Released: NATURALLY CURIOUS DAY BY DAY
I’m delighted to announce that my latest book, Naturally Curious Day by Day, has just been released. Like Naturally Curious, it takes a look at species and events that are likely to be seen/occur throughout the year in the Northeast. However, my new book presents new photos and text in a day-by-day format, as opposed to month by month. Each day of the year has anywhere from 2 – 4 entries/photos on subjects as varied as slime mold, sapsuckers and salamanders. Readers of my blog will be familiar with some of the material, as the book contains edited/expanded versions of many of the past six and a half years of posts. The book also includes new entries, short essays and sidebars. A concerted effort was made not to duplicate information found in Naturally Curious.
Naturally Curious Day by Day can be purchased in bookstores and online. If your local bookstore doesn’t have it, they will be able to order it from Globe Pequot’s distributor. I’m hoping it will help those stumped by what to give someone for Christmas! 456 pages, 1,300+ photos. Thank you!
Downy Rattlesnake Plantain Flowering
Downy Rattlesnake Plantain (Goodyera pubescens) is an evergreen plant (each leaf lives for about four years) belonging to the Orchid family. It has broad, rounded leaves (like plantain) that bear a design somewhat reminiscent of snake skin. For the latter reason, it was used by Native Americans to treat snakebites. Botanists think it must have been used on bites from non-poisonous snakes, for medicinally it does not cure a venomous snake bite. This is the most common species of rattlesnake-plantain in New England, and can be identified easily by the broad central stripe down the middle of each leaf. At this time of year its tall flower stalk is bedecked with tiny, delicate, white orchids, each the size of a baby finger nail, which are well worth examining through a hand lens.
Sundews Capture Their Meals
Sundews (Drosera spp.) are carnivorous plants often found in acidic bogs, fens and cedar swamps. They have numerous small leaves arranged in a circular, or rosette, pattern and they are covered with reddish, glandular hairs, or tentacles, that exude a sticky secretion at their tips. Insects, attracted to the glistening sticky droplets which resemble dew, land on a leaf and become stuck. The movement of the struggling insect triggers cell growth in the glandular hairs and they begin folding over the insect within 60 seconds. An anesthetic is released by the plant’s hairs, causing the insect to become motionless. Digestive enzymes are then secreted which liquefy the insect’s internal organs so that they can then be absorbed by the plant’s hairs. Although insect prey is not vital to sundews, the nitrogen the plants receive from the insects enables them to thrive in environments where nitrogen is in short supply. The damselfly pictured has been captured by a Round-leaved Sundew’s glandular hairs which have rendered it motionless and have started to grow and fold over the tip of the damselfly’s abdomen and its wings.
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