Actually, they have been blooming for weeks now. It seems to take them a while to open fully, possibly because they are just so enormous. There are magnolia trees everywhere around here, and the scent is wonderful.

I purposely included my hand in one of the shots in order to provide a size comparison. These are *big* blossoms. They rival even the sycamore leaves I photographed last fall (and will post about at some point), one lobe of which was about the same size as my shoe.

Here is a magnolia blossom that has not opened up yet.:

And here is a little slideshow showing a close-up of the interior of a magnolia blossom:

The curly bits on top that look surprisingly like calamari are called carpels (part of the female part of the plant) and the narrow, yellow, stick-like parts that make up the base are called stamens (part of the male part of the plant). As I discovered, the stamens fall out en masse with the slightest touch, and tend to collect in the bottom-most petals of the flower. I think they look rather like matchsticks.

Here you can see the blossoms juxtaposed with the beautiful, glossy leaves:

Other beautiful plants still in bloom include the coral honeysuckle (at least, I think that is what this is):

and these tiny, daisy-like flowers. Unfortunately I was unable to identify them because I spotted them while walking around my building at work, and didn’t have a flower ID guide with me. They look rather like ox-eyed daisies, so I’m assuming for now that they are some kind of daisy.

Also on the subject of the beautiful area around my building, check out the woods that nestle right up against it:

I love it. I just wish I had an office that looked down on the woods rather than the parking lot. Our HR guy has an office on the first floor overlooking the forest and spots snakes all the time. I love watching snakes move, especially through the woods. They look like they are sailing across the forest floor.

While generally I have enjoyed living in North Carolina, there is one aspect of life here that I have difficulty dealing with (okay, a few, starting with the political climate and followed by the heat), and that is all the POISON IVY!

It is unbelievable. The stuff is everywhere. I can’t even get into the woods behind my apartment anymore because the stuff is so thick. I don’t just mean that there is a patch of it- there is a veritable garden. As if some urushiophile planted it, lovingly watered it everyday, sang to it, and read it bedtime stories until it grew as lush and thick as a miniature poison ivy jungle.

Think I’m kidding? Here are some pictures of the area behind the apartment immediately past mine:

Nearly every plant in these pictures, except for some plants on the periphery and the English ivy hiding below, is a poison ivy plant.

There is also a sort of path of mini plants that are making their way towards my neighbor’s apartment. If they turn to the right at all, they’re history.

All this poison ivy is really a shame, because there are some interesting plants that are now unreachable due to the poison ivy menace. For instance, this baby Devil’s Walking Stick, visible below in the picture below (which is fairly blurry because I had to keep my distance from its immediate neighbors):

Notice that its thorny trunk is green, rather than brown. I had never seen that before, that is until I noticed the new growth on this little sapling’s big brother, standing about 5 feet away and also surrounded by poison ivy, which I will take a picture of at some point (the picture came out too blurry to post). These awesome native Pacific West trees are all over in the woods behind my apartment, and some of them are quite large. At some point I will post some of the other pictures I have taken of these unique trees.

But first, I want to show the root (pun intended) of this expansive growth of poison ivy plants.

That wrist-thick hairy brown rope is the poison ivy vine. The hairs on the vine are actually the poison ivy’s aerial roots. I have read that you can kill the plant by severing the vine (although you have to be careful how you go about it), and I am definitely somewhat tempted to give it a shot. I would have to do some more reading though, and plan it out carefully so as not to expose myself to the poison ivy.

Anyway, as I was walking around my apartment building taking shots of poison ivy, I discovered this:

That (as identified for me by Sarah Haggerty at the last Plant Guild class), is a tulip poplar flower. Which means that there is a tulip poplar tree around my building, and once I started looking it was easy to spot. I’ll have to post a picture at some point, as they have very interesting leaves. The slider below shows some tulip poplar flowers I found at Lake Johnson (these are the ones Sarah identified):

Speaking of the Piedmont Wildlife Center, the Wild Harvest class (Shoots and Summer Greens) yesterday was awesome, but that will have to wait for another post.

Before I sign off, I just wanted to post some pictures of my awesome new Coleman instant 4-man tent that is now set up on my patio. Perfect for mosquito-free summer chillin’, as well as providing a safe place for Ollie to enjoy the outdoors (he hasn’t been in there yet).