Rico Road – CommonPlace Nature

Street Walker

Oct 062014

Late this afternoon, as I was walking along the asphalt edge of Rico Rd., I noticed what I thought at first was a leaf that had fallen out of the trees in the wind and landed near my feet on the road surface. I glanced closer, and noticed that this leaf had legs! I took several photographs of this charming mantid on the roadway, probably wondering how it got there in the first place. Then I used some loblolly pine needles to herd the mantid gently across the asphalt and beyond the white line, to relative safety in the roadside grass.

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Wild Sweet Potato Blossom

Backyard Nature, Native Plants, Natural History, Sense of Place No Responses »

Jul 152014

Walking along the woods’ edge on Rico Road this morning, I glimpsed a pair of huge white flowers with purple centers, perhaps four inches across, on a vine with heart-shaped leaves. The flowers were at head height, on a vine hanging from tree branches. They looked like blooms that belonged in a tropical rainforest somewhere.

A member of the morning glory family (Convolvulaceae), the Wild Sweet Potato (Ipomoea pandurata) is native to much of the Eastern United States, despite it exotic appearance. The bulb of the vine is described by an Illinois wildflowers website as being “edible (barely) when cooked”, and was evidently eaten by Native Amerindians, according to the same source. Cooking was clearly essential; the Peterson Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants of Eastern and Central North America notes that roots have purgative properties if eaten raw.

For my own part, I think I will be satisfied with appreciating the stunning flowers.

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Delicate Cycnia

Backyard Nature, Insects, Natural History 2 Responses »

Jul 092014

On my way to Piney Woods Church Road today, I paid more attention than usual to Rico roadside. Part of that was self-preservation — cars and trucks were flying by at near-lightning speeds, drivers miles away, ensconced in their own words. Part was because I was looking for a wildflower I had seen the day before, and even after locating it, I maintained my same level of attention to my surroundings. The result was a delightful discovery of a white and creamy yellow moth, about an inch long, motionless in plain view. Later I learned that this particular moth, a Delicate Cycnia or Dogbane Tiger Moth (Cycnia tenera) feeds on dogbanes and milkweeds as a caterpillar, taking into its body the same cardiac glycoside that makes Monarch Butterflies immune to predators. With little to fear from the skies, this particular moth did not so much as twitch, even when I drew my camera up close to take this photograph.

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Roadside Mystery

Backyard Nature, Sense of Place No Responses »

Jul 082014

On my way back home today, I walked along the forest edge on Rico Road. Glancing down, I noticed a number of pale white flowers with a pinkish tinge. The flowers indicate a pea plant of some kind, but most of the roadside peas are flowering vines, which is not the case here. I searched my plant ID books and have sought help from experts via Facebook. So far, no answer. It is a lovely flower, though, and well worthy of a blog post.

The very next day, I was able to confirm that it is Spiked Hoary Pea (Tephrosia spicata), a native of the Southeast and fairly common along roadsides.

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