Father Pitt

Category: Nature

  • Japanese Maple

    Japanese maple in fall color
    Kodak EasyShare Max Z990.

  • Virginia Creeper

    Virginia Creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia) in fall color
    Virginia Creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia) in fall color
    Virginia Creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia) in fall color
    Nikon COOLPIX P100.
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  • Sunset

    Sunset with a Pittsburgh Palm (Ailanthus altissima)

  • Pumpkin Blossoms

    Pumpkin blossom

    You have to get up early in the morning to catch pumpkin blossoms at their peak. They’re spectacularly huge, but they start to wither as soon as the sun comes out. Here are two from a city garden that by this time of the year is mostly pumpkin vines.

    Pumpkin blossom
    Nikon COOLPIX P100.
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  • Butterfly Weed and Little Black Bees

    Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa) blooming in the Beechview neighborhood of Pittsburgh

    Tiny black bees (probably some species of Chelostoma, but the entomologically inclined are earnestly invited to correct us) enjoying flowers on two slightly different shades of Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa).

    Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa) blooming in the Beechview neighborhood of Pittsburgh
    Fujifilm FinePix HS10.

  • Daylilies After the Rain

    Daylily flower with raindrops
    Daylily flower with raindrops
    Daylily flower with raindrops
    Daylily flower with raindrops
    Daylily flower with raindrops
    Daylily flower with raindrops
    Daylily flower with raindrops
    Olympus E-20N.

  • Spotted Lanternfly Nymph on Cosmos

    Olympus EN-20 with cheap screw-on close-up lens.

    Another picture of a Spotted Lanternfly nymph, just because it was posing so decoratively on a ray of Cosmos sulphureus.

  • Spotted Lanternfly Nymph

    Early nymph of spotted lanternfly (Lycorma delicatula)
    Olympus E-20N with cheap screw-on close-up lens.

    These little black bugs with sporty polka dots are the earlier nymph stage of the spotted lanternfly (Lycorma delicatula), the pest that has invaded Pittsburgh by the zillions and is threatening to kill off our local population of Tree of Heaven (Ailanthus altissima), another invasive pest that is the spotted lanternfly’s primary host. Old Pa Pitt recalls an old Roman saying about the curse of an answered prayer that seems appropriate here.

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  • Pumpkin Blossom in the Rain

    Wet pumpkin blossom
    Nikon COOLPIX P100.
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  • Another Look at Shakespeare’s Honeysuckle

    We saw Lonicera periclymenum last year, and it’s blooming again, so we can take another look. This is what Shakespeare meant by “honeysuckle,” and unlike the closely related Japanese Honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica), this one is a polite guest that doesn’t take over whole counties.

    Nikon COOLPIX P100.
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