As Mr. Rogers said, It’s a
beautiful day in the neighborhood, and that certainly described this morning as
22 Ramblers gathered to seek what we could find. The temperature today was in
the mid 60s, marvelously cool for our early ramble. 

The link to Don Hunter’s album
for this ramble is here.

Reminder: All the
rambles for the remainder of the year will begin at 8:30 AM. Don’t forget to
update your schedules. 

Reminder:
There is a trail walk at Sandy Creek Nature Center this coming Weds.,
Sept. 3, at 9:00 AM. Meet at the Education & Visitor’s Center.
Coffee and homemade goodies afterwards.

Announcement:

Ben Tonks’ Eagle scout project to construct a walkway over the
muddy marsh at the lower part of the Orange Trail still needs about $400 more
to purchase materials. If you’ve already sent Ben a check he thanks you, but if
you’ve put it off or forgotten, here’s what you need to do: Please send your
personal check made out to: Benjamin S.
Tonks, 270 Hunnicutt Dr., Athens GA 30606–1708. 

Today’s Reading was
supplied by Dale; an excerpt from an essay by Jeffrey Lockwood entitled Here Are My Conditions, p. 4, in his
collection of essays, Prairie Soul:
Finding Grace in the Earth Beneath My Feet, 2004, Skinner House Books,
Boston. (Lockwood is a professor of natural science and humanities at the
University of Wyoming and has written several books that would appeal to nature
lovers.):

If you close your eyes and
throw a dart at a world map, there’s a seven-in-ten chance that you’ll hit an
ocean. But if the dart strikes land, the odds are the same that it will be hit
a grassland. Oceans of water and seas of grass are the leit motif of our planet. And just as oceans have unique qualities
and personalities, not all treeless landscapes are the same. The grasses of the
North American prairie once reached to the shoulders of the bison, and the
blackness of the soil crept deeper than graves of the pioneers. The tall
grasses—gentle, vulnerable, mortal—rippled in the wind. Fire and drought could
not rend the living fabric but plows and pavement proved lethal. After
surviving four million sunrises, this sea of grass is drained of its vitality,
shriveled to a pathetic remnant of its former glory. In contrast, the North
American short-grass prairie, or steppe, perseveres. Its grasses are too
stunted and sparse to conceal even a
prairie dog, and its shallow, alkaline soils are geological newborns. But this
land persists. Settlers tried to tame the sere basins that stretched between
the snow-capped mountain ranges. Farmers plowed and planted the shortgrass
prairie and harvested despair and dust. We might drain an inland sea, but the
steppe has oceanic power that is unrelenting and unforgiving. Like seasoned
sailors, a few ranchers adapted to, rather than struggled against, the land.

Today’s
route:  The route was through the Shade Garden,
across the road on the White Trail to the Power Line Right of Way. We wandered
up the right of way to the top of the hill at the fence, then back down the
right of way, across the Service Road and through the gate nearly to the the
river.  From there it was to the wetland
area of the Dunson Native Flora Garden, and finally up the mulched path to the
parking lot.

Hurricane Lily

Our first stop was in the Shade Garden to
admire the red surprise lilies, often called hurricane lilies.  There were quite a few.

An unidentified sedge caught our eye as
we crossed the road and started up the White trail.  Although we could not identify it, we could
feel the edges and recite the doggerel “Sedges

Unidentified Sedge

have edges, rushes are
round, and grasses have knees all the way to the ground.”  The statement is not 100 percent true, but is
a good first cut.  Also along the path
was opposite leaved wing stem, which had to be yellow crown beard (Verbesina occidentalis) even though the
flowers were not quite out yet.  The
white

Frostweed (White Crown beard)

crown beard (Verbesina virginica)
with its ragged-looking flowers, alternate leaves and winged stem was
nearby.  The wings were not very
prominent and one had to look toward the bottom of the stem to see them. Nearby
were several clumps of river oats (Avis’s fish on a stick) (Chasmanthium latifolium).  A nonflowering shrub was Yaupon (Ilex vomitoria).

