Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: Stinkweed

Most of my plant photos are macros of single flowers, but I decided to take and post this one to show a mass of these Pennycress/Stinkweed seedpods. These dry, flat pods are, in fact, quite attractive. "This common plant, also known as Stinkweed, forms dense stands on disturbed soil. Regarded in restoration and landscaping as a useful volunteer cover crop. Not invasive, but may exclude native colonizers of disturbed soil. A prolific producer of very persistent seed. It has developed herbicide resistance at a few Alberta sites." www.anpc.ab.ca/wiki/index.php/Thlaspi_arvense This photo was taken on 23 July 2015, at Darryl Teskey's place. On this day, five of us spent the day botanizing the land belonging to Darryl Teskey, SW of Calgary and W of Millarville (maybe a 40-minute drive from Calgary). This was the first time I had been there and I'm so glad I was invited to go - I would have missed all sorts of things, including a family of Ruffed Grouse and several fungi. These Grouse were the rare rufous-morph, and we startled them when we were walking through the forest in their direction. Usually, you don't see Grouse because they are so well-hidden. When you get fairly close (sometimes very close) to them, they suddenly "explode" from the tangle of shrubs and plants of the forest floor, making ones heart beat fast! We were taken by surprise when we came across a nearby statue of Saint Francis of Assisi, who is known as the patron saint of animals and the environment. A nice idea, I thought. Our walk took us over grassland and through forest, many places treacherous with so many fallen logs which were often barely visible. I have never, ever seen so many tiny Skipper butterflies - there must have been hundreds or even thousands of these bright orange beauties that were flying or perched on flowers of every colour. Fortunately, the rain stayed away until we started driving back to Calgary. Quite a lot of black clouds, reminding me of the tornado that passed through Calgary just the day before (22 July 2015). Our purpose, as always, was to find and list everything that we saw - wildflowers, trees, grasses, birds, insects, fungi, etc.. Our leader then compiles an extensive list of our finds and this is later sent to the landowner, along with any photos that we might take. Always a win/win situation, as the landowner then has a much better idea of just what is on his property, and we have a most enjoyable day.

Nothing but rain, rain, and more rain this last week! Just when there were so many walks/outings that I was going on. Quickly snapped this photo after photographing a hillside that is completely covered in the invasive weed, Stinkweed. Just liked the brilliant yellow and the bright red of the rain jackets on such a miserable, gloomy morning. These are four of my birding and botanizing "buddies" - nothing keeps THEM at home when it's raining and there are interesting "things" to see and hear : ). Electricity wires are so annoying....couldn't avoid them, unfortunately. The middle two guys pick up litter/major garbage such as tires, etc., probably every single day, when they go out walking to look for birds and plants. They keep our parks/natural areas as clean and tidy as is humanly possible. Thanks to them, the natural areas can be enjoyed without the eyesore of garbage, for the most part. Of course, people being people, there is always new litter being disgarded, but these guys are doing an amazing job - they deserve a huge thank you! Later: many thanks, Phil, for removing the annoying wires from my photo - much appreciated!

These are the dried seedpods of the Stinkweed/Pennycress plant. Introduced from Eurasia, it grows in fields, gardens, roadsides and waste areas. Grows April to October in Alberta. Stinkweed contains large amounts of Vitamin C. Took this ages ago with my old Olympus C750, not with my new FZ18.