Fabre

"After eighty-seven years of thought and observation, I say not merely that I believe in God –I can even say that I see Him."

Jean Henri Fabre (1823-1915) Frog Nature Writer

OK, so he was a religious nut who didn't believe in evolution and I probably wouldn't have been able to talk with him for 10 minutes UNLESS we were outdoors studying spiders and insects, in which case I would really really have found a friend of the closest kind. If you read Life of the Spider you will get a sense of one of the most remarkable nature writers of all time. His work is brimming with affection for living things.

Galium: Plant of the Year Nominee

OK. They are weedy, and I cut off all young trees on my land. But let's face it, this year they are amazing beyond amazing. Here at June 25 there are some trees with so many huge white flowers that you HAVE to swallow your predudice and nominate Catalpa speciosa as Plant of the Year

Galium: Great Weed #7

Galium is the season of the legumes. Among the most brilliant is the pretty week, Lotus coniculatus, the bird's foot trefoil. Trefoil, a stupid word; it means three leaves. I think the word trefoil is dorky, but on the other hand I like the word "wort." It's from the Middle Ages and it means plant. But best, it goes very well with eye of newt.

Galium: Invertebrate of the Year Candidate

There are more than 2000 species of fireflies in the world. I nominate all the ones around here whatever they are. One day I will make friends with an insect freakazoid who will help me identifiy ours. The enzyme that catalyzes the reaction that gives light is LUCIFERASE, named after Lord Voldemort.

Galium: Season checkllist

It is now June 16th and we are in the 5th season of the year. Here is a recap for those of you (and that includes every other human being on the face of the earth except me) who have lost track.

1. Amelanchier (March 26)
2. Taraxacum (April 21)
3. Sweet Vernal Grass (May 10)
4. Viburnum (May 27)
5. Galium (June 10)

Great Weed #6 Bishop's Weed

http://www.ehow.com/how_16306_grow-bishops-weed.html

There's a dumb web site.

Aegopodium podograria, the scourage of gardens, one of nature's most useful and most insidious weeds. It's dominance in June is unparalleled among weeds but only in gardens--go figure. Also call goutweed, as it was used in the year 1000 for just about everything but let's face it, science wasn't exactly on the front burner in the Dark Age.

I have a hill here that is pure bishop's weed in June. An amazing and actually delicate plant. When you weed whack it you get sprayed with juice.

Great Weed #5 Rosa multiflora

Well, at least we don't have blackthorn.

Invertebrate of the Year Nominee: Whitetail

This is our first nominee for Invertebrate of the Year. This is the whitetail dragonfly, Plathemis lydia.

This from William T. Hathaway: The male White-tailed Dragonfly is easy to identify because of its bright white abdomen. Another interesting characteristic is its habit of resting with head facing down while wings are drooping in a forward position. The white abdomen is held in a raised position.

Galium

On or about the 10th day of June, you just can't deny that summer has arrived--it arrives in our world as the season called Galium. Galium is the genus of bedstraw. Its foamy, creamy flowers can turn whole fields, ah, foamy and creamy. Of great importance is Galium mulligo.

At the commencement of Galium the legumes go wild. All of the clovers (or many of them) are up, Lotus corniculatus, the bird's foot trefoil, Melilotus alba, and the black medic Medicago lupulia. And though it may seem that summer is all about legumes, it is Galium that gives its name to the season, Galium with its four parted flowers of the Rubiaceae.

Summer has come to Spencertown.

"Spring: Theirs and Ours

Let us review the seasons so far, because our summer is right around the corner;

March 21 to June 5

Their (stupid) idea of Spring
Spring
and this ends on June 21? no way!
Who are "they" you ask. Druid Astronomers!

Our idea (less stupid) of Spring
Amelanchier
Taraxacum
Sweet Vernal Grass
Viburnum

Viburnum: Rise of the Clovers

Concomittant with the flowering of the viburna is Rise of the Clovers, the first flowering of Trifolium repens, the white clover and shortly thereafter the flowering of Trifolium pratense, red clover.

Both of these will hang around all summer to be joined shortly by the the yellow members of the clover posse ("Linneaus meet Tupac") T. dubium, T aureum, T. hybridum.

Along with these clovers, and dominated by their big brother the black locust, is the really weird and sneaky weed Medicago lupulina whose legumes curl up into a crafty little spiral, which is the only way to tell it from the smaller yellow clovers.

Viburnum

At the end of May and the beginning of June there occurs a short very intense season that can go unnoticed by gardeners and professional botanists but which never goes unnoticed by the true amateur naturalist.

This season--the season Viburnum--is THE portent of summer, and the last of the spring seasons. It is NEVER more than two weeks long, and often occurs in a single week between the two longer seasons Sweet Vernal Grass and Galium.

This is the time of the flowering of no less than four species of Viburnum:

Viburnum dentatum--yellow arrow wood (shown above)
Viburnum lentago--nannyberry
Viburnum rafinesquianum--downy arrow wood
Viburnum acerifolium--maple leaf viburnum or dockmackie

It is impossible to underestimate the power of this season as it stands between the greater seasons of the land's spring and summer

Sweet Vernal Grass: Great Weed #3

The season Sweet Vernal Grass is a season of maturity. Huge changes occur that might be called a filling of the world. Trees change from chartreuse to green and by the end of Sweet Vernal Grass the world is a more uniform green than ever.

A lot of plants bloom, including Robinia pseudoacacia, the black locust which makes some of the hills around here white--though at 42.31, -73.55 there are none.

One plant that blooms on or around 5.15 to 5.20 is Great Weed #3, Dactylus glomerata, orchard grass.

Sweet Vernal Grass is the land's first maturity, fullness of cover in field of forest, whose plants provide the cover from which the next seasons are built. Astronomy freaks and Keplar heads note we are not yet in your summer.