Pico and I hiked the Ausable Marsh Wildlife Management Area trail a few weeks ago. Here’s a few shots from the marsh. I don’t know wildflowers, so if any of you know what these are please clue the rest of us in with a comment.
Middle of the Trail
Lesson One: Stay in the middle of the trail, there's less dog poop to step in.
The first flower, I believe is an Iris and the second is lupine (Lupinus). I don’t know the name of the third one..
Thanks! I’m pretty sure the last one is purple milkweed, but no clue on the third photo…
I think the last one might be Joe Pye Weed.
The last foto is definitely milkweed; can’t say what sub-species it is. You can tell by the thick green leaves and the flower-head. (If you tear the leaf a little, milk-colored sap beads out). Not many people know that milkweed is essential for all species of butterfly reproduction. The females lay eggs on the plants, the caterpillars come out and IMMEDIATELY start feeding on the leaves; the poisonous milky sap doesn’t harm them, as butterflies have evolved an immunity to it. Birds don’t eat butterflies b/c the sap makes them taste bad.
Here in suburbia, you see butterflies of all species attracted to the popular “butterfly bush”, which is not a milkweed, but butterflies cannot lay eggs on B-Bush. It looks and smells pretty, but does nothing for future generations of butterflies.
There’s lots of B-Bushes in suburbia, b/c that’s what suburban nurseries sell.
Milkweed tends to grow in wild, uncultivated places, like the Adirondacks. That why we need places like the Adk’s. Thanks for posting these fotos, Justin.