northeast-flora-and-fauna

For Throwback Thursday let's take a look at a tree that's not native to NJ but is native to the US. The Kentucky Coffeetree  originally comes from the midwest; despite having Kentucky in its name, it looks like they're much more widespread in Missouri/Illinois/Indiana. Kentucky Coffeetrees are trees in the legume family . This means that a Kentucky Coffeetree is more closely related to a string bean plant than it is to oaks, hickories, or maples. But they do have tree relatives; just in this area, Honey Locust , Black Locust , and Eastern Redbuds are fellow legume trees. I also talked about legumes in this American Senna post . Of the legume trees around here, the Kentucky Coffeetree is the one that produces the most robust pods with the largest seeds. They're supposed to be poisonous, though in theory you can roast them and then make a non-caffeinated beverage from them. March 5, 2022 at Duke Farms Photo 6535361, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) March 5...

Where's the silver spot [1] on this Silver-spotted Skipper ? It's (almost certainly) there, but it's really only visible on the underside of the wing. Many times these butterflies rest with their wings held up, and their silver spot actually is a pretty prominent field mark. I don't know if this particular skipper was trying to maximize its exposure to sunlight, but it had the wings held down, and the silver spot isn't in evidence. If you only see this angle, it can make identifying this butterfly trickier. Despite this view, the silver spot gives this butterfly a reputation as the country's most recognizable skipper. [2] Most of the skippers I meet are grass skippers , where the caterpillars feed on some sort of grass. Silver-spotted Skippers are definitely not in this group; their caterpillars eat plants in the legume family like Black Locust , Honey Locust , and wisterias . (Like good children, their caterpillars eat their vegetables.) The Silver-spotted Skip...