pinemountain's Identifications

Sooooo... This spider was crawling on my neck.

I had a shirt hanging up on the wall in the office, put it on, and then felt something crawling on my neck. Well, I like bugs a lot, so instead of smacking it, I just guided it onto my hand. :-/ Brown recluse!

I don't think I got bit, but I'll have to watch my neck for a while.

Nature! :)

A horrible photo -- taken at dusk under trees. I managed to find a the last few flowers while walking the lower elevation trails at Greenbrier; luckily, the next day I went to Clingman's Dome (6,000+ ft. elev.) and got to see this species in full flower along roadside forest edges (but no photos!).

This species has always been something of a mystery to me. I have often wondered if I have ever mistaken this species for Potentilla simplex in northeastern Ohio, but upon coming across good P. canadensis here in southern Ohio, the difference was immediate, albeit subtle. The leaves are smaller, the plants more compact and less widely spreading. It inhabits dry upland woods. And then there's that weird character that is sometimes used in keys -- the one about the first flower being produced at the first node instead of the second, as in P. simplex. The second photo attempts to show this character clearly (the first flower has lost its petals, but the peduncle is still visible).

If there is one wildflower species that appears to be infinitely grateful for the incursions of mankind into the (south)eastern deciduous forests, it must be this plant. It is abundant everywhere humans have cleared the woods: roadsides, pastures and fields, and, in the case of this specimen, along forest trails. It is a pretty plant, especially when growing in dense colonies in grassy fields--from a distance, the effect is like an azure haze, as if a piece of blue fell from the ceiling of the sky. A pity this species doesn't reach northern Ohio.