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| Royal Catchfly (Silene Regia) |
This flower which is in decline among our prairies is Royal
Catch fly. It's stem and pedals are sticky, small insects will stick to
them. Some butterflies can detect red, and the Catchfly is designed to favor the Butterfly as the pollinator.
The nectar of the flowers attract the larger butterflies such as Black Swallow Tail and also the Rubbythroated Humming Bird.
The Crimson Red of this flower really stood out against all the green foliage out on the trail.
Also I came across this very conspicuous wooded plant . With it's cluster of red berries. This, I believe is the Red Bane Berry. I read that the berries are poisonous.
So this week out on the trail it was about Reds...
I think The red berries are actually the fruit of Jack-in-the-Pulpit which are also toxic.
ReplyDeleteYou are 100 % right Norseman. I figured that since the Jack-in-the-Pulpit is a spring flower there was no way that Jack was still around.But maybe I don't know Jack... Nice website Norseman.
ReplyDeleteMy husband and I saw this same red berry plant over the weekend at Heery Woods State Park in Clarksville and wondered what it was! We figured it must be poisonous, since they are so temptingly red and lucious looking, yet not a single berry had been touched by a bird or animal!
ReplyDeletehaha "don't know jack,"....funny :) beautiful vibrant reds! i wonder if the first plant has medicinal value? or purely for the insects and other creatures?
ReplyDelete