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Panicled aster, lance-leaved aster

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Symphyotrichum lanceolatum

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Jewelweed

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This article was most recently revised and updated by

goldenrod, (genus Solidago), genus of about 150 species of weedy, usually perennial herbs of the aster family (Asteraceae). Most of them are native to North America, though a few species grow in Europe and Asia. The goldenrods are characteristic plants in eastern North America, where about 60 species occur. They are found in almost every habitat type-in woodlands, in swamps, on mountains, in fields, and along roadsides-and form one of the chief floral glories of autumn from the Great Plains eastward to the Atlantic.

Physical description

Goldenrods have toothed leaves that usually alternate along the stem. Some species are clumping plants with many stems, while others have only one stem and few branches. A number of goldenrod species can spread-sometimes aggressively-with creeping rhizomes. The showy yellow flower heads are composed of both disk and ray flowers. The many small heads may be crowded together in one-sided clusters, or groups of heads may be borne on short branches to form a cluster at the top of the stem.

Major species

Canadian goldenrod ( S. canadensis) has hairy, toothed, lance-shaped leaves and hairy stems; it is sometimes cultivated as a garden ornamental and can readily naturalize in an area. Giant goldenrod ( S. gigantea), the state flower of Nebraska, is found throughout much of eastern North America and is considered an invasive species in parts of Eurasia; it reaches heights up to 2 metres (nearly 7 feet). Blue stem, or woodland, goldenrod ( S. caesia) has a range that extends from Quebec to Texas and features delicately arching sprays of flowers. Native to shorelines, bogs, and wet prairies, the Ohio goldenrod ( S. ohioensis) of the Great Lakes region bears large flat-topped flower clusters.

Woundwort ( Solidago virgaurea) of Europe and Asia is grown as a garden plant and is the source of a yellow dye. It was once used in medicines. The species S. decurrens is common in East Asia from China to the Philippines.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica Melissa Petruzzello.

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Goldenrod | Description, Species, Flowers, & Facts

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Goldenrod, (genus Solidago), genus of about 150 species of weedy, usually perennial herbs of the aster family (Asteraceae). Most of them are native to North America, though a few species grow in Europe and Asia. The goldenrods are characteristic plants in eastern North America, where about 60

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found almost everywhere—in woodlands, in swamps, on mountains, in fields, and along roadsides

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Goldenrod

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Impatiens capensis

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Most species of goldenrod are native to North America, though a few species grow in Europe and Asia. The goldenrods are characteristic plants in eastern North America, where about 60 species occur.

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Solidago

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Scaly Northern Caddisfly

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Red Osier Dogwood, Red Willow, Red-stem Dogwood, Creek Dogwood

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Cornus sericea

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Mint

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Mentha aquatica

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Producer

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Native to Eurasia, NW Africa, SW Asia; invasive to the U.S.

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Producer

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Producer

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Producer

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Grows in wetlands in full sun to part shade in constantly moist soil or shallow water. Thrives in wet/bog gardens and in proximity to ponds and streams.

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Purple Joe-Pye weed, sweetscented joe pye weed, Indian Sage, Purple Boneset, Skunkweed, Trumpetweed, Pride of the Meadow, Purple Hemp Agrimony

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Native to much of North America, except the lower Midwest and deep South

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Eutrochium purpureum

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Full to part sun, organically rich, medium to wet soils that are moist and well-drained

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northern and eastern North America

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Producer

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Zebra mussel

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Dreissena polymorpha

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Pycnopsyche lepida

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https://gobotany.nativeplanttrust.org/species/mentha/aquatica/

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Highly aromatic, Water Mint is a vigorous herbaceous perennial with dark green leaves that can be used in cooking or for making tea.

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Native to central and eastern North America

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Monarch butterfly

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Great [blue] Lobelia; blue cardinal flower

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Full sun-part shade in average, medium well drained moist and wet soils along ponds and streams.

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moist, semi-shady areas in floodplain forests and around the forested edges of marshes and bogs

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Danaus plexippus

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Primary consumer

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North, Central, South America; also intermittently in Australia, Hawaii, India, Caribbean

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Milkweed (during larval phase), nectar sources for adult feeding; varies during migration; hibernates/overwinters in sheltered trees

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This article was most recently revised and updated by

monarch butterfly, ( Danaus plexippus), familiar member of the milkweed butterfly group (subfamily Danainae, order Lepidoptera) known for its large size, its orange and black wings, and its long annual migrations. Monarchs are concentrated in North, Central, and South America but can also be found in Australia, Hawaii, India, and other locations, albeit intermittently in some. Several subspecies of monarchs have been recognized. The endangered subspecies Danaus plexippus plexippus is a migratory monarch found primarily in North America and occasionally on islands in the Caribbean region. The subspecies D. plexippus megalippe is a nonmigratory form that occurs on the Cayman Islands in the Caribbean.

