So, Monday color was originally intended to be only for the winter months because they lacked color and/or subjects to chase. It had come from the overflow of images that I had pre-selected for an end-of-year color post. Since I ended up carrying it through the summer, I figure I’ll just close out the year with it – it has assisted in boosting my post count for the year, as well as providing some updates when I had too few things to write about. However, I may discontinue them come next spring when ‘current’ color pics should be available (especially if I follow through as planned and have a lot more flower species coming up then.)
What we see here are ripening porcelain berries (Ampelopsis brevipedunculata,) a type of grape that has apparently been introduced into the area, possibly by birds. They are often considered “invasive,” a label I pay little attention to since it’s rather arbitrary; apparently, if it was not found in North America before the Europeans landed, and competes better than the species that horticulturists plant on purpose, then it’s invasive. Fully half of the plants you might encounter anyplace in North America are not “native,” and of course food crops have been bred far apart from the way we found them. Meanwhile, loblolly pines spread just as fast and crowd out other species quite readily, not to mention being ugly, but they’re “native” and thus okay, in fact encouraged. People are weird.