Turtles basking on a log in a marshy pond at Huntley Meadows Park in eastern Fairfax County. These appear to be painted turtles (
Chrysemys picta); see this
Wikipedia article.
Quite prominent in the wetlands-meadow (among all the cat-tails) is a large white flower with five petals and a prominent purple center spot.
This is the swamp-rose mallow (
Hibiscus moscheutos), a native species of hibiscus that, appropriately enough, prefers to grow in swampy areas. See this
Wikipedia article.
Hibiscuses are of course extremely showy flowers and thus widely grown in cultivation, such as this example (beneath a line of crapemyrtles) from the northeastern quadrant of the intersection of 3rd St and Pennsylvania Ave NW, near the Capitol in Washington, DC.
Interspersed among the swamp-rose mallows are the pink flowerheads of swamp milkweed (
Asclepias incarnata). The flowerheads are less rounded and the leaves smaller than those of the common milkweed (
A. syriaca) usually found along the W&OD bike path in Reston (for which see
this entry), although swamp milkweed does also occur in Reston (see
this entry). At Huntley Meadows the swamp milkweeds were attracting lots of butterflies, such as this Eastern tiger swallowtail (
Papilio glaucus, see
this Wikipedia entry), which, based on the absence of blue spots on its hindwing, appears to be a male.
Another swamp milkweed; this one is being noshed on by a male monarch butterfly (
Danaus plexippus; see this
Wikipedia entry). It is identifiable as male by the small black spot thickening the vein closest to its body on the hind wing.
Another quite stunning flower along the banks of the wetlands at Huntley Meadows is the cardinal flower (
Lobelia cardinalis, see this
Wikipedia entry), which I have also seen cultivated in a number of spots along 12th Street NW in Washington, DC.
