The new set up for moths. Susan just received two LED-black lights to go with our florescent black light. The past two night there were a few midges and moths, nothing spectacular. We also had a green lacewing. None of the calling tree-crickets came to the lights. Not many days left for this before it is too cold. On to the floral art challenge.
We spend much of the year searching for interesting plants. Sometimes we are lucky and we stumble upon something by accident. Other times we know exactly where and when to go to find something unusual.
Purple fringed orchids are a late summer blooming orchid. We had known of one spot to find them consistently. Then this year we stumbled upon another site that we usually visit all summer, but never as late as we did this year.
The Spiranthes, or ladies-tresses are a group of orchids that we find at many sites in the early Fall. We even have one species that occurs on our property at Whitefish Point near our cabin.
Every year we make a visit to a site just west of St. Ignace in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to see the threatened dwarf lake iris. These beautiful flowers are 40-60mm tall and easily missed unless you get out and walk the area where they occur.
A final plant for today is the rare calypso orchid. We typically see these in late May or the first few days of June in moist cedar swamps.
El día de los muertos is an interesting holiday in Mexico. It is a mixture of the Christian tradition of All saints eve and indigenous religious practices. I have had the pleasure of being in Mexico for this and it can be quite interesting.
But it seems that we are living in a modern “day of the dead” horror show as the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic as of yesterday has claimed over 5 million lives, 16% of those in the USA. Get vaccinated, wear a mask – avoid becoming a pandemic statistic.
More tomorrow…
Michael's Place 