School Is In - Part II
October 6, 2008
Written by: Katie
Edit: I fixed the pictures.
Does anyone know what this is? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
Is it Chamomile? I need to pull some and dry it. Where are my children?
Black Swallowtail Caterpillar.
It will turn into this.
Tent caterpillar.
Turns into this. And then it will fly in your hair as you are trying to unlock your front door while 12 children stand behind you shivering in the freezing cold. Well, it might.
We never did figure out who this fuzzy fellow is. Any guesses?
And since we have not put any limits on the children besides don’t pick up snakes they bring us all kinds of pests interesting bugs. I have not idea who or what this guy is. The only reason I have a picture of it because my camera has a zoom feature.
And yet another caterpillar. Is autumn always caterpillar season?
He’s trying to give you a high five. Or he might be flashing you. Not sure as I don’t speak ‘pillar.
Now try not to itch. It really harmless even if it is large and big and large.
In reality this is not a big ugly spider but hours of entertainment.
Are these rose hips?
And what is this? Someone help me keep my school hours up. I must know what this is.
Thanks for playing. I’ll be checking the comments regularly to find the answers to my questions.
October 6th, 2008 at 5:01 am
About the last two: no, I don’t think those are rose hips. You posted pictures of rose hips before. The yellow flowers are goldenrod.
October 6th, 2008 at 5:02 am
Alright, I pulled out my trusty field guide and think that yellow flower is a Slender-headed Euthamia (Euthamia leptocephala) … now the picture also looks a touch like the Downy Goldenrod (Solidago petiolaris) so you might look that one up too. The stuff we have around here DEFINATELY looks more like the Euthamia but I can’t really see the leaves or style of plant in your picture…it’s a place to start.
Can’t help you with the caterpillar…sadly my insect & spider field guide only has a smattering of caterpillars, and none that REALLY fit that picture.
What on earth were you doing up at 3 am…I started looking at your blog about 5:15 and it said posted 2 hours ago…AH, betcha you were feeding that baby.
Love all your “nature study”…I think that spider is SUPER cool…but I just COULD NOT let it crawl on me…(shudder)
October 6th, 2008 at 6:23 am
The flowers at the top look like the feverfew plants that I grew the past couple of years. They make a great tea and are good for headaches - especially migraines. My BIL suffers from them and uses feverfew tea to treat them.
October 6th, 2008 at 6:35 am
The flashy caterpillar looks much like a pale tussock moth. Here’s a link to a fab pdf of Missouri caterpillars http://extension.missouri.edu/explorepdf/agguides/pests/ipm1019.pdf.
The really big yellow spider is a Argiope auranita or yellow garden spider. Here is an okay Missouri spider link. Couldn’t find a great one. http://www.mdc.mo.gov/nathis/arthopo/mospider/kinds.htm I really, really do not like spiders. I have the creeps totally now. Ewww.
I didn’t figure out the flowers, other than the goldenrod, however here is a site for Missouri flowers.http://www.missouriwildflowerguide.com/default.asp
Have fun in your little slice of heaven. :)
October 6th, 2008 at 7:19 am
I don’t believe that first picture is matricaria recutita (just learned that bit of Latin) because the middle bits (serious botanist here) aren’t as fat and large and rounded as the images I have been able to find. Also, the petals are more thin and pointed on yours whereas most of the pictures I found show more rounded petals with a sort of indent at the end of each. I hope it’s something useful because my yard in NE Alabama is full of those sweet little flowers. I have always called them “weeds” or “white weed flowers” in the past. Not very scientific, I know.
October 6th, 2008 at 7:45 am
I think that the big yellow and black spider is a Garden Spider. They spin a neat web that looks like it has a zipper spun inside of it. We always called them “Zipper Spiders”, but I don’t think that is an official name.
One summer when I was little, we had one spin it’s web right outside of our living room windows. It was fascinating to watch the spider from inside the house. (I don’t think I could ever touch one.)
