animals seldom found elsewhere in Ohio, including the Massasauga Rattlesnake and the endangered Spotted Turtle.

The preserve is protected by the Ohio Historical Society and there is a nearly mile long boardwalk winding through the fen. The plant life is spectacular and there were loads of wildflowers in bloom today, including Jack-in-the-Pulpit, White Trillium, Bent Trillium, Bishop's Cap, Wild Columbine, Golden Ragwort and Starry False Solomon's Seal. I'm already planning another trip in about four weeks when the Showy Lady's Slipper, one of our native orchids, will be in bloom.

Sunflowers on May Day

Sunflowers in the city
Originally uploaded by Vitó

Today is the second annual International Sunflower Guerrilla Day! Borrowed from Treehugger.com:

Historically May Day has commemorated the coming of spring and a recognition of workers' rights. Here's another cause for its celebration: International Sunflower Guerrilla Day. It's easy, it's fun, it's slightly subversive and it brings joy to all who look upon its fruits. What could be bad?

Here's how to do it: Find a crummy, neglected and sunny public space somewhere near your place. Get some sunflower seeds, the bigger the flower, the better. Take a bottle of water and a little spade, stick or soup spoon with you to the spot. Dig a hole about 3/4 of an inch deep. Drop in a seed and water it. Return every once in a while to water it and clean off the litter. Watch the little seedling grow into full bloom by August. If you want to show your success to the world; take a picture and post it on the community website. Fellow gardeners in Brussels, London and France will be doing it too. Happy May Day, however you choose to celebrate it.

For the less subversive, one might choose to participate in the Great Sunflower Project, a citizen science activity in which people plant sunflowers in their garden and report visits by bees. Here's how participation in the project will help:

Your home, school or community garden and those around the world produce roughly 15-20% of all the food we eat. And for the urban poor, who spend 50-70% of their income on food, these gardens are a real source of good nutrition and an essential route to food security.

Whether your garden contains vegetables, fruit trees, flowers, or even medicinal plants, many of these plants must be pollinated before a fruit forms. And as the headlines for the last year have made clear, bees are under threat. Here is a link to information about some of our bees in peril.

We know very little about bee activity in home and community gardens and their surrounding environments, but we are certain that they are a crucial link in the survival of native habitats and local produce, not to mention our beautiful urban gardens. Our local pollinator populations require our understanding & protection, and to answer that call we need to determine where and when they are at work.

With enough citizen scientists collecting data, we can learn much more, much faster, about the current state of bee activity. We would love to have you join us; let’s learn about pollinators together!

Weekend Report

Saturday morning I got up bright and early and dashed down to Findlay Market to see what goodies were available. I found (and brought home) asparagus, spinach, sorrel, eggs and a pot of thyme, all locally grown. I also found fresh fava beans at Madison's so I grabbed some of those as well. I'm going to make sorrel soup from the recipe I found on the Cincinnati Locavore blog tomorrow night.


I'd planned to spend the rest of the weekend at home finishing my spring cleaning, but today was just too nice outside and I dropped everything this afternoon to get in a quick two and a half mile hike over at French Park. I'm glad I did; I heard reedy calls of Gnatcatchers several times and I also heard the first Red-Eyed Vireo and Hermit Thrush of the season. Larkspur and Blue-Eyed Mary were in bloom as well. Unfortunately, French Park seems to be a bit sparse on native wildflowers and heavy in the introduced and problematic Garlic Mustard; there was scads of it blooming on the hillsides. I guess deer don't care much for its flavor.

Around town

I found trillium blooming for the first time this spring during my quick walk around the Caldwell Nature Preserve yesterday after work. Digital cameras are terrible at photographing white objects; the nuances tend to get lost. Trying to photograph a white flower is difficult for this reason and I was crawling (carefully, so as not to smush other wildflowers) all over the hillside trying to find a trillium in just the right amount of shade. I think I'll start carrying a sheet of paper with me for creating my own dappled sunlight in the future.

Early this morning I went down to Findlay Market and blew my grocery budget for the week. I brought home a few things I've not cooked with before, including rhubarb, ramps ($18 a pound!) and the spice Grains of Paradise. The afternoon was spent in the company of friends down at the Earth Day celebration at Sawyer Point. Somehow the rain held off and we managed to score a few good freebies, including CFL light bulbs. Here's a tiny handful of useful links I picked up today:

• Get a bin, find out what items can be recyled and find information on hazardous household waste drop-offs - Hamilton County Department of Environmental Services
• Soil fertility testing kits are available for a nominal fee from the Hamilton County Soil & Water Conservation District
• The Ohio River Sweep will be held this year on Saturday, June 21st
• Enright Ridge is an Urban Eco-Village is a community fostering a sustainable urban neighborhood, located on the west side of Cincinnati
• Although I didn't see them at the Sawyer Point Earth Day celebration I'm posting a link to Little Miami, Inc. - dedicated to preserving my favorite local river

There were many, many more and I certainly don't mean to exclude any worthy organizations. It's beyond the scope of my tired fingers to list them all.

Spring Ephemerals

Harbinger-of-Spring
Originally uploaded by lilysecret42

I finally ponied up the money and purchased a membership to the Cincinnati Nature Center. It's one of my favorite places to hike in the area and today I squelched my way across the two and a half mile Redwing Trail. I found lots of Harbinger-of-Spring (pictured) and Trout Lilies blooming in the woods, though it's still a week or so too early for other spring ephemeral wildflowers. Trillium, Dutchman's Breeches, Bloodroot and several others were above ground but still in bud today. We are expecting a warm week so next weekend should be peak time to take in these fleeting blossoms.

The morning started off chilly but quickly warmed as the sun rose higher into the sky. I happened to be hiking along a stream bed surrounded by a meadow when the temperature passed a certain threshold and suddenly the air was filled with the calls of Spring Peepers. That is the sort of thing that makes getting up before dark on a Sunday morning and heading out into the woods completely worthwhile.

Spring Peeper photo by Myriorama

Blue-Stemmed Goldenrod

Blue-Stemmed Goldenrod
Originally uploaded by lilysecret42

It's not the greatest photo in the world, I know. Back in the old days, before I carried a digital camera on all my hikes I used to carry several field guides in case I came across a bird/tree/flower/mushroom I didn't know. It made for a very heavy pack. Now I take pictures of the things and identify them later. Sometimes much later. I took this photo last October and have just now got around to looking it up. As best I can tell, this is a Blue-stemmed Goldenrod (Solidago caesia). I found it growing in Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore park (which is a lovely place) and there was a lot of it around at that time of year.

In other news I had my yearly performance evaluation at work today. It was all very positive; there were about a dozen anonymous comments from various co-workers singing my praises and saying how much they like working with me. I'm going to file them away and pull them out on those days when I feeling all blue and unlovable.