Physical description and life cycle

The monarch's wingspan averages 90 to 100 mm (about 4 inches). The coloration of the orange wings, marked by black veins and a black border with two rows of spots, warns predators of the insect's bad taste. The viceroy butterfly ( see brush-footed butterfly) and the monarch share similar coloration. Indeed, like the monarch, the viceroy is unpalatable to some of its predators. Hence, it is believed that the two noxious organisms resemble one another as a form of defense against predators and that the relationship between them serves as an example of Müllerian mimicry.

The monarch caterpillar is easily recognized by its vertical stripes of black, white, and yellow-green. Eggs are laid singly on any of a number of milkweed ( Asclepias) species found throughout the monarch's range, and the caterpillars feed exclusively on these plants. Milkweeds produce acrid milky juices that contain toxic compounds called cardenolides, which are stored in the voracious caterpillar's body and make the larva and its subsequent stages distasteful to predators. After several molts, the caterpillar attains a length of 45 mm (almost 2 inches).

The fully grown caterpillar usually leaves its milkweed plant to pupate elsewhere as a pale green, golden-spotted chrysalis. After 10-14 days the chrysalis becomes transparent, and the metamorphosed butterfly's dark body is visible. The adult emerges upside down and spends several hours drying its wings before being able to fly. Feeding on a variety of nectar sources, adults live only a few weeks-except those that migrate south and overwinter in Mexico, which live seven to nine months. Thus, about four generations of monarchs occur annually.

Studies of different populations of monarchs in North and Central America and on certain islands have revealed differences in wing and body morphology in relation to migration patterns and breeding behaviour. For example, monarch populations in eastern North America, which undertake long-distance migrations, possess large bodies and large angular forewings. In contrast, nonmigratory monarchs found in Puerto Rico, southern Florida, Costa Rica, and Hawaii have smaller bodies and smaller forewings. Monarchs found in western North America possess small bodies and large wings, an adaptation that scientists believe may be associated with a reliance on gliding flight. Research has shown that the various body traits and wing traits of monarchs are inherited, indicating that they have evolved in response to a combination of factors, including migratory influences, genetic drift, and breeding behaviour.

Migration

In North America the migratory monarch butterfly ( D. plexippus plexippus) is a well-known example of a wide-range migrant with an extensive breeding range. Thousands of these monarchs gather in autumn and migrate southward, sometimes traveling about 3,000 km (1,800 miles) to overwinter on the California coast or in the mountains of the oyamel fir forest in Mexico. Certain other populations overwinter in Texas or Florida. The recapture of marked butterflies has revealed that they can travel as far as 130 km (80 miles) in one day. The longest distance recorded thus far for the complete flight of a migrant monarch butterfly is 3,010 km (1,870 miles). Upon reaching their overwintering destination, the monarchs gather in sheltered sites, particularly on trees where they cluster on trunks and big branches to hibernate.

The monarchs begin to return north in the spring, feeding on nectar along the way. Some of the returning butterflies are members of the first generation that develops from the overwintered insects; others represent successive generations that develop as the insects progress toward more northern latitudes. Eggs are laid on milkweed plants encountered along the way, and a new generation hatches, matures, and continues the northward trip.

Threats

Most of the overwintering forests of the migratory monarch in Mexico are protected within the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Although logging is banned there, illegal logging and degradation of the forest have threatened the survival of monarch populations. Likewise, ongoing land development in areas along the monarch's different migratory routes is considered a serious threat to the ability of the species to successfully perform its annual migratory feat. Some researchers suspect that a loss of milkweed plants, associated with the expansion in the early 21st century of the use of genetically modified herbicide-resistant crops in the United States, has further placed the monarch's long-term survival in jeopardy. Finally, anthropogenic climate change has significantly impacted the migratory monarch butterfly and is expected to continue to pose an existential threat. Recurring drought in parts of western North America, exacerbated by global warming, has affected the growth of native milkweed populations and increases the frequency of catastrophic wildfires throughout monarch habitats. Extreme weather of all kinds can kill migrating butterflies before they have completed their life cycles, and changes in temperature regimes can trigger early migrations that occur before milkweed plants or nectar sources are widely available.

Scientists' ability to determine the monarch's population status has been challenged by difficulties in monitoring populations accurately and by a limited knowledge of naturally occurring annual and geographical population fluctuations. Indeed, estimates of their decline between 2010 and 2020 range from 22 to 72 percent. However, given the myriad of threats and a definite and dramatic population decline, the migratory subspecies ( D. plexippus plexippus) was listed as an endangered species on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species in 2022.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica Melissa Petruzzello.

