Moonflower Observations August Third

It was 66 degrees at ten to 6 this morning, but now that it is 10 am, it is already 75.  Took three dogs out leashed for a walk, and it felt like I was trying to keep a sled dog team from tangling up.  Paid attention to where the 'moonflower' is in the forest, and it was open still, that was maybe at 9 am. 

A local wild moonflower, which is actually a morning glory!

Was talking with my friend again about the name 'moonflower'.  It is used for so many flowers that open at night.  This wild 'moonflower' does not, in fact, it opens up in the early morning, closes in the afternoon and is closed up tight by night.  But it is a local name for it.  I have looked at it over the years and I think it is actually a form of 'bindweed', 'convolvulus', 'morning glory'.  I always forget how to spell convolvulus - so my mnemonic for it is 'conVO-L-VIEW-lus'... otherwise I stick more 'v's in there than should be and forget the 'l'.

Morning glory, 'bindweed' and actual moonflower are in the plant family Ipomoea, which is still part of the same larger family, Convolvulacea that includes sweet potatoes!.  We try to plant some of the 'actual' moonflowers in our garden, each year, as well.  They have large light colored seeds, like a spanish peanut without the red skin or split down the middle.  Ipomoea alba', the 'actual moonflower',  flowers do bloom at night, and their leaves are just slightly different looking coming up than morning glories.  They are 'fatter' and more true heart-shaped, from what I remember. 

I did collect moonflower seeds a few years here in the pole garden, but this last year they did not do well.  I planted a package of them in the pole garden this year and I am going to see how they've done soon, I hope.  This year, many of the morning glories were not doing well, either - until just recently.  Now I think over the next few weeks we will have a proliferation of blue and purple blooms!  I will have to catch them early in the mornings, especially when the blue ones begin to bloom.

'Heavenly blue' morning glories from a few years back.  I have them growing in the pole garden with moonflower this year, but they have not yet bloomed - only the Grandpa Ott in the main garden so far.

I don't currently have any moonflower seeds, but take a look at this blog post by Brian M. Breczinski to see the difference in the seeds!

Our forest variety is large trumpet-flowered, white with purple centers and faint purple streaks going through.  They used to also grow in a little stretch down our road, but time and mowing and dogs has made that a rare occurrence.  Still, each July I keep an eye out for them.  Perhaps there just wasn't enough seed from the plants each year to survive all the traffic there.

again, for comparison with below

We used to take a flower or two from them, and drop it near our steps.  For several years we had full-grown moonflowers, like those above in the picture, growing by the stairs.  Then, one year, they were all smaller, with tiny white flowers.  We ended up with a mutation, I believe, to the plant you see below.  These flowers are the size of my pinky fingernail, and that is all the larger they ever get.

This year I collected seeds from the pods before we made our new raised bed in the location by the stairs.  The seeds were prolific, and about half the size of regular morning glory seed - closer, in fact, to the size of the onion seeds I was working with the other day.  And yet, we still have so many of them growing up the side of the house on either side (and a bit over and into the bed).  I hope to continue to encourage this 'natural' wlidflower in our area - even if others call it bindweed.  I think it serves the bees and other pollinators well, and will only pull it out where it is actually choking out the plants we want to keep.

Some Joys

Seeing the big hawk on our dog walk.  That is her 'territory' and she wants to make sure everyone knows it.  When she is not around, lots of little songbirds congregate on the power lines there.  When she is around - they're ZIP gone.  

Why is it that when the puddles grow lots of scum that is the exact place the dogs want to drink their fill and then some?

Some goals

I was thinking about on the dog walk this morning:

Capture some pictures of the woods moonflower I see every morning - when the dogs aren't all in my hands.  Capture some more pictures and look for seed in the cat's ear that is also on that road.  Find out what that bright yellow groundcover is going down into the culvert by the mailbox. 

Other Things:

Had to fix the chicken yard where Charlotte dug INTO it, and the fence to the dog yard where she dug OUT of it.  I need to buy some more rebar poles and some more netting.  She broke the sedum plant.. I didn't look into if I could root it, because I was too busy wiring and pounding in stakes.

Will do some more almanac things tonight, but probably not too much  I have a long car trip to go do now, and won't be back until almost evening.

After Sunset

Golden Hour began at 7:30 pm, and lasted nearly until 8.  I walked the dogs out there to the meadow road and saw the sky turning lavendar and pink towards the southwest.  I got pictures of the yellow groundcover I was looking at this morning but will do some studying on it tomorrow.  I was thinking on the Joe Pye Weed all yesterday and today and finally have something to show for it tomorrow!  Good night, all!