This is one of my "new favorites." I was not familiar with Bartonia verna (White Screwstem) until just a few weeks ago. It actually stumped me for a long while, but I finally placed it in the Gentian family. It is an early bloomer from the coastal plain. I think I took this picture during the third week of January. I even found one flower that had parts that were five-meric instead of the normal four.

You may have noticed the reddish/brown blurs in the trees as you drive the roads of your life. Some of those reddish blurs are Acer rubrum, Red Maple flowers. They are typically in bloom from mid-February through early March.

This is my dog, Bowie. He has his pet monkey on his back. He loves the little guy. Among his other "favorite toys" he has a bear (b'ar), pig, ball, etc. Isn't he adorable?

Keeping with my unintentional "survey of all kingdoms from Lillian Swamp" I am posting a picture of Ophrydium. Ophrydium versatile is a sessile ciliate from Kingdom Protista that forms green, gelatinous colonies. Chlorophyll a and b impart a green color to Ophrydium masses due to 400-500 Chlorella-like endosymbionts in each peritrich. Translation: These are slimy balls made up of a bunch of smaller organisms that are green. They do not indicate water quality issues, rather they act much like tiny water filters.

Amphiuma means
I found this guy eating chicken liver from a minnow trap that we put out for fish inventories in Lillian Swamp. I guess he was hungry! The Two-toed Amphiuma is a large, eel-like aquatic salamander that can reach maximum length up to 3 feet or more. All four limbs are present, but extremely tiny, and there are only two toes on each. They are black to dark brown with a dark gray belly. All Amphiumas undergo an incomplete metamorphosis (transformation from larva to adult), retaining one of the three gill slits and never developing eyelids. The number of twos distinguishes the three species of Amphiuma, but you have to catch one to be able to count them. They can also be differentiated on the basis of coloration and body size.