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Monarch butterfly | Life Cycle, Caterpillar, Migration, Endangered, & Facts

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monarch butterfly, (Danaus plexippus), familiar member of the milkweed butterfly group (subfamily Danainae, order Lepidoptera) known for its large size, its orange and black wings, and its long annual migrations. Monarchs are concentrated in North, Central, and South America but can also be found in Australia, Hawaii, India, and other locations, albeit intermittently in some.

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Lobelia siphilitica

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Blue cardinal flower, also called great blue lobelia, is a perennial wildflower with unbranched stalks or branching toward the tip, often slightly winged. Flowers in leaf axils of upper stem leaves, having the typical lobelia shape with a 2-parted upper lip and 3-divided lower lip, to 1 inch long; color light or dark violet, light or dark blue or lavender, rarely white. Blooms August-October. Leaves alternate, light green, narrowly lance-shaped, 2-6 inches long, sometimes with a few irregularly spaced teeth.

Similar species: Missouri has 5 species of Lobelia, 4 of which are common: Cardinal flower (L. cardinalis) has bright red flowers. Spiked lobelia (L. spicata) has pale blue or white flowers; Indian tobacco (L. inflata) is similar, but its ovaries become inflated as the seeds ripen.

About Wildflowers, Grasses and Other Nonwoody Plants in Missouri

A very simple way of thinking about the green world is to divide the vascular plants into two groups: woody and nonwoody (or herbaceous). But this is an artificial division; many plant families include some species that are woody and some that are not. The diversity of nonwoody vascular plants is staggering! Think of all the ferns, grasses, sedges, lilies, peas, sunflowers, nightshades, milkweeds, mustards, mints, and mallows - weeds and wildflowers - and many more!

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Blue Cardinal Flower (Great Blue Lobelia)

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Blue cardinal flower, also called great blue lobelia, is a perennial wildflower with unbranched stalks or branching toward the tip, often slightly winged. Flowers in leaf axils of upper stem leaves, having the typical lobelia shape with a 2-parted upper lip and 3-divided lower lip, to 1 inch long; color light or dark violet, light or dark blue or lavender, rarely white.

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Producer

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Producer

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Filter Feeder

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Primary Consumer

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Native to Eastern and Central Canada and United States

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Wet places: banks of streams, rivers, and spring branches, margins of ponds and lakes, bottomland forests, moist depressions of upland prairies, sloughs, swamps, fens, and moist ledges of bluffs; also pastures, ditches, and roadsides.

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Central and Eastern North America, with a concentration in the North

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Thousands of wildflowers grow on our national forests and grasslands, in many shapes, sizes, and colors. Celebrating Wildflowers periodically features a different wildflower plant found on our national forests and grasslands.

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Freshwater habitats with bountiful oxygen

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Native to Northern North America

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-Native to fresh waters in Eurasia
-Arrived in the Great Lakes in the 1980s via ballast water from Europe. They have spread rapidly throughout the Great Lakes region and into the large rivers of the eastern Mississippi drainage. They have also been found in Texas, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, and California.

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https://www.britannica.com/animal/caddisfly
http://www.troutnut.com/hatch/2623/Caddisfly-Pycnopsyche-Great-Autumn-Brown-Sedges

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Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Free and Open Access to Biodiversity Data.

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Invasive species -> flexible, freshwater lakes

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Full sun in moist, sandy, loamy, well-drained soils. Tolerates partial shade.

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https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/what-are-zebra-mussels-and-why-should-we-care-about-them

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Every creature is fascinating in its own way, including zebra mussels. Each organism has something that makes it unique. Be it the glass houses of the diatoms, the air-permeable skin of frogs, or the intense complexity of the human eye, every living thing has intrinsic interest and intrigue.

Sometimes, though, that interest is overshadowed by frustration at the species or creature. That is one of a couple issues with the invasive zebra mussels. They are annoying, they are not pleasant to have around, and they do not look immediately interesting. But they, just like every other clade, kingdom or culture, are special in their own important ways. Let's explore that a bit.

What is a zebra mussel?

Zebra mussels, or more specifically Dreissena polymorpha, are a species of freshwater bivalve.

They are native to the Black Sea and Caspian Sea in eastern Europe, and have two half-shells that they protect themselves with, just like their clam, oyster and scallop cousins. "Cousins" is a stretch, because the main difference between clams and mussels are the shape of the shell; in fact, based on genetics, zebra mussels (and quagga mussels, which are sibling species) are more closely related to several types of saltwater clams than they are any other mussel. Zebra mussels have a distinctly triangular shape instead of a rounded shape.

