What to See This Week

Throughout the fall we have more and more fruits ripening. Pictured here is the fruit of a kousa dogwood, a popular ornamental tree. The fruits are edible although the skin is bitter and it has many hard seeds. You may even see a squirrel carry one away.

American persimmon is a fruit tree native to Ohio. It has distinctive blocky bark and fruits that have just begun to ripen on the branches. Persimmons aren’t a fruit you’d want to mistakenly eat too early, unripe fruits are highly astringent causing a drying sensation in the mouth. Only very soft persimmons with skin that has begun to wrinkle, often found on the ground beneath the tree, are ready to be eaten.

White snakeroot is a common wildflower of forest edges this time of year. While its appearance is unassuming, this plant was responsible for poisoning many people in the early 19th century in the form of milk sickness. When cows ate white snakeroot, toxins concentrated in the milk.

If you take a walk around the prairies at the Red Barn Reserve, you are likely to cross paths with grasshoppers. Pictured here is a red-legged grasshopper, one of several common species you may run into.

Dogbane leaf beetles are small but beautiful! These beetles are specialized to feed on species of dogbane. They have a mirror-like surface with colors that shift depending on the angle you are looking at them.

Down by the Red Barn Reserve wetlands a spider egg sac was just hatching underneath a pickerelweed leaf with hundreds of spiderlings dispersing. They were completely still until a breeze came through to rustle the leaf causing them to all move at once.

This smeared dagger moth caterpillar was also hiding amongst the pickerelweed leaves in the wetlands. Smeared dagger moth caterpillars will feed on a wide variety of host plants with pickerelweed being just one option.

Several flowers are planted alongside the vegetables in the Learning Garden’s raised beds. Marigolds are often planted in vegetable gardens. They can help deter some pest insects but also often attract pollinators and other beneficial insects.