Costa beyond R1 area the same color as remainder of wing, no continuous light area from R1 to apical crescent, no broad, continuous whitish band nearly width of stigma before end of R1; apical crescent not interrupted; head without a narrow whitish band extending from oral margin of gena obliquely along lower margin of eye and across postgena to comb; apical crescent wide, extending above R2+3, nearly width of R5 cell below M1+2; wing length twice width, stigmal length twice width; spots of wing distinct, no lighter band near base of wing; subapical, unpunctated brown band as wide as apical crescent, costa without spots beyond R1 area; R1 light area extending wedge like into R1 cell; body slightly reddish to yellow-brown; larger species, wing length more than 5.0-7.5 mm. Stoltzfus, 1974
Previously I had never seen more than two or three of this species in a given night. Note how many are on this one tree at my banana bait.
Sticks out of water. Alternating trifoliate (or very very deeply lobed) leaves. Inflorescence in the middle of the stem.
Seed pod tubercular. Environmental weed.
Hypolimnas bolina recorded as a separate observation.
Not at all sure on the species. I came up with Linne's while looking through a book but there were several similar species and this was the best I could do!
Vast majority of this pop had an odd coral/rosy floral color, first pic shows one of the few normal looking plants on the left.
The perfectly symmetrical “pinwheel” pattern of the seeds caught my eye.
Super-long beak and red stripe on sepals (photo #10) tells me it's Mediterranean Stork's-Bill (Erodium botrys) A.k.a. Long-beaked Filaree
By INat truthseqr: How to Identify E. botrys:
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/erodium-botrys-mediterranean-stork-s-bill/journal/61038-how-to-identify-erodium-botrys-mediterranean-stork-s-bill/
Mediterranean Stork's-Bill (Erodium botrys) A.k.a. Long-beaked Filaree, Big Heron Bill. Introduced/naturalized, common, annual plant in the Geranium (Geraniaceae) that grows 10–90 cm (up to 36 inches) tall in dry, disturbed soils. It can be semi-invasive crowding out native plants. Erodium botrys etymology: Erodium descends from the Greek word for heron, referring to the long "beaks" of the fruit. Beak (above the fruit) is the longest of the Filarees at 5-12cm (up to 4.75 inches) long. Peak Bloom Time: March-May.
Calflora (with species distribution map in CA): https://www.calflora.org/app/taxon?crn=3446
Jepson eFlora https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/eflora_display.php?tid=25037
Plants of Monterey County: an Illustrated Field Key, 2nd edition, Matthews and Mitchell, 2015, pp. 184-185.
Flora of Fort Ord: Monterey County, California , David Styer, 2019 (includes peak bloom times) p. 131.
Monterey County Wildflowers https://montereywildflowers.com/geraniaceae-erodium/
Monterey County Wildflowers: a Field Guide, Yeager and Mitchell, 2016, p. 76.
Leaf Shape and Arrangement diagrams: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e8/Leaf_morphology.svg
From INat Project: Erodium Mericarps and Seeds by INat truthseqr:
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/erodium-mericarps-and-seeds
https://www.yosemitehikes.com/wildflowers/filaree/filaree.htm
"Long-Beaked Filaree (ERODIUM BOTRYS) Aliases: Long-Beaked Stork's Bill, Big Heron Bill, Broadleaf Filaree. Erodium botrys was introduced from Europe sometime in the past few hundred years - the responsible party apparently thought better of mentioning it to the newspapers - and has found the going good. The tiny pink flowers appear by the thousands in the springtime on the foothills outside Yosemite, then morph into a sort of candy-striped candelabra, and finally create a curious and unlikely mature fruit that resembles an art-deco conflagration of a spear, a corkscrew, and the Fibonacci sequence. It's lucky that the fruits are so swoopy and attractive, because they're madly in love with your socks and want nothing more than to cling to them forever and ever.
Another less common variety of filaree, ERODIUM BRACHYCARPUM, looks extremely similar to Erodium botrys. The primary distinguishing characteristic is that brachycarpum is smaller - shorter plants, smaller flowers, and shorter beaks on the immature fruits. Plants at the low end of the normal botrys size range are no larger than brachycarpum, however, which makes this somewhat suspect as a method of identification.
A third invasive filaree, ERODIUM CICUTARIUM, grows in the same habitats as Erodium botrys but is easily distinguished from it - the petals are narrower and generally have less prominent vein striping. The fruits of cicutarium and botrys are extremely similar in appearance and function: they coil when they dry out and uncoil when they get wet, and the coiling/uncoiling action helps screw the seed (the arrowhead at the tip of the fruit) into the ground.
Finally, a fourth filaree, ERODIUM MOSHATUM, looks exasperatingly similar to Erodium cicutarium. Again, you never read this. Blooms: March - June. Lifespan: Annual.
Size: The plants are usually less than a foot high, but the occasional monster specimen can surpass three feet. The flowers are typically around a centimeter in diameter (a U.S. dime, by comparison, is a little under two centimeters in diameter)."
"The fruits of Erodiums are very similar in appearance and function: they coil when they dry out and uncoil when they get wet. The coiling/uncoiling action helps screw the seed (the arrowhead at the tip of the fruit) into the ground." https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/erodium-seeds
Although they aren’t native, the females are pretty adorable as they go about their carding, collecting plant fiber for their nests.
second time in the past few days i've seen one on the anise hyssop. this time it seemed to be nectaring or consuming nectar or really really interested in the flowers which just started blooming.
Backyard ant colony reacts favorably to a Trillium sessile seed pod that I broke open and placed on the ant hill. Might as well let the ants assist my assisted regeneration!
I think they might like the trillium elaiosome better than the bloodroot from a couple years ago...
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/146374646
This sure looked a lot like Parthenocissus inserta, if so perhaps naturalized from nearby cultivation. Found a patch in disturbed woods of a Lexington park, amid a tangle of Rosa multiflora, Euonymus fortunei, Tox rad, and regular ol P. quinquefolia. 6th photo shows the inserta-like leaf compared to a nearby quinquefolia leaf.
Found 7/24/2023 on black cherry
Molted: 7/27, 8/3, 8/16, 8/25
Wandered: 9/5
Pupated: 9/7
Emerged: 9/21