October 14th, 2019
4:16pm – 4:49pm
Today, at my sit-spot, at 4:16 in the afternoon, the skies were very clear and blue, without a cloud in sight. The sun was bright and beaming at an angle southwest from where I was sitting. It was a nice day, with a slight breeze and a lot of sun, at a good 76℉.
As I was sitting, a mostly dark red plant caught my eye southeast, across the stream I was sitting in front of. It was growing on the edges above the very dried-out stream. It stood out in contrast to the other plants around, which were either still very green or barren from the falling of leaves, so I chose it because of its uniqueness. I wasn’t a very dense bush-like plant, but the color really made it seem like so. I wanted a more detailed, closer look, so I walked to the other side of the stream. It was a plant with large leaves, which hung from very thin, flimsy stems from the main branch. The leaves were in assorted shades of dark, deep red, some of which were burgundy, and some of which were red with an ombre including green, indicating the changes in color due to seasonal changes. The leaves were about as large as my hands, which are larger than the average girl. The leaves were symmetrical, resembling, but not, a chestnut tree leaf. It had 5 points on each blade, resembling a hand almost; the shape of the leaf was a palmate leaf shape. The plant presented a plethora of leaves on it, making the plant more apparent especially with the unique color. The stems and veins of the leaves were of a very light color, either faded red or faded green.They contrasted perfectly with the depth of the red. The color was so pretty and captivating, that I could barely focus on the actual detailing. But, as I looked closer, that issue quickly dissolved.
As I looked more intently, many insects were crawling up and down the plant, as well as on the ground below the plant. Four-petaled, dried-up, little flowers were grown in multitudes off of an almost dead part of the plant. I only noticed at the end of my observations that there was
actually a snake on one of the stems of the plant! It was skinny and gray, wrapped around one of the almost dead, dried-up stems (the ones with the flowers). It was barely noticeable in comparison to the plant’s vibrant color, but it definitely alarmed me when I noticed. It hung itself through the leaves, with its head not showing. All in all, it was a pretty unique plant amongst many of the same plants.
After some heavy research, I found out this plant is the plant of the oakleaf hydrangeas (Hydrangea quercifolia). They are an upright, multi-stemmed, deciduous shrub. They are native to moist woods and stream banks. They are characterized by medium-sized, broad leaves and white hydrangea bunches, but in the fall, the leaves turn a deep red color, almost to a red-purple color, due to full exposure of the sun and cool weather.
Identifying the plant took a hot minute. Searching up descriptions of what it looked like were too broad; Google ended up pulling a lot of maple leaf websites, since I at first mistaken that the red was the plants’ natural color. Because of that, I actually made sure I took some very detailed and clear pictures to search up the pictures. I compared the pictures that were pulled up, and I finally found a match, from a Picture Identifier App I used on my phone. I was hesitant because I am definitely not an expert, so I didn’t want to misidentify the plant. But, with more photographic comparisons, I finally settled into the identification.
Focusing on an individual plant was interesting and actually more fun, especially recording the observations. When you focus on one subject, you are able to apply more intricate details to it, and it can therefore lead to a further identification of the area around the subject and how they interact. I am not the best at identifying even the most common plants, so it was a little challenging just trying to get started in identification, but I did manage to describe it and identify it to the best of my ability. The fact that I totally missed a SNAKE as an organism interacting with it because I was focused on trying to identify it is funny. There were not a lot of distractions, with the exception of all of the mosquitoes attacking me, and this experience was a very good one, and I learned a new organism that I can hopefully identify on my own time!
Bibliography
Hydrangea quercifolia. (n.d.). Retrieved October 14, 2019, from
https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/hydrangea-quercifolia/.
I wonder what the benefit of being so brightly colored is for this plant.
At my house there are a lot of hydrangeas around the river. I have always loved the shrub. I’m glad you got to identify and study it.