Among the most widely cultivated and recognizable plants growing in gardens this time of year are sunflowers, members of the genus Helianthus. The showiest species and hybrid varieties within this cheery botanical club, such as common sunflower, often steal the limelight for their size and color. But it’s worth getting to know the Northeast’s three most common native Helianthus species: woodland, pale-leaved, and thin-leaved sunflower. [Read more…] about Native Sunflowers: Solar Avatars
wildflowers
Boggy Beauty: White-Fringed Bog-Orchids
Along the edge of a remote pond, among a spongy carpet of interlaced vegetation, an orchid of graceful and gossamer beauty rises.
Its mass of exquisite white flowers, perched atop a slender stalk, resembles at one glance a medieval mace, at another a bog-wandering spirit in its torn, ghostly shawl. [Read more…] about Boggy Beauty: White-Fringed Bog-Orchids
Jewelweed: A Hummingbird Favorite
By midsummer, the deck in our backyard is lined with a profusion of tall orange flowers. Each flower is shaped like a small funnel with a curved spur and hangs from a slender arched stem.
Hummingbirds zip back and forth, hovering in front of the flowers and probing them with their long beaks to sip nectar. [Read more…] about Jewelweed: A Hummingbird Favorite
Tussock Cottongrass: Champion of Bogs and Alpine Areas
A bog is a special natural community, characterized by deep, wet, and acidic soil below an open sky. Soft sphagnum mosses squish underfoot, dominating the surface of the bog and making up the mostly undecomposed organic soil below.
The ground springs up and down with each step – a sign that the entire surface of vegetation is saturated with water and even floating in some cases. [Read more…] about Tussock Cottongrass: Champion of Bogs and Alpine Areas
Watchable Wildlife: Chaumont Barrens Preserve
One of the last and finest examples of alvar grasslands in the world, Chaumont Barrens Preserve is a one-of-a-kind destination in New York State.
Featuring a unique landscape with flat, rocky terrain of grasslands, limestone woodlands, cedar forests, pavement barrens, and globally rare plant communities, Chaumont Barrens is home to a mosaic of natural and remarkable wonders. [Read more…] about Watchable Wildlife: Chaumont Barrens Preserve
Wild Oats: A Bashful Spring Bellwort
On a recent walk through a woodland strewn with underfoot color, my rapt gaze floated, like a bumblebee queen on her first foray after winter, from trout lilies to trilliums to spring beauties, all blooming across the forest floor and exulting in the sun shining through the leafless canopy.
Standing out is hard among such a flashy crowd, especially for one particularly understated spring ephemeral: sessile-leaved bellwort (Uvularia sessilifolia), known more commonly as wild oats. [Read more…] about Wild Oats: A Bashful Spring Bellwort
Forest Spring Ephemerals & The Vernal Dam Hypothesis
Every year I know that spring has arrived when it’s time for my family to forage for ramps on a two-acre patch on the hill above my house. We have just a few weeks to enjoy their spiciness before they disappear from the landscape, along with other spring ephemerals.
While we prize many spring ephemerals for their fleeting beauty – flourishing before the overstory trees leaf out, then dying back as the shade season begins – they also are important to nutrient cycling in woodlands. [Read more…] about Forest Spring Ephemerals & The Vernal Dam Hypothesis
Capped Adirondack Landfill Becoming Native Pollinator Habitat
In April 2024, AdkAction, a non-profit environmental conservation and community development organization, was awarded a grant through DEC’s Adirondack Park Community Smart Growth Grant Program. AdkAction will use the grant funds to convert an eight-acre grassland located on a capped landfill to a native pollinator habitat. [Read more…] about Capped Adirondack Landfill Becoming Native Pollinator Habitat
Exploring Shrub Swamps
A yellowthroat warbler sang, “witchety, witchety, witch,” as I carefully made my way through the tangle of an alder swamp one afternoon not long ago.
I looked about, hoping to catch a glimpse of its yellow breast and black mask. I could hear the twangs of green frogs calling in the distance. A dragonfly zoomed past me, then flew back and landed on my shoulder. [Read more…] about Exploring Shrub Swamps
Turtlehead Tests Bumblebee Mettle
Among the blooming perennials of late summer is one that guards its secrets closely. The lock-box blossoms of white turtlehead (Chelone glabra), a native plant in the plantain family, are an ideal match for the powerhouses of the pollinator world: Bombus (bumblebee) species.
Turtlehead is found along waterways and other wet areas. As the plant’s name suggests, turtlehead’s flowers resemble the crania of their namesake critter. This resemblance is so strong that the genus name, Chelone, comes from the Greek for “tortoise.” [Read more…] about Turtlehead Tests Bumblebee Mettle
Syrphid Flies Puzzle and Pollinate
Survey the insects orbiting a globe of milkweed blossoms or the delicate blooms of a chokeberry, and you might spy an apparent chimera. It looks a bit like a bee, perhaps a tad like a wasp, and it darts and pauses mid-flight like a hummingbird.
