In gardens throughout the Catskills, the lupins are blooming. Their showy spikes of flowers stand up above the foliage, and create bright spots of color at this time of year. There about 200 species of Lupin, found mostly in the Americas with a few other species clustered around the Mediterranean…
Last week I posted a blog about some garden flowers in the Dianthus family, known to botanists as Caryophyllaceae. I discussed several garden flowers in the genus Dianthus, a group of species within the Dianthus family. This week, I will discuss some other Dianthus family plants closely related to the…
Starting to bloom right now in Catskills gardens are the flowers known commonly as Pinks, but also known by their scientific name Dianthus. They are part of a large group of flowers, annuals, biennials and perennials, in the family Caryophyllaceae, with many garden and wild representatives of interest to the…
Hello Friends of Root! This week, I will be busy preparing for my talk at the Andes Roundtable on Wednesday, June 8th. It is an overview of the natural history and biology of parasitism as exemplified by local parasitic wasps, and the role that these wasps play in the…
Last week I talked about Garlic Mustard, a garden foe, a plant in the mustard family of plants. I described the distinctive characteristics of this common plant family, which is such an important component of the local vegetation here in the Catskills. Plants in this family have a distinctive 4-petaled cross-shaped flower.…
The mustard or cabbage family of plants includes plants we grow and eat such as broccoli, cabbage and radish. Many members of the family, though not native to the Catskills, have become so widespread and naturalized that they are a significant component of the local vegetation. Some have become weeds…
A lot of insects are called flies like dragonflies or butterflies, but true flies are insects with only one pair of wings. We are most familiar with the obnoxious members of the group – the bloodsuckers such as mosquitoes and deer flies and their ilk, but the preponderance of fly…
The bumble bee is a conspicuous insect at this time of year. It is large, over an inch long, with lots of long hair colored black and yellow and/or orange. There are 47 species of Bumble bee in North and Central America, with maybe 15 species in the Catskills region.…
