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.

Alder Catkins

Alder Catkins
Originally uploaded by lilysecret42

Somehow I managed to walk four and a half miles today - a workday no less. The weather was sunny and in the sixties and I couldn't stay inside. I spent my two breaks during the day doing laps around the office building (five laps equals one mile) and after work I went over to Sharon Woods and walked all the way around Sharon Lake.

There are many alder trees bordering the lake and they are already in bloom. This photo depicts long catkins, which are the male flowers of this tree. You can also see the woody remains of the female catkins from last year, still clinging to the tree. They look like tiny pine cones.

Alder trees are water loving and their oily wood is found throughout Venice, Italy in underwater foundations and pilings. It was also commonly used to build bridges. The wood does not rot in water, instead becoming hard as stone. Alder trees are also very useful in environmental reclamation projects, as the nitrogen fixing nodules on their root system improve soil fertility.

California Woods

March has decided to come in like a lamb here in Cincinnati. After last month's bitter cold, snow, ice and slush, today's sixty degrees felt heavenly. I grabbed my camera and binoculars and headed out to California Woods to hike the trails. I was hoping to catch some early emerging wildflowers but there were none that I saw. I did spot my first Turkey Vulture of the year though. Of course, some of them don't migrate all that far south in the winter; they just mosey down to Kentucky or Tennessee for a couple of months before heading back this way.

The park is collecting maple sap for syrup and many of the trees near the nature center had buckets attached. One was overflowing so I helped myself to a few drops of the faintly sweet sap. It helped convince me that spring is truly on its way.


There was a nice stand of horsetails in the park and I hunkered down to get a few snaps of them. They get the name horsetail from the feathery fronds that sprout up later in the year. Horsetails are primitive plants, reproducing from spores or rhizomes and they have been around since the reign of the dinosaurs. The stalks contain crystals of silica and were at one time used for polishing and scrubbing pewter ware; their other common name is scouring rush. They prefer wet soil and I found these growing along the flood plain of the Lick Creek.

Faience

I broke down and purchased Immortal Cities: Children of the Nile tonight, which is an ancient Egyptian city builder computer game. I've long been partial to city builders: Caesar, Pharaoh, Emperor, I've played them all. In Children, one of the city shops is an artisan who sells faience jewelry. I vaguely remember purchasing "mummy beads" at the Cincinnati Art Museum when I was a kid and I seem to remember the word faience associated with them. I also remember the beads had a peculiar smell to them, not unpleasant but odd and undefinable for me at the time.

Faience, as it turns out, is the oldest manufactured artificial substance, first produced (probably in Egypt) around 5,500 years ago. It is a non-clay ceramic substance, primarily composed of crushed quartz or silica mixed with lime, soda or ash, which is finished by glazing and firing in a kiln. In ancient Egypt, faience was used to produce many different types of objects, from beads and jewelry to figurines and pottery. The typical color of a finished piece was a lovely blue-green due to the copper used in the glaze, although many other colors of glazed faience were also produced.

The only place traditional faience is still being made is in Iran; the modern Egyptian version is mostly made from soapstone for the tourist trade. This makes it unlikely in the extreme that my 50 cent strand of "mummy beads" was actually faience. In fact, they may have been made of some sort of resinous material, which would account for the odor. I'd love to have some again and I always look for "mummy beads" whenever I go into a museum gift shop now, but I haven't managed to find any.

Signs of the Pileated

I managed to get in a hike at Caldwell Nature Preserve today. The ground was rock hard except where I was crunching through frost heave. I didn't see another soul on the trails, although it was a balmy 27^o today; a far cry from the 4^o it was just yesterday morning.

I came across this scarred tree trunk on the Pawpaw trail. The large, elongated holes and the massive damage were clear signs that a Pileated Woodpecker had been at work here. They are huge black and white crow-sized birds with a magnificent red crest. I didn't actually see any today, but just a couple of minutes after I'd photographed this tree trunk, I did hear at least one calling from across the ravine. They are shy birds and are much more often heard than seen, so learning what their calls sound like is most helpful when searching them out.

Edited to remove broken link.

Happy New Year!

Brilliant fungi
Originally uploaded by lilysecret42

I photographed this lovely fungi last week while on a hike in the North Carolina Arboretum. According to Peterson's Field Guide to Mushrooms, it is called Witches' Butter (Tremella mesenterica.) It grows on wood throughout North America and is supposed to be edible, though I'm not inclined to try this one.

Right. That's what I learned today.

Happy New Year!
May you live well
Laugh often
Love much in 2008

ETA: I also learned that House Foods Tofu Steak is really not good. I'm rather fond of tofu but this was no winner.
I also learned that okra is really high in vitamin C. I had no idea.