Day 171: June 19th – Summer flora

Overcast and warm (80) with a light breeze

       Well, summer is rapidly approaching and the forest wildflowers are coming into full bloom.  We’ve had a weird weather year here in the Hudson Valley with a winter all but devoid of snow and very mild and a cool and wet spring.  What will summer bring?  Forecasts for tomorrow, the first day of summer, call for temperatures in the mid 90’s! 

       This morning, I took a ride up to the top of one of our more prominent mountains in the Highlands, Bear Mountain.  My plan was to photograph some of the most spectacular displays of late spring flora in the valley, the Mountain laurel.  Each year, I look for these gorgeous blossoms to appear sometime around Father’s Day.  But this year, everything has been ahead of schedule due in part to the strange weather patterns.  Compound this by the fact that we were in Montana for the past two weeks, and as far as seeing these beautiful blooms, we came up empty.  Not a single solitary bloom was visible today as the laurel has already flowered and the work of the pollinators is a done deal.  The withering flowers are now being replaced by seed pods.

       As is the normal succession of things, however, once the laurel blossoms disappear, it’s time to start looking for the splendid pink flowers of the milkweed.  Bear Mountain’s milkweed is common milkweed, or Asclepias syriaca. 

       Common milkweed is the most important plant in the life of the Monarch butterfly.  The larval stage (caterpillars) feeds exclusively on milkweed.  Without milkweed plants, we would have no monarch butterflies…..plain and simple.  As the caterpillars eat this plant, the acidic milky latex which is mildly poisonous to many animals is absorbed into the body of the monarch and remains with it thoughout its life.  Most predators have learned one way or another to stay away from the monarch because of the dangers inherent in consuming an insect loaded with toxins.

       The second most visible plant on the mountain today was the honeysuckle.  There are many species of this plant, but the kind that appears to be prevalent on the mountain is the Japanese variety.  While very beautiful, this plant is an invasive and tends to outcompete native species.  It is a semi-evergreen plant, meaning its leaves hang on longer than other native plants, adding to its advantage to outgrow and take over stands of other vegetation.  It’s hard, however,  to hold a grudge against this flower as one drives over the mountain top and smells the sweet and familiar fragrance of the honeysuckle.