Today’s report was written by Hugh Nourse.

Extra stuff:

Rosemary Woodel has posted videos
of her adventures on YouTube and many people have wondered how to access them.
This link should do the trick: https://www.youtube.com/user/rwoodel1

Here
is the link to Don Hunter’s album with today’s Ramble photos.

Today 23 Ramblers assembled at 8AM at the Arbor
to hear Bob Ambrose recite one of his recent poems on nature, To Remember a
Moment.

Today’s route: was through
the Shade Garden to the White Trail, then across the power line right-of-way to
the Blue Trail.  At the end of the Blue
Trail we walked back to the power line right of way on the White Trail along
the Oconee River.  From here we took the
White Trail spur back to the Lower Parking Lot.

Shade Garden: Our first
stop was to comment on the huge Japanese maple at the Oleander Plaza.  It is the champion Japanese maple in Clarke
County, but one wonders how that was measured because the tree has three
trunks.  Do they measure one at breast
height or all of them? Just past the Red Bud Plaza there is a white ash.  It is very hard to distinguish from green ash
which is actually the dominant canopy tree in the flood plain.  One way is to look at the fruit.  The samara of the green ash extends 1/3 to
1/2 way down the body of the fruit, whereas the white ash samara does not.  It is terminal to the fruit.

Nearby a black cohosh was in
bloom, so we stopped to talk about its supposed medicinal uses.  At one time it was used to treat menopause
symptoms, as well as labor pains in childbirth. Other ailments for which it was
used include rheumatism, arthritis, asthma, and hysteria, and as a gargle for
sore throats.  The individual florets
have no petals, only stamens.  Bumblebees
release the pollen by sonic vibrations. (See Wildflowers of Tennessee, p. 56.)

Our usual stop at the American
witch hazel revealed galls on the leaves, as well as fruit.

There is a lovely river birch
tree at the turn.  It is a wonderful
landscape tree because of the bark texture. 
As these trees grow older, however, they lose that wonderful texture, as
we can see along the White Trail by observing the older river birches
there. 

The thimbleweed that was
blooming last week had gone to fruit, which was like a thimble and from which
it gets its name.  There were unusual,
white, and profuse fungi at the bottom of a tree off the trail.  We did not know what it was.

False turkey tail

White trail: Crossing the road, we found a
mushroom we did know, False turkey tail. 
Along this part of the trail we noted that the wild petunia was in
bloom.  We have been waiting for the bottlebrush
buckeye to bloom for a long time, at least 4 weeks.  It is still not blooming.  Blackberries were, however, in bloom, as was
daisy fleabane and Carolina horse nettle. 
It had rained earlier, so it was nice to see mushrooms finally making a
show. Right in the path was a Japanese parasol mushroom.

Tumbling flower beetle

Under the power line
we found many Queen Anne’s lace.  Some
had tumbling flower beetles.  We also
looked for the dark purple center flower, which one story suggests is blood
from Queen Anne’s finger that spilled on the lace.  We did find it on some of the blooms.

Red bud fruit (seed pod)

As we entered the woods a red
bud tree was fruiting with its bean pods, and a Virginia creeper was twining up
the trunk. On the dead northern red oak there were mustard yellow polypore
mushrooms, and a muscadine grape was twining up the trunk.

Pin lichen

Blue trail: Walking down the Blue Trail we
spotted an ebony spleenwort.  A wonderful
stop was to observe the pin lichen (Cladonia macilenta) on a loblolly
pine, which also had a kind of Green shield lichen.  As we walked along a level terrace we noted
the way the land on both sides of the trail was terraced.  This is a result of early cotton
farming.  In fact this part of the Blue
Trail is a successional forest.  It was
one of the last areas farmed.  The pines
still dominate the canopy, but the hardwood trees are beginning to take over.

Lanceleaf greenbrier

On the persimmon tree a poison
ivy vine was growing, as well as the lanceleaf greenbrier.  In the fall one can find persimmon fruit
under this tree.

The next stop was for the huge
water oak which has very little growing under it.  There are a few pines trying to make it, but
they are not doing well.  Under the tree
was another of the land art structures made by Chris Taylor. He uses twigs and
other forest floor debris to form large “bird’s nests”. Behind us was one of
those asian hollies with only four points on the leaves.

