📜 EwA Week Highlights: Swallow-Wart, Rain Showers, Lady Slippers

[Mike McGlathery]

EwA Highlights May 19, 2025 Hello everyone,  Thanks for reading the May 19th EwA highlights. 📸 Let’s take a peek at one of EwA’s Anecdata projects, EwA Invasive Flora Patrol. This project was quite active this past week, with over 50 observations! It is a critical time of year for tracking invasive plants such as this black swallow-wort (Vincetoxicum nigrum) observed by user @cynthiastillinger. Black swallow-wort is an aggressively growing species that can crowd out important native plants such as milkweeds and goldenrods. EwA Invasive Flora Patrol Record (© @cynthiastillinger · Somerville, MA · May 16, 2025)  We’ve been getting a lot of rain so far this spring, and that makes for a lot of mushrooms. Simon observed these oysterling (genus Crepidotus) in Somerville on Friday. This diverse and well-studied genus of mushrooms usually grows on decaying wood.  EwA iNaturalist Record (© sgurvets · Somerville, MA · May 16, 2025)  The pink lady slipper (Cypripedium acaule) was again EwA’s most observed species this week. The beauty and conspicuous color of this plant make it hard to miss when you’re surveying the forest floor. Another thing that sometimes makes it hard to miss is the plant’s tendency to grow in small colonies, such as the one depicted in this observation from Kristian. EwA iNaturalist Record (© kdemary · Lexington, MA · May 14, 2025)  📊 Thanks to everyone for your great biodiversity records this week, totaling 913 observations of 440 distinct species. If you’re curious about the records from this week that have been validated by the iNat community so far, you can find them » here. 🏆 Running tally: To date, we have recorded 233,505 observations of 12,492 distinct species! Check out our EwA umbrella project, see the details per site/observer, and more » here. 📅 EwA Upcoming Public Events Ewa Field Events » Check the EwA Spring [ Event details and registration » ] Don’t miss some great opportunities to follow the rhythm of the season in our local habitats and in the local wildlife! Space is limited for all our field events. Wildlife ethics is important to us and we seek to avoid putting the pressure on natural habitats which large gatherings unavoidably do. We are asking our audience to register-and-commit (or cancel when you know you can’t come) to avoid no-shows. EwA Fieldwork (and Resources) It’s a great time to join our monitoring programs. Check EwA’s Volunteer Program Calendar 📅  to know when things happen. And if a session is of interest to you, don’t hesitate to reach out to get the rendezvous location. 📅 EwA Sites Map | 🌱 Site Protocols and Guides · Field Rosters · Field Notes » All here! | ℹ️ More about EwA’s Citizen Science Program » Here ❓ Do you have any questions? Don’t be shy. Just email me or reply to this thread.  That’s all for this week—hope you have a good one! -Mike