Abby
October 6th, 2008 at 8:14 am
MUST SMOOSH SPIDER!!!!!!!!! Yuck-O!!!! If I have a nightmare tonight, it is ALL your fault. Ick!!!! As for the other pictures, thanks for the schooling. Off to finish squirming now-BLECH!!!!!!!
October 6th, 2008 at 8:16 am
MUST SMOOSH SPIDER!!!!!!!!! Yuck-O!!!! If I have a nightmare tonight, it is ALL your fault. Ick!!!! As for the other pictures, thanks for the schooling. Off to finish squirming now-BLECH!!!!!!!
Also, the daisy-like flower at the top does LOOK like feverfew but feverfew’s foliage is more ‘chrysanthumum-like’ than the picture you’re showing.
October 6th, 2008 at 9:17 am
The white flower looks like a type of fleabane to me, but I’m not sure.
October 6th, 2008 at 9:25 am
Your children are so bug-friendly. All your pics are with the critters on hands/arms. Around here, those bugs would likely be in jars and then mounted in a collection! My oldest would drool over that spider, though he did get to add a black widow to his box last week. The blasted thing had the audacity to live in the blocks we used to build our wall. Very cool caterpillars!!!!!!! I had no idea there were so many in the Autumn.
I’m absolutely no help with herbs and flowers. I will just have to learn here from all the wonderful folks who commune over your blog comments.
October 6th, 2008 at 9:34 am
The spider is a garden spider, one of the orb weavers. To be exact it is a black and yellow argiope, or Argiope Aurantia. I posted on my blog about it awhile back as we had one area with at least five in a row in their webs. http://www.homesteadblogger.com/abigasfarm/109994/ but I won’t touch them, yuck.
I wish I knew what the little daisy one is and the yellow as we have tons of it too. I run myself in circles on the internet sometimes trying to find out what the plants, birds, and bugs are here too. Blessings.
October 6th, 2008 at 10:01 am
I was reading about the Garden spiders a while back, they can bit but it’s more painful than anything. We had one around our house, but we didn’t touch it. Nasty things, spiders. But we let the Garden ones live because they are predictable and avoidable! :)
NO, those are not rose hips!!!! I don’t know what they are, birds like ‘em. Not sure about the white flowers, but everything you posted is native to Kansas, too. :)
October 6th, 2008 at 11:21 am
How is Jillian doing? I feel like I haven’t seen pictures of her in ages.
October 6th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
You do tell them not touch brown recluses right? ;-)
October 6th, 2008 at 1:12 pm
Wow your “school room” is fascinating!
October 6th, 2008 at 3:38 pm
Awesome pictures! Who says homeschoolers need to be cooped up in a stuffy classroom all day to learn! We have a beautiful garden spider that we throw bugs to. We named her Charlotte- creative, I know ;-)
BTW, I love your blog!
October 6th, 2008 at 4:50 pm
I love your sense of humor! You make me smile.
I think the berries look like elderberries.
A friend of ours used to make elderberry jam & pie.
Or they might be poisonous berries? Yikes!
October 6th, 2008 at 5:09 pm
the white flowers look like German chamomile although it could be fleabane however, the leaves really favor chamomile.
October 6th, 2008 at 5:25 pm
Pretty sure that’s not chamomile, unless it’s a variety I’ve never seen before. Chamomile has a “cone” shaped yellow head, and smaller white petals. We grew chamomile here, but I don’t have a pic to show you….we also have those white flowers in the wild.
October 6th, 2008 at 5:56 pm
No, not elderberries. Those grow in large clumps and are usually a dark blue/purple. Plus, the leaf is all wrong. Elder leaves are oval-shaped and have serrated edges.
October 6th, 2008 at 7:46 pm
I am so impressed with the lense on your camera. Great pictures, Katie!
October 6th, 2008 at 9:21 pm
The berries are not rose hips, not elderberries, not pokeberries, but I don’t know what they are. The last picture looks like goldenrod. The first flower I thought was fleabane daisy, but not sure without seeing actual size, etc.