We came to the clearing where
Thomas Peters first removed privet.  On
the ground at our feet were the basal leaves of elephant’s foot.  Because the forest along the Blue Trail is a
transitional forest  there were

Script lichen

a number
of black cherry trees.  On one we found a
common script lichen (Graphis scripta). 
We also stopped to admire the sawtooth oak which had several vines
climbing up it.  One was a trumpet vine
and the other was muscadine.

Ox-eye daisies caught
everybody’s eye as we entered the meadow. 
Don reminded us that this is the area to find the frost flowers on a
cold early winter morning.  In fact we
saw many wingstems.  These were opposite
leaved yellow flowered ones, called Verbesina occidentalis.  They were not flowering yet. The frost flowers
actually come from Verbesina virginica, an alternate leaved white
flowered wingstem that comes later. 
There is also a yellow flowered alternate

Fleabane (E. annuus)

leaved wingstem called Verbesina
alternifolia.  Daisy fleabanes were
also blooming in the meadow, both Erigeron annuus  with thick wide leaves and E. strigosus
with scarce thin narrow leaves.  A grass
with a white stripe down its leaf had to be Johnson grass (Sorghum halepense)
because it is too early for silver plume, which has similar leaves.  Later, we found another example down on the
white trail in the power line right of way along the Oconee River.  This is a bad 
exotic grass that “spreads rapidly by seed or by vigorous rhizomes.  A single mature plant may produce over 80,000
seeds and 200 feet of rhizomes.  The seed
can remain viable in the soil for up to 25 years and begins producing lateral
rhizomes 6-9 weeks after germination.” (see Wildflowers of Tennessee, p. 402)

Large stand of Christmas fern

As we entered the forest again
we saw a large black cherry with black knot fungus cankers.  At the beginning of the slope down to the
floodplain, there was a hog plum tree (Prunus umbellata) that has been marked
with blue tape for study by the Conservation Group at the Garden.  The question is why they are not bearing
fruit, although they do flower in the spring. 
Going down the slope we marveled at the spread of Christmas fern all
along the slope.  The end of the frond
that carried the spores was pointed out to all. 
Nearby were rubber cup mushrooms. 
We also

Rubber cup mushroom

noted a deer trail crossing the trail and going down through the
ferns.  Farther down the trail before
reaching the flood plain several Jack-in-the-pulpits were in fruit.  Avis commented on the five leaves instead of
three, but the guide books do

Jack in the pulpit fruit

indicate this plant can have three to five
leaves.  We also talked about how this
plant can change gender from year to year. 
If it gets enough light, nutrients, and water by August, it will become
a female plant the next spring.  If it
does not, it will become a male plant next spring, which does not require as
much energy.  It was really fun to also
see the leaves of green dragon (Arisaema dracontium) in the same area.

Common anglepod flowers

Once down on the floodplain we found that the
common anglepod that we saw last year (Matalea gonocarpos) was in flower.  It is a milk vine so has milky sap.  We should have looked for a white crab spider
that is supposed to make its home on these vines.

As we reached the White Trail there was an old
robust poison ivy on one of the trees.

White trail (river section):The walk along the river on the White Trail was
incredible.  We have a list of over 30
species.  No wonder this was a long
walk.  We started at 8 AM and finished
about 10:30AM.  We should not have gone
so long, but since we had started there was only one way to go back, the White
Trail along the river.

Since the list is available below, let me just
mention some of the highlights.  One was
our discussion of the stinging nettle (Laportea canadensis).  Jennie thought it was the false stinging
nettle, but she found out otherwise.  The
false stinging nettle has opposite leaves. 
These leaves were alternate.  To
cause further confusion there is a stinging nettle with opposite leaves too.

I like to show off the sugarberry tree with its
warty bark.  Some want to call it
hackberry.  Duncan in his tree book,
actually uses both sugarberry and hackberry for this particular tree.

Beaver chew on Ironwood

A highlight was a musclewood (AKA Ironwood) tree with fresh
beaver tooth marks and wood chips all around. 
Quite a sight.

In the first area in which privet had been
removed several years ago, privet was growing back along with pokeweed and
wingstem, but even worse was princess tree, a very invasive exotic.

