Nature Note:Daisy Fleabane

Beside a driveway,a tall white daisy plant is growing this summer.It is daisy fleabane,a native wildflower once believed to have anti-flea properties.The small flowers on this tall plant close at night.When they open in the morning,small native insects visit them.We used to call them sweat bees-tiny pollinating bees or flies of various types.Growing along roads and in fields and lots of the Northeast and North Central regions,and down through the Southern Appalachians,daisy fleabane blooms from May to October.It lends a striking elegance to the scene,such that you don't want to mow it.It's best to leave this native plant alone if you can possibly spare it a bit of space.It contributes to the landscape as an ecological member,as well as having aesthetic value.The little native pollinators rely on its nectar.

Crossing A Summer Field

I walk through a hay field just north of Camp David.With each afternoon step in near hundred degree Fahrenheit heat,hundreds of grasshoppers scatter.The grasshoppers are fine.It's what may lurk unseen that is troubling:venomous copperhead snakes;Lyme disease-carrying deer ticks;or Rocky Mountain spotted fever vector dog ticks.A hornet's nest may also be underfoot,along with the terribly poisonous brown recluse spider.
Fortunately,none of these threats are encountered.
Approaching the shallow streams at the west end of the field,the terrain is thickly matted dried grasses or rushes.The shallow streams seem to have dried up,but they are hazardous ditches obscured by the hummocks of dried vegetation,threatening a foot or leg injury.
Then again,the spiny and huge garlic mustard-not to mention the prickly teasel-present an obnoxious challenge.I think I am hearing an eastern coyote snarling from its day bed,but it stays in hiding.
An American bumble bee flies off a swamp milkweed,but doesn't seem angry with me.At one point,I realize I have lost my wallet.Fat chance of finding it in this thatchy place;yet incredibly I do just that,retracing my steps with only a little hope.