Pickerel-What? Weed by Name, Wonder by Nature.

Last year, I revisited a friend’s ranch just outside Caldwell, Texas, for a refresher on macro photography of bees and odonates in flight. After an early morning session photographing bees, I found myself gravitating toward other treats on his property. There were plenty of wildflower fields around and even a small pond.

I walked around looking for new subjects to photograph. Near the pond, I saw many reeds and pickerelweed — and discovered a world of opportunities. Here are four images from that morning session that came up totally unexpectedly.

So… is pickerelweed actually a weed?

Short answer: no. Pickerelweed (Pontederia cordata) is a native, emergent aquatic perennial found from Nova Scotia south through Florida and across to Texas. The “weed” in the name has nothing to do with being a nuisance — it simply points to the shallow-water habitat it shares with the pickerel fish.

A few things worth knowing the next time you spot it crowding a pond margin:

• It blooms from late spring well into fall, so its tall purple spikes feed bees, butterflies, and other pollinators for months on end.
• Its tangled underwater roots hold the shoreline together, slow down erosion, and give little fish and tadpoles a safe place to hide.
• It’s even edible: the young leaves are nice in a salad, the tender shoots can be cooked like greens, and the small seeds can be eaten fresh or dried.

So when you see those purple spikes crowding the water’s edge, you’re not looking at a nuisance. You’re looking at a hardworking Texas native pulling triple duty: pollinator café, fish nursery, and erosion crew.

The flowers were the headline that morning. There were also other bonuses along with these flowers. Above you have a small Worthy Longhorn (Florilegus condignus) bee hovering in mid-flight before enjoying a snack on a tall pickerelweed flower spike.

And here you have a sleepy American Green Tree Frog (Hyla cinerea) clinging to a slender blade of reed. These frogs are sometimes also listed as Dryophytes cinereus under the 2016 reclassification.

These last two examples are small rewards for slowing down and looking closer when Pickerelweed is present.

That is the story behind the shots. If you liked this post, you may also be interested in others featuring American Green Tree Frog, Bee, FlowerHour, Landscapes, Macros, One Step, Pickerelweed, Texas, Wildflowers, Wildlife, and Worthy Longhorn. Until the next time, keep clicking and capturing the beauty your eyes find.

Posted for Terri’s Flower Hour # 28: Flowers in Water.

Posted for Pepper’s One Step at a Time # 7.

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Sources:

• “Pontederia cordata” — Native Plant Society of Texas (npsot.org).
• “Pontederia cordata (Pickerelweed)” — Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, Native Plants of North America (wildflower.org).
• “Pontederia cordata” — Missouri Botanical Garden, Plant Finder (missouribotanicalgarden.org).
• “Pontederia cordata” — Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org).
• “Florilegus condignus — Long-horned bees” — Native Bees of Texas (wildbeestexas.com).
• “Worthy Longhorn (Florilegus condignus)” — iNaturalist (inaturalist.org).
• “Florilegus condignus” — Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org).
• “American Green Tree Frog (Hyla cinerea / Dryophytes cinereus)” — Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org).
• “Green Treefrog (Dryophytes cinereus) — Species Profile” — U.S. Geological Survey, Nonindigenous Aquatic Species (nas.er.usgs.gov).
• “Green Tree Frog (Hyla cinerea)” — U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (fws.gov).