Everything Looks Like a Nail

Do you know the expression, "when you are a hammer, everything looks like a nail?"  I'm afraid I've become that hammer.

I recently got the first lens that one could reasonably call "pro" quality.  It's the Canon EF-S 70-200mm f/4L telephoto lens.  So, what's one of the first things that I did with a telephoto lens?  I shot a flower macro, of course.

There must be a clinic to help people with my kind of problem.  When I come back from it, I hope to post some actual telephoto pictures.

Bouncing Bet

Common Soapwort (Saponaria officinalis) is an alien species growing along the Mon River rail trail south of the Hildebrandt lock & dam.  One of its other common names is Bouncing Bet, which apparently is named for a washer-woman.  Soapwort has a long history as a natural soap.  I had originally mistaken it for a phlox.

Tall Anemone

I almost missed the Tall Anemone (Anemone virginiana) hiding in some even taller growth along the Mon River rail trail south of the Hildebrandt lock & dam.

I took a reference shot with the leaves to help identify the plant.  Although it is blurry, I'm including it here:

The leaves are the smaller ones, which look like parsley, in the bottom-right.  All of the larger leaves belong to some larger plants that were growing all around it.

The blooms are  fairly small.  They seemed more yellowish, but I finally identified this plant in the white blooms section of my old field guide.

Interestingly, one of the other names for this plant is tumbleweed. This is because the fruit resembles a tumbleweed in that it is wind-dispersed and tumbles.

Dogbane

A few Apocynum cannabinum were beginning to bloom along the rail trail down from Masontown on June 17.  I didn't get off many shots, and this blurry specimen is the best of those.

The common name of this native plant is Dogbane, but it is also known as Hemp Dogbane, Indian Hemp, or Rheumatism Root.  Aside from the poisonous nature of this plant, its other names reflect its use as a source of fiber (Indians used it to make string and fabric) and as an herbal remedy for rheumatism (also, apparently, for syphilis, intestinal worms, fever, asthma and dysentery).

According to a rather extensive USDA Forest Service web page entry, this is yet another plant that thrives in disturbed areas (can you say "ruderal?"), preferring damp locations along streams and ditches. This seems to be a common theme for most of the plants that I've found along the Masontown-to-Morgantown stretch of the rail trail.

Mullein

Meet Verbascum thapsus, the Great or Common Mullein.  It's another non-native plant that's become quite at home here.  And like the Creeping Thistle that we met yesterday, the Mullein is a ruderal species that thrives on disturbed land.  This picture was taken right alongside the bike trail down from Masontown, which is pretty disturbed land in more ways than one.

The Wikipedia article on the Mullein is quite extensive.  From it, I learned that the flowers are a source of yellow dye.  The plant also has numerous medicinal properties, and it was quickly adopted by native Americans for use against lung ailments.

Its Ukrainian name is korov'iak.  Other common names for the Mullein are

• Cowboy toilet paper
• Shepherd's staff
• Bullicks lungwort
• Flannel Mullein
• Feltwort

Ruderal awakening

Meet Cirsium arvense, a thistle species that's native throughout Europe and northern Asia, but it has become so at home here that one of its common names is Canadian Thistle.  Creeping Thistle seems to be the standard name.

It is considered a noxious weed in these here United States.  It is also a "ruderal species," which is a plant species that is first to colonize disturbed lands.  This plant was growing along a combination of railroad cut (currently a bicycle rail trail below Masontown) and what I believe to be a gas line.

MacroMonday

Butterfly-weed (Asclepias tuberosa) taken yesterday morning off of the bike trail near Masontown.  Asclepias tuberosa is a species of milkweed native to eastern North America.  It is the larval food plant of the Monarch butterfly.  I've always looked for those caterpillars on "regular" old milkweed plants.   I'll have to give these a closer inspection for caterpillars in the future.