Fall Wildflower Hunt

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Over many hikes around the state, I've learned to identify some of the trees - red and pin oak, beech and maple, sycamore and hickory, pines and hemlocks. But wildflowers? No. And since this is fall wildflower time (check out the Sleeping Giant hikes here and here), I tried to identify flowers from Quinnipiac Trail and Mattabesett Trail hikes the last week. Without a lot of success.  I could find a few on a quick web image search, but for me an aster is an aster...
So help me out.  Here's the quiz - post a comment with your best guess at the flowers and fungii and berries I photographed along the way (common and scientific if you got 'em). This will be a piece of cake for some of you - let's see how the amateurs do against the pros (and I'm thinking of a certain group of Temple-Ambler experts here).


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Comments

  1. Jacqueline DonnellyOctober 5, 2010 at 11:01 PM

    Hi Jim, thanks for stopping by my blog with your comment, especially since that gave me access to your interesting blog.

    Asters present quite a puzzle to even expert botanists, especially in photos where you can't clearly see the bracts or the leaves. I'm just an amateur wildflower hobbyist, so I will probably be wrong on some of these, but I'm game to give it a try. My guesses for some of your photos:

    2. Flat-top Aster
    3. White Wood Aster
    4. Stiff Aster
    6. Heart-leaf Aster
    8. Smooth Aster?
    10. Red Clover
    11. Honeysuckle (or Autumn Olive?)
    12. Juniper
    13. Solomon's Plume?
    15. Garden Phlox
    16. Blue-stemmed Goldenrod
    17. Black-eyed Susan

    I wouldn't venture a guess on the fungi without a closer look. Can't wait to read what some aster experts have to say.

    ReplyDelete
  2. JimOctober 6, 2010 at 6:55 PM

    Hi WW, thanks for your input. I could only guess at a few:
    4. Stiff Aster
    9. Aster me this, Batman.
    10. Red Clover
    12. Eastern Red Cedar
    15. Escaped Garden Phlox
    16. Goldenrod
    17. Black-eyed Susan

    For some of the others, I found photos similar but not quite the same. We'll see what else comes in.

    ReplyDelete
  3. 21 WitsOctober 10, 2010 at 10:50 AM

    I love it when people can just call out the random names of things along the trail. I have already forgotten most of the names from a field trip I took where he described what you can eat and shouldn't eat, in the berry family! Too many names when it's just exciting to take in all the sights!

    ReplyDelete
  4. JimOctober 10, 2010 at 1:46 PM

    Hi Karen - I know what you mean. If you ever catch me doing that, chances are pretty good I'm just making stuff up!

    ReplyDelete

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