These diminutive helicopters are syrphid flies, so-called because they are members of the insect family Syrphidae. [Read more…] about Syrphid Flies Puzzle and Pollinate
Goldenrod Crab Spiders: Masters of Disguise
On a spring morning walk, I stop to smell a painted trillium and am greeted by a goldenrod crab spider (Misumena vatia). Bending down for a sniff of the white and pink blooms, I am face to face with the perfectly camouflaged white spider, hidden thanks to a remarkable color changing ability.
A member of the family Thomisidae, goldenrod crab spiders are both crabby and spider-y. A medium-sized crab spider, these creatures are familiar garden visitors across southern Canada and the United States. [Read more…] about Goldenrod Crab Spiders: Masters of Disguise
Hepatica: Ephemeral or Evergreen?
As the days get longer and the sun warms the forest floor, hepatica flowers start emerging. These charming early bloomers captivated the writer and naturalist John Burroughs, who extolled their “winsome grace” in his poem “Hepatica.”
Hepatica flowers close on cloudy days and when night falls to preserve their pollen for times when pollinators are most likely to be on wing. But when they’re open, the flowers are easy to spot amid the brown leaf litter of the past fall. Hepaticas vary in color from white and pale pinks to deep purples and, as Burroughs put it, “every shade of azure.” [Read more…] about Hepatica: Ephemeral or Evergreen?
Common New York State Wildflowers & Where to See Them
In and around the month of May (depending on weather and other environmental conditions) is the time to see short-lived spring ephemeral wildflowers in New York State. Below are a few popular and fascinating spring wildflowers you can encounter throughout the state.
This is only a smattering, as there are dozens of different wildflower species. Here is a list of tips for viewing wildflowers. And remember to protect these plants, many are rare and legally protected species. [Read more…] about Common New York State Wildflowers & Where to See Them
Native Plant Spotlight: Bloodroot
It’s the season for spring ephemerals, native wildflowers like bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) that bloom on the forest floor for a short time in early spring. Like other spring ephemerals, bloodroot takes advantage of early spring sunlight, then fades by the time leaves shade the forest floor.
Bloodroot can be recognized by its single white flower with a yellow center and leaves that curl around the flower’s stalk before unfurling as the plant matures. Its name comes from the bright red liquid within its roots. Bloodroot has been used traditionally by many Native American cultures for a variety of uses, including dye and medicine. [Read more…] about Native Plant Spotlight: Bloodroot
Spring Wildflower Viewing: Some Tips
A wildflower is any flower that grows naturally in the wild without human help. When discussing wildflowers during springtime, we are speaking of spring ephemerals, which have a short life cycle in the spring and grow only when their ideal conditions are met. In New York, this period is typically in and around the month of May depending on weather and other environmental conditions.
Wildflowers not only look pretty, but play a major role in our ecosystem as a valuable resource for wildlife from tiny insects to deer. They’re critical for pollinators like bees and birds. These little flowers are powerful reminder of how interconnected nature can be. [Read more…] about Spring Wildflower Viewing: Some Tips
Ed Kanze’s Nature of the Place Reflects on Adirondack Flora and Fauna
The Nature of the Place: On the Flora and Fauna of the Adirondacks (North Country Books, 2025) is Adirondack nature writer Edward Kanze’s invitation to slow down, smell the roses, and get to know fellow creatures with more longstanding claims to this landscape than we have.
Theirs is the real internet Kanze argues, a web of life that weaves together an almost infinite number of threads into a fabric that’s a wonder to behold and something close to a miracle in a largely hostile universe. [Read more…] about Ed Kanze’s Nature of the Place Reflects on Adirondack Flora and Fauna
State Parks’ Reduced Mowing Program Boosts Nature
Through the ongoing implementation of the Reduced Mowing Policy — part of the New York State Pollinator Protection Plan — grow zones have become a staple at state parks and historic sites.
These zones, where native grasses and wildflowers are allowed to grow tall, benefit the environment and local wildlife, proving to be more sustainable than traditional mowed areas and enhancing visitor experience in new ways. [Read more…] about State Parks’ Reduced Mowing Program Boosts Nature
Pond Lilies: One of the Oldest Flowering Plants on Earth
Pond lilies (Nymphaeales) are one of the oldest flowering plants on earth: their fossil record dates to the early Cretaceous period (about 125 million years ago). This was a time when dinosaurs roamed and simple non-flowering plants carpeted the landscape: ferns, horsetails, and smaller coniferous trees. [Read more…] about Pond Lilies: One of the Oldest Flowering Plants on Earth
Aquatic Plants: Pickerelweed
Pickerelweed (Pontederia cordata) can be seen blooming through September. They evolved a rare trait called tristyly, which means that their flowers take on three unique forms. The main distinction between the three types has to do with the proportions of the reproductive structures within the flower, so to us they may all look the same, but to a pollinator who gets “under the hood” of the flower, they are quite different. [Read more…] about Aquatic Plants: Pickerelweed