River Clean Up

When the summer is dry and the rivers reach low levels it becomes all to clear how much garbage pollutes our rivers and streams; even the most pristine stretches of water.  It is a great time of year to cool off in your local stream and pick up some garbage while your at it.  Here is a sketch that I made for a local river clean up a few years back; beer cans and tires....

Deertoe

This is a handsome little freshwater mussel called a deertoe (Truncilla truncata) they range in color from this aqua blue to green to almost red-orange.  This is my first attempt to illustrate one of these beautiful creatures but I am sure it wont be my last.

Perigynia

Anyone who owns a “Flora of …” field guide has surely noticed that the Genus Carex can easily chew-up 50 plus pages of dichotomous key without the help of pictures or line drawings. It is intimidating. Ohio is home to more than 160 different species of sedges easily making it the largest genera in the flora. One of the primary characteristics used to identify sedges to species are the perigynia, an inflated sac containing the achene (seed). Usually a 20X hand lens is needed to observe the characteristics of these structures as most of them are around 3-4mm long. I have only been interested in sedges for a few years, but from my first look through the hand lens I was struck by the beauty of sedges especially when magnified.

Here is a banner of 11 different perigynia all from sedges native to northeast Ohio – can you identify any of them?

Here is a close up look at the staminate (male) spike on top and a pistillate (female) spike below.  This is Carex plantaginea (plantain leaved sedge).  A little more about plantain leaved sedge right here 

First Morel 2012

Yesterday I found my first morel of 2012.  It was a tiny grey morel that measured less than 2cm tall.  Here is a sketch of one of the last morels I saw in 2011 a great big yellow that measured nearly 20cm tall on May 5th.

Morels can be terribly hard to find.  I didn't find this nice yellow until after I got home and took a closer look at my snapshot of this handsome Jack-in-the-pulpit.  Can you find it?

Cerulean Warbler

Cerulean warbler (Setophaga cerulean) is a small warbler that often forages and nests high in the forest canopy especially on the edges of canopy gaps.  Some of our tallest trees in the eastern forests are tulip-poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera) – so here is a sketch of what you might see if you look up to the tree tops in a high quality forest this time of year.

April

Two sketches from last April – this is about the stage we are at right now – still running 2-3 weeks early.  However, the weather has cooled off quite a bit and a lot of the plants have slowed down or stopped in their tracks. 

The buds of the understory beech trees are swelling but not yet popped and the winter wrens are singing. 

Wild ginger (Asarum canadense) is in flower and the foamflower (Tiarella cordifolia) is almost flowering.

Winter Wren

The sugar maples (Acer saccharum) are leafing out and the winter wrens are singing!  Colored pencil.

"Maggie"

Two of my favorite spring images - leatherwood (Dirca palustris) in flower and a magnolia warbler!  Colored pencil.

Spring Sketches

Yesterday while spraying invasive lesser celandine (Ranunculus ficaria) I saw my first jack-in-the-pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum) breaking through the leaves.  Here is a sketch of a jack from April 18^th 2010 – almost a month later than the one I saw yesterday. 

Trout lily (Erythronium americanum) was in flower here last week saw my first one on March 23 – here is a sketchbook painting of one from last year on April 26 – more than a month difference.

I was in Illinois a few weeks ago and on March 15^th I saw Dutchman’s britches (Dicentra cucullaria) and toadshade trillium (Trillium recurvatum) in flower – this sketch was done on April 8^th 2010 a solid 3 weeks later compared to this year.



Early Spring

Spring is upon us and based on the flowers of leatherwood it is 26 days earlier than last year and 11 days earlier than 2010. I was back in Illinois again this past weekend and the vast majority of spring ephemeral plants were up and flowering. Here is a drawing of some of the action this time of year and a few snapshots of the drawing in progress.  I still plan to add some more dark leaves around the bases of the plants.  Colored pencil.