The walk up the hill along the Power line
Right of Way turned out to have a rich diversity of flora.  Here too the opposite leaved yellow crown
beard was in

Rabbit Tobacco

bloom.  In the last few days
the golden aster (Heterotheca latifolia)
has become more fully flowering and was on show.  On the other hand, the mountain mint (Pycnanthemum incanum) with its whitish
bracts was coming to an end.  Rabbit
tobacco, which those growing up in the south remember as a plant that young
people smoked, was in full bloom.  One of
the few grasses easy to identify is purple top (Tridens flavus).  While most
of the late summer flowers were

Purpletop grass

blooming, dog fennel still has not
bloomed.  Low to the ground in amongst
the tall vegetation, here and there, could be seen the bright rose pink (Sabatia angularis).

White crown beard showed up again.  Before the day was out we saw all three wing
stems: white crown beard (Verbesina
virginica) with alternate leaves. yellow crown beard (Verbesina occidentalis) with opposite leaves, and wing stem (Verbesina alternifolia) with alternate
leaves and yellow flowers.

Slender Ladies’ Tresses

Don was roaming off the trail and found
several gems.  The most interesting was
an orchid, slender ladies tresses (Spiranthes
gracilis).  There were at least three
of them hidden amongst the grasses and other vegetation.  He also

Flowering spurge

found several flowering spurge (Euphorbia corollata).  Amazingly a single Carolina desert chickory (Pyrrhopappus carolinianus) was still
blooming.  Dale congratulated me on
changing to his common name for this plant which in the past I had called false
dandelion.

Bitterweed

Bitterweed (Helenium amarum) was still all along the trail,  though It had been mowed over at the
beginning of our ramble up the hill. 
Coffeeweed, or sickle pod (Senna
obtusifolia) was also scattered about.

Some ramblers walking under spiderwebs
got tangled in the lower pieces of the web, but that got them looking up to see
the spiders.  While looking up someone
saw the muscadine grapes (Vitis
rotundifolia) ripening in a tree that the vines were crawling all over.

Elephant’s foot

Elephant’s foot (Elephantopus tomentosus) was right along the trail.  Here up the hill were drier conditions that
this plant prefers.  The stem is almost
leafless; there may be a few small ones. 
Later when we were in the wetter floodplain area we found the leafy
elephant’s foot (Elephantopus
carolinianus).

In the driest area at the top of the
hill, plants that like those conditions were found:  grass leaf golden aster (Pityopsis graminifolia),

Grassleaf Golden Aster

creeping bush clover (Lespedeza repens), and pine weed (Hypericum gentianoides), as well as Dixie reindeer lichen.  Other plants included St. Peterswort (Hypericum crux-andreae), reclining St.
Andrews Cross (Hypericum stragulum),
and summer bluet (Houstonia longifolia).  At the edge of the woods, Lee pointed out the
sourwood tree going to seed.

Gulf Fritillary

Sandra found a gulf fritillary in this vicinity. In the closeup to the right you can clearly see the coiled up “tongue” under the head of the butterfly. The tongue is really a pair of hollow straws with which the butterfly sips up nectar. It can be uncoiled for drinking and then re-coiled for storage.

Note coiled tongue

At this point we turned around and
retraced out steps down the hill to the service road.  We stopped at the two huge trees with poison
ivy and trumpet vines.  The trumpet vines
were still blooming, so we stayed awhile to see if hummingbirds would show
up.  We were also waiting for everyone to
catch up.  Yes, we did see hummingbirds.

Camphorweed

On the other side of the road in the
floodplain we found plants not seen at the top of the hill.  At the first one, Hugh passed around a leaf
for everyone to smell.  Its odor was very
strong. George was not even close to the leaf and he could smell it.  The plant was camphor weed, or marsh fleabane
(Pluchea camphorata).  Next to it was late flowering boneset (Eupatorium serotinum) and golden aster (Heterotheca latifolia).  Someone asked where the name boneset came
from. It was used in relieving pain in limbs caused by influenza.  George found a plant not seen yet and
wondered

Spotted St. John’s wort

what it was.  It was one of the
St. Johnsworts.  Getting out the hand
lens, we could see the black spots on the back of the leaves, and the
black/brown markings on the back of the petals, which made it spotted St.
Johnswort (Hypericum punctatum).  Another interesting plant was the beefsteak
plant (Perilla frutescens) introduced
from India.  It was used

Beefsteak plant

as a condiment
to season meat.  Nonetheless,
“ingesting large amounts can cause fluid on the lungs.” [Tennessee
Wildflower Book] Tea made from the leaves was used for abdominal pains and
other ailments.  Crushing the seeds one
could make an oil that could be substituted for linseed oil.  Finally, “an application of fresh leaves
rubbed on a wart for 10 to 15 minutes a day can remove warts in 2 to 6
days.”

