'White Candle'
This is the last set of photos from my visits to the Longenecker Horticultural Garden which features more than a hundred crabapples. Rain and wind from wickedly loud thunderstorm last night did in the last few I wanted to shoot. There’s always next year.
Aren’t they a pretty sight? I’m so much better, now that I have finally gotten the snow and cold out of my system!
'Cardinal's Robe'
'Sugar Tyme'
'Park Centre'
'Indian Summer'
Butterfly Exhibit at Desert Botanical Garden
The Marshall Butterfly Pavilion is home to two butterfly exhibits each year–a Monarch display in the fall and a butterfly extravaganza including sixteen different species of butterflies in the spring. We went to the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix to see the Chihuly Art exhibition when we were in Phoenix in April, and saw the butterflies while we were there. Double the pleasure!
I had never seen a zebra longwing–no surprise since its range is tropical, found in the southern US, Central America and the northern part of South America.
Pretty in Purple
The wild geranium marks the boundary betweem spring and summer, so says my reference book, Spring Woodland Flowers of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum. There is a profusion of purple along the paths of the Noe Woods in the Arboretum. Guess we’re on the boundary, so spring lasted about four weeks this year? Sounds about right.
AKA Black Tulip Fungi
The Devil’s Urn is a fungi often found in spring on sticks or small logs. It is most common east of the Rockies, but is also found in the Midwest. I found this cluster while checking out the Noe Woods in the University of Wisconsin Arboretum for ephemeral wildflowers. The reference I consulted noted that these fungi begin to fruit a bit earlier than morel mushrooms and continue through much of the morel season.
I love morel mushrooms (think dipped in egg and cracker crumbs and fried until golden brown) but since moving to Wisconsin, I have never found them in their natural setting. In western Illinois, I frequently went mushroom hunting with my grandfather as a kid, and it was not unusual to come home with 10 to 20 pounds of morels after a day out in the woods. I have found them at the Farmers’ Market in Madison, and they are sold at a premium price. I saw them last year for $30 a pound, and I will not admit to indulging at that price, though many people gladly pay that sum. The morels are usually sold out an hour or so after the market opens.
As far as eating the Devil’s Urn, I wouldn’t recommend it. There is little in the literature to suggest that this fungi is poisonous, but when eating mushrooms the rule is “Eat nothing you cannot absolutely identify as non-poisonous.” And with a name like Devil’s Urn, it sure doesn’t sound too promising.
'Pink Dawn'
More crabapples from the Longenecker Horticultural Gardens in the University of Wisconsin Arboretum in Madison.
'Dwarf Siberian'
'Columnar Siberian'
