This is the time of year when I start feeling a little frantic about the coming end of the growing season. The last of the flowers are blooming. Insects are becoming less abundant, and migratory butterflies, dragonflies, and birds are heading south. Grasses are turning golden brown and fluffy seeds are floating through the air. It’s a gorgeous season, but one tinged with sadness as another season nears its terminus.
A damselfly makes goofy faces at me on a dewy morning.
I’ve been sneaking out for quick photo trips as often as I can. I can feel winter creeping up on me and I feel a strong need to get as many flower and insect photos as I can before it’s too late. As a result, I’ve got hundreds of photos from the last couple weeks. Here is a small selection from that image library.
New England aster is a magnet for pollinators, including butterflies, bees, and flies – like this hover fly.Monarchs are seemingly everywhere right now as they migrate south after an apparently productive summer.This Chinese praying mantis was holding itself upside down and parallel to the grass stem it was hanging on to, making itself difficult to see.A tiny beetle is silhouetted on a common milkweed seed at sunrise.Nodding ladies tresses (Spiranthes cernua) seems abundant this year. This one is in a former crop field restored to prairie.A dewy damselfly at sunrise.Cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis) in a restored wetland.A native Carolina mantis in Lincoln Creek Prairie, here in Aurora.
Here is a post from the Northeast Chapter of the Illinois Native Plant Society that is of interest. One of the comments that is not shown, unless you select to see “All Comments”, mentions the name change of our Midwestern Spiranthes cernua to Spiranthes incurva. A change that has not yet been universally adopted. The post has a link to an iowaplants website that discusses the issue of separating Spiranthes cernua and Spiranthes magnicamporum in depth.
I have seen pure white Spiranthes cernua populations. I have seen both Spiranthes cernua and Spiranthes magnicamporum populations with a creamy color in the interior of the flower. In “Orchids of the Western Great Lakes Region”, Fredrick W. Case, Jr. mentions S. magnicamporum has “Lateral sepals free, spreading, with incurved tips, often meeting above the flower.” In a population of orchids, that I am calling S. magnicamporum, some years I have observed the incurved sepals and in other years the sepals of these plants are straight. Even more interestingly, straight and incurved sepals appear to both be on the plant you photographed. Since I have found this trait to be inconsistent, I have been using a second trait that was mentioned in “Orchids of the Western Great Lakes Region.” This trait mentioned in the key on pp. 177 for S. magnicamporum is “… central portion of the underside of lip yellow, …” With taxa that integrate, the line must be drawn somewhere. This is where I have chosen to draw it. Unless a microscope is used to look at the embryos, we cannot really be sure of the identify of this plant. This is something, I have not yet tried to do to verify my identifications.
The Prairie Ecologist 
Good antidote to the seasonal wistfulness, Chris.
Amazing photos —
Another amazing week!
Great photos! I feel the same way…
I would call your Lady’s Tress orchid, Spiranthes magnicamporum.
You could be right. I was going by habitat, but in a restored prairie, that gets messy. Thanks.
Here is a post from the Northeast Chapter of the Illinois Native Plant Society that is of interest. One of the comments that is not shown, unless you select to see “All Comments”, mentions the name change of our Midwestern Spiranthes cernua to Spiranthes incurva. A change that has not yet been universally adopted. The post has a link to an iowaplants website that discusses the issue of separating Spiranthes cernua and Spiranthes magnicamporum in depth.
I have seen pure white Spiranthes cernua populations. I have seen both Spiranthes cernua and Spiranthes magnicamporum populations with a creamy color in the interior of the flower. In “Orchids of the Western Great Lakes Region”, Fredrick W. Case, Jr. mentions S. magnicamporum has “Lateral sepals free, spreading, with incurved tips, often meeting above the flower.” In a population of orchids, that I am calling S. magnicamporum, some years I have observed the incurved sepals and in other years the sepals of these plants are straight. Even more interestingly, straight and incurved sepals appear to both be on the plant you photographed. Since I have found this trait to be inconsistent, I have been using a second trait that was mentioned in “Orchids of the Western Great Lakes Region.” This trait mentioned in the key on pp. 177 for S. magnicamporum is “… central portion of the underside of lip yellow, …” With taxa that integrate, the line must be drawn somewhere. This is where I have chosen to draw it. Unless a microscope is used to look at the embryos, we cannot really be sure of the identify of this plant. This is something, I have not yet tried to do to verify my identifications.
thanks for taking time to capture these creatures in image and share their many faces
Your photos are AMAZING!
WOW! really enjoyed these – you certainly have a gift.
These images are amazing! The damesfly shot has perfect detail.