dry conditions at Celery Bog Park

Been rather dry around here, here is a scene at Celery Bog Park, the dessicated plants in the foreground are jewelweed (Impatiens).  This spot is normally moist in the summer and these plants would be green and succulent.  The pond in the background still has standing water but the south end near Lindberg Road is dry.

Picture taken June 19, 2012.

Link to what jewelweed normally looks like in the park:

Painted turtle

This painted turtle (Chrysemys picta marginata) is crossing the trail at Celery Bog Park on its way back to the wetland (it's not a bog).  The dirt on its hind end suggests that it recently laid eggs in the ground.  These pictures taken May 15, 2012.  A week or so before taking these pictures I noticed a baby turtle squished on the nearby motor access road, apparently it had just hatched and was making its way to the water. 

Link to Chrysemys picta:

Link to previous post on painted turtle:

Link to previous post on painted turtle in Delaware County:

Link to previous post on turtles laying eggs:

Cecropia moth

Cecropia moth (Hyalophora cecropia).  At West Lafayette, May 2, 2012.

Link to Hyalophora cecropia:

Pineapple weed

The usual places to find pineapple weed (Matricaria discoides) are at the gravelly edges of parking lots and pavements.  This pineapple weed is at the edge of the parking lot at Davis Ferry Park.  It's as big and robust a pineapple weed as I've ever seen.   Usually they're little scrubby plants.  Some of the central flowering heads have an unusual fasciation, never seen that before in a pineapple weed either.

Picture taken April 29, 2012.
 
Link to Matricaria discoides:

Link to Matricaria discoides:

Link to Matricaria discoides:

Link to fasciation in plants:

Another link to fasciation:

Yellow lady's-slipper orchid in Happy Hollow Park

Here's a single yellow lady's-slipper orchid happily growing in Happy Hollow Park. Probably the large yellow lady's-slipper (Cypripedium parviflorum var. pubescens).  It would be quite a find to encounter one of these growing wild within the city limits.  But then it occurred to me that someone could have decided to plant this here, so who knows?  It's close to a well-traveled area.  The needle-leaved plants surrounding it are Equisetum.

Pictures taken April 26, 2012.

Link to Cypripedium parviflorum var. pubescens:

Link to Cypripedium parviflorum:

Another place to find yellow lady's slipper is at Clegg Gardens, just east of Lafayette.  At Clegg Gardens the lady's slipper is not wild but has been planted.

Box turtle at Scifres-Maier Woods

A box turtle (Terrapene carolina carolina), in Scifres-Maier Woods, part of Celery Bog Park.  Is it a female laying eggs?  Looks like it could be.

A human step away from the turtle is this freshly overturned dirt on the forest floor.  Is it another turtle nest?

Pictures taken April 12, 2012.

Link to previous post on box turtles:

Another link to Terrapene carolina:

Camassia scilloides at Prophetstown State Park

This slope at the end of the motorway at Prophetstown State Park is home to a large population of Camassia scilloides plants.  Camassia grows thick like this for hundreds of yards along the trail here.

 A closer look at some of the Camassia scilloides at the park.

More Camassia scilloides along the trail, with some fire pink (Silene virginica).  All pictures taken April 22, 2012.
 
Link to previous post on Camassia scilloides:

Link to Silene virginica: