Compass plant, Silphium laciniatum, The Wilderness Center, Stark County 12 August 2017, Lisa K. Schlag

Aldo Leopold wrote in A Sand County Almanac, "Silphium first became a personality to me when I tried to dig one up to move to my farm.  It was like digging an oak sapling.  After half an hour of hot grimy labor the root was still enlarging,...  I got no Silphium, but I learned by what elaborate stratagems it contrives to weather the prairie droughts."

Seedbox, Ludwigia alternifolia, Veterans Memorial Park, Lake County 17 August 2017, Lisa K. Schlag

herbarium specimen image, The Ohio State University Herbarium

Viceroy butterfly basking on leaf of common milkweed, Asclepias syriaca, Lake Erie Bluffs, Lake County 13 August 2017, Lisa K. Schlag

viceroy VS monarch image, themagnificentmonarchbutterfly.weebly.com

Spring peeper sitting on frond of sensitive fern, Onoclea sensibilis, Hiram Township private property, Portage County 10 August 2017, Lisa K. Schlag

Willow pinecone gall on Salix sp. in summer, Hiram Township private property, Portage County 10 August 2017, Lisa K. Schlag

article:  Weird Willow Pinecone Galls and a Gall-Conversion!, BYGL, The Ohio State University

Monarch butterfly sipping nectar from flower of common milkweed, Asclepias syriaca, North Kingsville Sand Barrens, Ashtabula County 5 August 2017, Lisa K. Schlag

Gray hairstreak butterfly perching on gray-headed coneflower, Ratibida pinnata, The Wilderness Center, Stark County 15 July 2017, Lisa K. Schlag

This Ohio native plant has many common names:  gray-headed coneflower, gray-head prairie coneflower, yellow coneflower ....  The USDA Plants database recognizes only pinnate prairie coneflower as a common name.  For more information:  USDA Plants Fact Sheet

Downy rattlesnake plantain, Gooyera pubescens, Hiram Township private property, Portage County 10 August 2017, Lisa K. Schlag

Note:  the cylindrical arrangement of the upward-blooming flowers along the densely woolly stem is not one-sided or spiral-twisted.  For more information:  USDA Plants Database and USDA Plants Fact Sheet

Downy rattlesnake plantain, Gooyera pubescens, Hiram Township private property, Portage County 22 July 2017, Lisa K. Schlag

For more information:  USDA Plants Database and USDA Plants Fact Sheet

Native red lady beetle or polished lady beetle, Cycloneda munda, observed on underside of leaf of wingstem, Actinomeris alternifolia, Vermilion River Reservation - Bacon Woods, Erie County 27 July 2017, Lisa K. Schlag

Wood nettle, Laportea canadensis, Vermilion River Reservation - Bacon Woods, Erie County 27 July 2017, Lisa K. Schlag

Wood nettle is native to Ohio and is the only nettle with alternate leaves according to Newcomb's Wildflower Guide.  Wood nettle has stiff stinging hairs covering the stem, leaf petiole, and leaf underside.  Similar to stinging nettle, Urtica dioica, in this regard; however, stinging nettle is not native and has opposite leaves.