The three lined potato beetle (Lema trilineata) has been pushed out of the limelight by the colorado potato beetle, wich moved eastward from the Rockies in the 1850s. The larvae of these species do quite the job on cultivated potato, tomato and eggplant foliage. I grow none of those in my garden, and none of my neighbors do either. Lema trilineata prefers to feed on the flowering plant species of the Solanaceae family, which contains cultivars and edibles such as potato, pepper, tomato, as well as poisonous plants such as the nightshades. Since I have a fair amount of climbing nightshade in the yard, I can see why this beetle would be present. In the picture, Lema trilineata is resting on jewelweed leaves, but Solanum dulcamara is all over the place.
Lema trilineata Cummaquid July 2011
The leaves of this European plant are a grayish-green color with soft, velvety hairs. Common mullein is a biennial. In its first year, it grows leaves in a basal rosette It sends up a flower stalk and produces seeds in the second year. Most of the flowering mullein plants I’ve seen have been a respectable 3 to 5 feet tall. The specimen in the picture measures 8 feet tall!
This annual plant goes by many names, but jewelweed or spotted touch-me-not seem most appropriate. Dew often gathers in glistening drops on the flowers, and it produces long seed capsules that split and propel the seeds when touched. Jewelweed likes it moist and is at home in woods and on streambanks. The flowers are frequently visited by hummingbirds.
Phytolacca americana is a tall fast-growing perennial, native to the eastern US. Currently pokeweed is starting to show greenish-white flowers, and in late summer and fall the plant will produce dark red berries that grow even darker over time. The juice of the berries was once used as an ink substitute, and to add color to wines. Native Americans used the berries to color their horses. Most parts of the plants are extremely poisonous to mammals and humans, especially the root, berries, and flat seeds within those berries. Birds can eat the fruit because they pass the seeds intact.
This native member of the pea family is fairly abundant in wet thickets and low lying areas of the bay side on Cape Cod. If you take a bike ride through the coastal areas of Yarmouth and Barnstable you will see the pink and blue hues of Lathyrus palustris.
For some reason I always associated this plant with poisons brewed back in medieval times, but that would have been deadly nightshade (Atropa belladonna). This plant from Eurasia is to be found all over the cape in moist and semi-shaded thickets and brush. It is all over my yard as well.
The common name of this pretty little annual or biennial flower comes from the town of Deptford in England where the plant grew abundantly. Deptford has long since been incorporated into larger London, and any pasture or woodland has been paved over or covered in concrete. This plant is native to most of Europe and can now be found in North America. It is often cultivated because of its nice pink flowers. I found a few of these plants in the Brewster Natural History Museum, near the marsh.