Field Thistle

A really tall thistle was hard to
identify.  But the whitish underside of
the leaves that were deeply pinnately lobbed, and the uppermost leaves just
below the head would make it a field thistle (Cirsium discolor).

The bright yellow sunflowers just past
the gate were probably Helianthus
hirsutus.  But since

Ironweed

the last time we
were here the brilliant purple ironweed (Vernonia
gigantea) had come into bloom. 
Climbing over these plants and the wing stems was climbing hempweed (Mikania skandens).  In the wettest area were mild water pepper (Polygonum hydropiperoides).  They looked like white smartweed.

It was time to head back to the parking
lot.  On the way there were still things
to see.  At the wetland area of the
Dunson Native Flora Garden, southern wild senna (Senna marilandica) in an uncultivated area was mostly bloomed out
and gone to seed.  But in the

Seashore Mallow

cultivated
area the seashore mallow was finally blooming (Kosteletzkya virginica) and the swamp mallow (Hibiscus moscheutos)  was
still going strong.  But the most
interesting find was in a newly planted area. 
Nearby we had looked at the rattlesnake master (Eryngium yuccifolium) that we had seen before.  Then going around on the road we saw the
newly planted marsh eryngo (Eryngium aquaticum).  If  you

Marsh Rattlesnake master

did not look closely, you might think they were the same plant.  However, the marsh eryngo has blue flowers
instead of green and its leaves are smooth and go up the stem, whereas the
rattlesnake master has yucca-like basal leaves with spines.

It was past time to get to Donderos,
where many of us gathered for conversation and snacks.

Hugh

SUMMARY OF OBSERVED SPECIES:

Common Name	Scientific name
Red surprise lily	Lycoris radiata
Unidentified sedge
Yellow crownbeard	Verbesina occidentalis
White crownbeard	Verbesina virginica
River oats	Chasmanthium latifolium
Yaupon holly	Ilex vomitoria
Golden aster	Heterotheca latifolia
Mountain mint	Pycnanthemum incanum
Rabbit tobacco	Gnaphalium obtusifolium
Purple top grass	Tridens flavus cupreus
Dog fennel	Eupatorium capillifolium
Common Rose Pink	Sabatia angularis
Bitterweed	Helenium amarum
Slender Ladies’ Tresses	Spiranthes gracilis
Carolina Desert Chickory	Pyrrhopappus carolinianus
Flowering Spurge	Euphorbia corollata
Muscadine Grapes	Vitis rotundifolia
Elephant’s Foot	Elephantopus tomentosus
Coffeeweed	Senna obtusifolia
Grasssleaf golden aster	Pityopsis graminifolia
Sourwood	Oxydendron arboretum
Creeping bush clover	Lespedeza repens
St. Andrew’s Cross	Hypericum hypericoides
Reclining St. Andrew’s Cross	Hypericum stragulum
Summer bluet	Houstonia longifolia
Pineweed	Hypericum gentianoides
Gulf fritillary	Agraulis vanilla
Trumpet Vine	Campsis radicans
Camphorweed/Marsh Fleabane	Pluchea camphorata
Late-flowering Boneset	Eupatorium serotinum
Golden aster	Heterotheca latifolia
Spotted St. John’s Wort	Hypericum punctatum
Common camphorweed	Heterotheca latifolia
Stiff haired sunflower	Helianthus hirsutus
Field Thistle	Cirsium discolor
Alternate leaf wingstem	Verbesina alternifolia
Tall Ironweed	Vernonia gigantea
Climbing hempweed	Mikania angulosa
Virgin’s Bower	Clematis virginiana
Goldenrod	Solidago sp.
Southern Wild Senna	Senna marilandica
Virginia saltmarsh mallow	Kosteletzkya virginica
Rattlesnake master	Eryngium yuccifolium
Marsh Rattlesnake master	Eryngium aquaticum
Beefsteak Plant	Perilla frutescens