In the wake of the violence in Tucson, there has been, as is so common in these times, an awful lot of finger-pointing. For a long time, I’ve deplored hatred and bigotry and many of my posts reflect those feelings. … Continue reading →
Foolish me! When I saw the disturbed soil along the edges of the driveway in early April, I thought that I might have to have someone scatter grass seed in those raw areas to prevent erosion. Nope. Problem solved – … Continue reading →
Now, there’s a name! This plant came to be called this because the leaf supposedly resembles a deer’s tongue. Not being a hunter, I have no idea what a deer tongue looks like, but perhaps a hunter will see this … Continue reading →
One troublesome plant that is present on my property is multiflora rose (rosa multiflora). On my early visits to the property after I bought it, I looked around and saw quite a number of large rose bushes and also a … Continue reading →
I’m not certain about this one, but my best guess, from studying the Virginia Department of Forestry tree identification guide and doing further research on the Internet, is that it is a yellow birch (betula alleghaniensis). If I’ve learned anything … Continue reading →
The Damson Plum (prunus domestica) is not, strictly speaking, a native of Virginia. The plant was introduced to the Americas by English colonists long before the American Revolution. So, while it has been in this country several centuries, it isn’t … Continue reading →
There are four different hickorys native to southwestern Virginia: bitternut, shagbark, mockernut, and pignut. Shagbark hickory is easy to identify because of the shaggy bark, but the others are a little bit more difficult. This photograph is very likely of … Continue reading →
Last fall, I posted a picture of a summer grape (vitus aestivalis) vine that wasn’t all that big, but I knew that I had larger ones on the property. Here is one of them: This one is climbing a black … Continue reading →
This one was easy for me to initially identify – I knew it was an oak. But which one? There are 7 different oak species in southwestern Virginia. Using my plant identification guide, I was able to identify this one … Continue reading →
The hawthorn (crataegus spp. L.) family, I discovered, is a large group of shrubs and small trees that are nearly impossible to identify as separate species. Wikipedia says that “a reasonable number is 200 species” but “some botanists in the … Continue reading →