Nights and days of the Furies, #positivity

A tastier version offered by Publix. image from Daily Mail UK.

that’s some exhausted, waterlogged soil…FL photo courtesy TG Boback

It’s been a busy storm season in the southern states. Harvey and Irma fumed and convulsed*, leaving victims across all genera and habitat. Since I can’t help it, I’ll mention some aggravating and/or culpable unmentionables…climate change, sea level rise, greenhouse gases, heat island effect, scientific censorship, global emissions, human population growth, consumption.

…note giant skyscraper shadow across Central Park. image from Time Magazine.

“Expansion always, in all ways“™ – this gem courtesy of Million Dollar Listing’s Ryan Serhant. (at left, in said listing.)  In other words, the goal of nearly every organism. Thinking about this gross pervasive consumerist attitude while hearing endless coverage of various storm tragedies made for some negative head-space.

don’t worry, s/he found the open flowers. Ruby-throated hummingbird and Lobelia puberula, I think…

Cloudless sulphur, enjoying adjacent plant.

Anyway. Despite the weather and attitude, there have been some pretty cool yard sightings lately! We rescued some Lobelia puberula (I think…the perennial blue Lobelias make a confusing genus!**) from new development last year, and what were tiny plants returned this summer to become alluring (and also toxic) giants. Seriously. They are about 4′ tall, and have been covered in butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds since starting to bloom about 2 weeks ago. Since they have long racemes of flowers that start blooming from the bottom up, and seem to occasionally send out secondary racemes, this perennial has a LOOONNNGG bloom period.

bee-u-tee-ful, eh? this guy/gal was YUGE.

female or immature male Painted bunting, no, no, no, YES! flingin’ out everything but the millet.

At the end of August, we spotted this brand new Blinded sphinx moth, Paonias excaecata, hanging out on Atlantic white cedar, Chamaecyparis thyoides. The caterpillars of this species feast on a wide variety of plants, so who knows whence*** it came. And just in the last few days, some Painted buntings, Red-eyed vireos, and Veeries have been haunting the Beautyberry, Callicarpa americana and Yaupon, Ilex vomitoria, and feeders.

Red-eyed vireo – this summer resident has been foraging in the giant  Callicarpa americana and Morella cerifera in our front yard for the last 3 days.

*Moil would be another good description, especially for Harvey.

there ya go.

**  “Lobelia puberula is a polymorphic
species with numerous forms (McVaugh 1936)
that have been considered varieties by some
authors (Fernald 1947).”- from Researchgate, KEYS, DISTRIBUTION, AND TAXONOMIC NOTES FOR THE LOBELIA (LOBELIA, CAMPANULACEAE) OF ALABAMA AND ADJACENT STATES, Daniel D. Spaulding, T. Wayne Barger

*** did you know that ‘from whence’ is redundant? I didn’t, until checking usage for this post…

Along a ditch near you?

Downy Lobelia, Lobelia puberula – flowers mostly facing one side of stem.

context and habit – this particular individual is about 18″ tall.

Coastal Plain Downy Lobelia, Lobelia puberula var. puberula is an early-fall blooming perennial found at the edges of streams and wet woods.  And ditch edges around here, if they haven’t been mowed or otherwise blasted with herbicide, Duke Energy’s favored maintenance regime.  (A whole post on that soon…)  Downy Lobelia is an attractive nectar source for bees, butterflies and hummingbirds.  It is in the Campanulaceae family (Bellflower), and contains the alkaloids lobelamine and lobeline, among other pharmacologically-active substances.   A relative, Lobelia inflata, was smoked by Native Americans like tobacco, and used in liniment and plaster form to treat muscle pain. (1)

Downy Lobelia bud detail.

Downy Lobelia – stem and leaves.

Another relative found in the mountains looks very similar to Downy Lobelia.  Great Blue Lobelia,  Lobelia siphilitica, has a more obvious pharmaceutical history.  Several early sources (Kalm, Bartram, Lewis) indicate that it was used by Native Americans as a treatment for venereal disease. (2)

1 – Mabey, Richard. The New Age Herbalist. N.: Collier, 1988. Print. p. 36,38

2- Erichsen-Brown, Charlotte.Medicinal and Other Uses of North American Plants: A Historical Survey with Special Reference to the Eastern Indian Tribes. New York: Dover Publications, 1989. Print. p.262