Right now, wildflowers are doing an amazing job of brightening up PEI’s spring landscape. Even bogs – habitats that go unnoticed most of the year – are putting on glorious displays of colourful Rhodora (Rhododendron canadense). Islanders are lucky enough to live in one of the few places in the world where we can enjoy Rhodora’s amazing spring show. While many of PEI’s native plants are also common in central and western Canada, or extend down the Atlantic coast of the US, R

Perhaps it’s because there are so few blue plants, animals, or fungi in nature that they seem to really catch our attention. That is definitely true of this beautiful Oil Beetle (aka Short-winged Blister Beetle, Meloe angusticollis), photographed in eastern PEI earlier this month by Carla McKie. Oil Beetles get their name from oily, orange droplets that ooze from their joints when the beetles are threatened. That substance is haemolymph (insect blood), and it also gives the

They’re baaaack! Here in Central PEI, the first Hummingbird and the first June Bug arrived within a couple of days of each other last week. Most people look forward to seeing the tiny birds far more than they do the shiny insects, but what exactly are June Bugs anyway? Let’s take a look! “June Bug” is a general term used to refer to many different species in the Scarab Beetle Family (Scarabaeidae). The ones found most often on PEI are the native Phyllophaga anxia, although at

There’s one PEI plant that most people are very familiar with, but few have seen growing in its natural habitat: Eelgrass (Zostera marina). This is how most of us know Eelgrass: washed up along the shore. Eelgrass actually grows in extensive beds offshore as well as in our bays and estuaries, and – despite what you may think – it’s a true flowering plant and not a seaweed. Eelgrass has roots, stems, leaves, flowers, and vascular tissue (structures that move water and nutr