The Question: Sitting beside a small lake in Massachusetts with many lily pads, we kept hearing a popping noise, almost like bubblegum snapping. What makes that sound? Submitted by: Greg, New York, USA The Sort of Short Answer: Full disclosure: Greg was visiting me, and we were sitting beside the lake and he asked me, [...]
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Amazing Video of Pollinators
I have fallen a little behind in responding to questions, but hopefully, I’ll start catching up in the next few days, but I wanted to share some amazing slow motion, time-lapse and close-up video of pollinators by filmmaker Louis Schwartzberg. He talks for about three minutes about why he films flowers and their pollinators, but [...]
What is this Trinity Alps wildflower?
The Question: On a recent mid-July trip to the Trinity Alps in Northern California we saw many of these 2′-4′ tall plants, most just starting to show emerging flower heads. I thought they were so common that ID would be a cinch, but no such luck. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Submitted by: Marianne, [...]
What is this Strange Root?
The Question: I was kayaking in a wetland area off a chain of lakes in northwestern Wisconsin this weekend, and I paddled by this. Do you know what it is? The water on the lake/wetland is really high right now due to lots of rain. When we tried to pick this up, it seemed like [...]
What is this Adirondack wildflower?
The Question: I’m hoping you can help identify this plant. It has us stumped! We were hiking in the Adirondack Mountains and caught some of the early wildflowers. Spring beauty, trout lily and trillium are blooming. This one had buds but no blooms, but I figured it would be easy to identify by the distinctive [...]