Foxglove Beardtongue

Here's some Foxglove Beardtongue from last spring. This is a native wildflower with (somewhat) bell-shaped blossoms that's considered popular with all bees but especially favored by bumblebees. 

What a name, heh? It almost sounds like the name came from a random name generator that went on too long.

It's actually named after 2 different genera of flowers, the foxgloves and the beardtongues. Since Foxglove Beardtongue is a type of beardtongue but is not a type of foxglove, you should probably interpret the name something like "a beardtongue that resembles a foxglove". (Since both foxgloves and beardtongues are in the plantain family, perhaps it's not too surprising that there's a resemblance between the 2 [1].) What are the differences? This article (which seems to mix up species/genus a little) mentions several things, like foxgloves being from Europe and having bell-flowers that hang down while beardtongues are North American plants with tubular flowers that are more erect. Whether the Foxglove Beardtongue flowers are more bell-like or tube-like is debatable, and the flowers seem to hang slightly downward, so you can see why they seem to straddle the look of the foxgloves and the beardtongues.

Going back to the names, people have claimed that "foxglove" is a corruption of "little folks' glove", implying they were hand protection for fairies. This is unlikely since the word dates back to an old Anglo-Saxon term for "glove of a fox". Beardtongue has a more straightforward name derivation. It has an especially hairy stamen within the flower that made someone think of a hairy or bearded tongue.

June 15, 2023 at Sourland Mountain Preserve
Photo 300991971, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

[1] Of course, clover and Kentucky Coffeetrees are both legumes, and they're not exactly twins. Just like in human families, plant families can be weird sometimes.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Northern Watersnake

Image
This April I went to Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge with the hope (among other hopes) of seeing the Northern Watersnakes during mating season. There were 2 problems with this: I think it was slightly late in the season for this. The boardwalk trail where I had seen them in the past was partially closed due to repairs. So although I didn't see any of the 2+ intertwined snakes that I'd seen in the past, but there were still Northern Watersnakes warming themselves in the sun: April 13, 2023 at Great Swamp Photo 272117862, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) And here's another one coming out of the water. April 13, 2023 at Great Swamp Photo 272119139, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)
Read more

Female Brown-headed Cowbird

Image
Like quite a few birds, this bird is easier to identify when spotted with her significant other ; she's a Brown-headed Cowbird . Due to their tendency to be monogamous plus plain old birds-of-a-feather behavior, I usually see them with prominently brown-headed males around, greatly improving my confidence in IDing them. My understanding is that Brown-headed Cowbirds are the only obligate brood parasites in my area. Obligate brood parasites have essentially lost all their parenting skills, and thus if they were ever unable to fool other birds into raising their young, they would (almost certainly) go extinct [1]. There are, however, other brood parasites in New Jersey. These are called facultative brood parasites, and these birds will usually raise their own offspring, but will also engage in brood parasitism. (Exactly when birds perform facultative brood parasitism seems variable; one source said it occurred when resources were scarce while another said it occurred when resource
Read more

Rooftop Turkey Vultures

Image
I met these Turkey Vultures by just walking out of my apartment. (I theoretically could have gotten a picture without going outside, but that extra layer of glass can degrade picture quality a little.) Although they don't show up on these rooftops daily, they're not an uncommon visitor to my apartment complex. Similar to this spot of the woods , I wouldn't expect this to be a great place to find carcasses. I'm thinking they're here mostly because: They don't have to worry much about predators up there. They get a pretty good view of the area in case something should happen to succumb. (This apartment was near the top of a hill, providing a better view than most of the other apartments.) Since this picture was from February, it's probably a slightly warmer spot, especially near those furnace vent pipes. Although these are Turkey Vultures, it's also not unusual to see Black Vultures up there too. February 28, 2023 at Finderne Photo 264703396, (c) jpviole
Read more