florjus blog

Autumn 2024

Bradford Pear, Callery Pear or a Cross Between the Two?

From a distance, this bare tree looked like it was hung with round orange baubles.  Wild persimmons?  No.  A mutant callery pear?  That didn't seem right either; the fruit is too big.

I looked around furtively.  Then decided to bravely walk through the long grass to investigate.  Crab apple? Umm... no.

I admit to wanting to taste one.  But it's suspect how so many fruit still hangs on the tree in late autumn.  Deer should've gobbled them up.  Maybe they're waiting for them to ferment into an intoxicating treat.

So I can't identify this tree.  It's cute, though.

Small and orange apple like fruit hang on bare branches.

Looks like crab apples from afar. 

A silhouette of round fruit hanging from a bare tree.

A kinda spooky silhouette from below.

A close up of small and orange apple like fruit.

Looks like large callery pears up close.

Wild Privet Berries (Ligustrum Vulgare)

Privet is a popular garden shrub plant.  Understandably so.  It is a handsome evergreen (in some climates).  But it's natural form is rarely good enough for many gardeners; it must be clipped hard into geometric shapes.  With some poor plants barely surviving the onslaught.

Okay.  Your garden, your privet.  Do what you will.

I'd never seen privet flowers or berries until a few years ago.  All on shrubs growing wild in a neglected or abandoned space. The shrubs growing in sun form a tight berry cluster.  While those growing in shade have a graceful droopiness.  Like the branch in the photo.

I couldn't resist snipping a branch for an indoor photo shoot.  Just imagine those dark (and toxic) berries in a floral arrangement.  

Of course, I love them.  Of course, they're potentially invasive.

A thin, drooping branch of dark purple privet berries on black paper.
A bird silhouette in the leafless branches of a black walnut tree.
The waxing gibbous moon peeks through wispy clouds above a bare black walnut tree.
Contorted black walnut tree branches frame the waxing moon.
The waxing moon in the blue sky hangs above a bare branched black walnut tree.

October Vibe

Black walnut tree leaves are one of the first to change color and fall.  What's revealed are the sinuous branches.

Add the waxing moon, an unimpressed feral cat and the silhouette of a contemplative bird.  And a mystical mood is set.


A feral cat rests its front legs on a log in the underbrush.

Spotted Lantern Fly (L. delicata) aka SLF

I was checking out this river birch's (Betula Nigra) peeling bark when an elegant winged insect caught my eye.  I wouldn't have noticed it if that sliver of red wasn't peeking through spotted forewings.  I happened to look up the tree trunk and saw it wasn't alone.

These planthoppers are a long way from home.  Home was originally China and Vietnam, gradually spreading to Korea and Japan.  The first recorded sighting in the US was in 2014.

Spotted lantern flies form swarms that feed on the sap of several plants.  This weaken plants.  The honeydew lantern flies excrete encourages disease such as sooty mold.  Thus much of the information about these fetching insects is how to eradicate them.

Most of my nature discoveries are inevitably unwelcome plants and creatures.  Such is life?

A spotted lantern fly rests on the peeling bark of a river birch tree.
Spotted lantern flies gather almost undetected on a river birch tree trunk.