northeast-flora-and-fauna

Here's a Gray Hairstreak butterfly, a species I'll usually see 2-4 times a year. They're not considered rare, but there are lots of easier-to-find butterflies. They do cover a lot of territory and are considered the most widespread American hairstreak and can be found in all the lower 48 states, most of Mexico, and parts of southern Canada. As you'd expect with such a widespread butterfly, they're not picky eaters. They use many legumes and mallows  as host plants, sometimes putting them at odds with farmers.  The Gray Hairstreak doesn't have a lot of relatives around here; most of their relatives prefer gulf states down to the tropics. They're the oddballs of their genus, handling colder temperatures that most of their close relatives want no part of. They can overwinter in their chrysalis depending on how cold the winter is; in the northern part of their range they probably die in the winter and repopulate when warmer weather returns. I'm not sure wh...

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...

Yesterday I talked about American Senna . Well here's a Cloudless Sulphur caterpillar on a senna. The caterpillar blends in pretty well with the senna plant. It sounds like for these caterpillars they are what they eat; eating the yellow flowers makes them yellow, and eating the green leaves makes them green. This coloring no doubt helps them avoid the attention of predators. It's hard to say how many predators they have though, since sennas and cassias (2 commonly used food sources as caterpillars) are considered poisonous, and eating them transfers some degree of poisonousness to these caterpillars. On the other hand, they'll also use some other legumes as host plants. Maybe these butterflies are sometimes poisonous and sometimes not? August 16, 2021 at Duke Farms Photo 152592112, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Here's an American Senna  (aka Wild Senna), a native plant in the legume family . This is an interesting family of plants. It's the 3rd largest family of land plants behind only the orchids and asters (who are in a close race for 1st place). And while we might be most familiar with them for the beans and peas we eat, they're all around us and in various sizes: Clovers are usually low to the ground wildflowers. Sennas are up to 6 feet in height and straddle that area between wildflowers and shrubs. Kentucky Coffeetrees are trees. This indicates that there are some trees that are more closely related to the string beans in your garden than they are to other trees like oaks, maples, etc. Trees do not form a clade ! The largish, healthy population of American Senna at Duke Farms is suspected to be the reason that a butterfly rarely seen in the rest of Somerset County - the Sleepy Orange - is commonly found there. They and other sulphur butterflies like the Cloudless Sulphu...

Here's another wild legume I saw a couple months ago, a Common Birds-foot Trefoil . There are some similarities to the Purple Crownvetch I talked about yesterday: They're both considered invasive in North America, and are native to Eurasia/Africa. Their flowers have a similar shape to them. They're both legumes that are sometimes used as a food source for ruminants like cows, goats, and sheep. Both have root systems that are conducive to erosion control. Note that although I suspect this is Common Birds-foot Trefoil, iNaturalist didn't give me an ID for this picture. I suspect that's because there are some other Birds-foot Trefoils that could be found around here. The leaves look wrong for this to be Narrow-leaf Birds-foot Trefoil and Horseshoe Vetch, but the difference between this and Greater Birds-foot Trefoil seems a bit more subtle (being taller and being a grayish-green in color). Lepidopterists say they rarely see butterflies on this wildflower, though the...

Here's a Purple Crownvetch I came across in late spring. The funky-looking light purple flowers and the pinnated leaves may get your attention, but these guys are considered fierce invaders. Native to Eurasian/Africa, these guys have tough, abundant, and deep roots that make them good at erosion control (which is why they were introduced to North America). Unfortunately they readily go beyond their erosion control mission, and can crowd out more beneficial native plants. If you talk to different herbivorous animals, they'll definitely give you different stories about this legume . Horses will warn you not to eat it since it's poisonous, but ruminants like cows and deer will tell you that it's a tasty source of protein and other nutrients. (Since us humans aren't ruminants, you probably shouldn't be grazing on this yourself.) June 11, 2021 at Washington Valley Park Photo 136371817, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)