Vines were a highlight, too.  Bur cucumber, cat greenbrier, roundleaf
greenbrier, saw greenbrier (Smilax bona-nox), muscadine, Virginia creeper,
and yellow passionflower (Passiflora lutea), were all there to be
identified and compared, but none of them 
was in bloom.

Musclewood fruit

Another comparison was of white mulberry and
red mulberry.  Missed by some was the
fruit of a musclewood tree.  It was
interesting to compare it to the hophornbeam fruit that we saw earlier near the
power line right-of-way.

Lizard’s tail

Two more finds were important.  One was flowering white avens.  We often see leaves of this plant early in
spring, but now it was in flower, but not really very showy.  The greatest find of the day was probably the
lizard’s tail in the floodplain area cleared of privet by Thomas Peters.  I cannot recall seeing that before, although
it is on the list of plants previously recorded in the Garden’s natural areas.

As usual many of us retired to Donderos for
snacks and conversations.  It was a great
ramble, but a little long.  Although we
tried walkie talkies to make it easier for everyone to hear what was being
discussed, they were not a complete success. 
We are going to have to work more on how to communicate with everyone
better.

Hugh

SUMMARY OF OBSERVED SPECIES:

Common Name	Scientific Name
Shade Garden
Japanese maple	Acer palmatum
White ash	Fraxinus americana
Black cohosh	Actea racemosa
American witch hazel	Hamamelis virginiana
River birch	Betula nigra
Thimbleweed	Anemone virginiana
White trail
False turkey tail	Stereum ostrea
Wild petunia	Ruellia caroliniensis
Bottlebrush buckeye	Aesculus parviflora
Blackberry	Rubus fruticosus
Daisy fleabane	Erigeron annuus
Daisy fleabane	Erigeron strigosus
Carolina horsenettle	Solarum carolinense
Japanese parasol mushroom	Coprinus plicatilis
Queen Anne’s Lace	Daucus carota
Damsel bug	Nabis sp.
Redbud	Cercis canadensis
Blue trail
Virginia creeper	Parthenocissus quinquefolia
Red oak	Quercus rubra
Mustard yellow polypore	Phellinus gilvus
Muscadine	Vitis rotundifolia
Ebony spleenwort	Asplenium platyneuron
Loblolly pine	Pinus taeda
Pin lichen	Cladonia sp.
Greenshield lichen	Flavoparmelia sp.
Poison ivy	Toxicodendron radicans
Persimmon	Diospyros virginiana
Lanceleaf greenbrier	Smilax smallii
Water oak	Quercus nigra
Chinese holly	Ilex cornuta
Elephants foot	Elephantopus tomentosus
Black cherry	Prunus serotina
Script lichen	Graphis sp.
Sawtooth oak	Quercus acutissima
Trumpet vine	Campsis radicans
Ox-eye daisy	Leucanthemum vulgare (=Chrysanthemum leucanthemum)
Johnson grass	Sorghum halepense
Christmas fern	Polystichum acrostichoides
Rubber cup mushroom	Galiella rufa
Jack-in-the-pulpit	Arisaema triphyllum
White trail (riverside)
Common anglepod	Gonolobus suberosus (=Matelea gonocarpos)
River cane	Arundinaria gigantea
Roundleaf greenbrier	Smilax rotundifolia
Japanese privet	Ligustrum japonicum
Stinging nettle	Laportea canadensis
Box elder	Acer negundo
Oregon grape	Mahonia aquifolium
Bur cucumber	Sicyos angulatus
Sugarberry	Celtis laevigata
North American beaver	Castor canadensis
American sycamore	Platanus occidentalis
Resurrection fern	Pleopeltis polypodioides
Princess tree	Paulownia tomentosa
Rose of Sharron	Hibiscus syriacus
Wood ear fungus	Auricularia sp.
River oats	Chasmanthium latifolium
Cat greenbrier	Smilax glaucus
Common elderberry	Sambucus canadensis
White mulberry	Morus alba
Pokeweed	Phytolacca americana
Red mulberry	Morus rubra
English ivy	Hedera helix
Great yellow woodsorrel	Oxalis grandis
Virginia buttonweed	Dioda virginiana
White avens	Geum canadense
Lizards tail	Saururus cernuus