What do they eat?

Just like many other bivalves, zebra mussels are filter feeders.

They eat by sucking in water, filtering out all the particles, and spitting out what they do not want (along with the water). For us, it would be like turning a piece of cake into crumbs and "breathing" them in instead of just taking a bite. After zebra mussels filter out all the particles from the water, they pick out their favorite bits like fish feces, bits of decaying organic matter and microscopic organisms. What they pick out, they digest as food, and spit out the rest - including cyanobacteria (blue-green algae).

That is one of the interesting things about zebra mussels. They can sort through what they want to eat and spit out all the rest in a mucous-covered mess, and they do not even have hands! We generally have enough trouble sorting through socks on laundry day; imagine if we had to do that blindfolded, with our mouths?

What eats zebra mussels?

Where they are from, zebra mussels have a whole host of natural predators. Birds, fish and many other creatures consume these small crunchy-coated nuggets.

Here in northern Indiana, however, the list of organisms that can control the zebra mussel population is much, much more limited. Of all the species that live here, only a few fish have ever been seen to eat zebra mussels (specifically smallmouth bass, yellow perch and red-ear sunfish), and even then they do not eat enough to make much of a difference. Likely, the biggest predator here in the Midwest is the crayfish, which can eat dozens of small mussels.

On a related note, one species that definitely can but really should not eat zebra mussels is us, Homo sapiens. Eating zebra mussels is a health risk due to the fact that they are filter feeders. As they filter the water, pollutants like heavy metals or pesticides can get stuck and accumulate inside their shells. Do not try to cook them for dinner!

How do they spread?

There are two answers to this question: the biological answer and the overarching answer. Let's start with the science and then answer the more pertinent question.

Zebra mussels are hardcore organisms. They live fast, die often, and have hundreds of thousands of babies at a time. Zebra mussel larvae quickly grow little hair-like fins as they enter their next stage of life, free-swimming veligers. Within weeks the tiny veligers find a suitable surface to attach to, where they stick themselves and begin to grow into what we think of as a zebra mussel.

What surfaces do they like? Just about anything. Steel, wood, plastic and rocks are all places they are found frequently in Kosciusko County. Scientists have tested many things and zebra mussels stick to nearly all of them, even asbestos. Zebra mussels do not just collect a few a time; they prefer to colonize, and will quickly clog pipes and amass on the propellers and hulls of boats. Discarded shells that wash up onto beaches are also dangerously sharp underfoot.

This leads us to the real question, though. How do these bite-sized bivalves spread between lakes and bodies of water? The most common means of transportation are boats. They spread by sticking to boat hulls and other, related items commonly moved from lake to lake. We inadvertently give them a ride to new homes. This is why it is so important to carefully clean and dry your boat before transporting it!

How did zebra mussels get to the United States?

Zebra mussels are the original stowaway: They caught a ride on a cargo ship!

A veliger cannot swim across the ocean, and a mussel cannot be carried that far in a waterway's current. They were likely sucked up by ships in the Caspian or Black Seas as the boats filled up their ballast tanks with the sea's water. That water was not released until the ship got to the St. Lawrence Seaway, where the veligers were dumped into their new homes.

Zebra mussels in Kosciusko County lakes

Zebra mussels are interesting little organisms with interesting (albeit brief) lives and habits.

Although common in Kosciusko County lakes, zebra mussels are not found in all of them! In May-August 2019, the Lilly Center research team installed PVC multi-tiered samplers (you can see what they looked like in the pictures above) onto piers across 14 major lakes in Kosciusko County, 12 of which have been infested with zebra mussels for multiple years and two of which have yet to be invaded.

Key takeaways from our study:

Spawning is triggered by warm water, a fact evidenced by high colonization numbers in July.

The story of these mussels in our lakes is complex. The amount of summer spawning and colonization varies between our lakes and across them from area to area. Right now, zebra mussels seem to be a lot more prevalent in some lakes than others.

Careful recreation is still super important! Some of our major lakes - and maybe more of our smaller ones - are still uninfested!

Want to keep reading? Visit some of these helpful resources:
USGS: FAQ | What zebra mussels stick to | INDNR: Fact Sheet

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Zebra mussels: What they are, what they eat, and how they spread

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Zebra mussels are small, freshwater bivalves that spread quickly, reproduce in large numbers, and colonize on almost any surface.

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Symphyotrichum lanceolatum (White Panicle Aster)

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Symphyotrichum lanceolatum (White Panicle Aster) is a robust herbaceous perennial boasting numerous branched stems smothered by sprays of tiny star-like white flowers from mid-summer to fall. Rising from the stem tops and upper leaf axils, each blossom features 20-40 white rays surrounding a center…