Today’s report was written by Hugh Nourse.
The photos that appear in this blog are taken by Don Hunter; you can see all the photos Don took of today’s Ramble here. 

Twenty-four ramblers met at the Arbor at
8:00AM on a beautiful day with temperatures in the mid-60s.  Martha shared a photo from the NY Times Magazine
with the title, “Nature does nothing in vain.” 
Rosemary shared a reading from Elizabeth Gilbert, “The Signature of All
Things,”  which was about mosses but you
could hardly guess until the end what she was discussing.  Fun.

Announcements:

1. Next
   week’s ramble will start at 8:30AM!
2. Sandy
   Creek Nature Center will resume their monthly guided trail walks in September.
   The walks begin at 9:00AM on the first Wednesday of the month; meet at the
   Visitor Center. The first walk will be on September 2 and will be led by Sandy
   Creek’s expert naturalist Carmen Champaign.

Today’s
reading:
Rosemary read from The Signature of All Things, by Elizabeth Gilbert:

Alma put the magnifying
lens to her eye and looked again. Now the miniature forest below her gaze
sprang into majestic detail. She felt her breath catch. This was a stupefying
kingdom. This was the Amazon jungle as seen from the back of a harpy eagle. She
rode her eye above the surprising landscape, following its paths in every direction.
Here were rich, abundant valleys filled with tiny trees of braided mermaid hair
and minuscule, tangled vines. Here were barely visible tributaries running
through that jungle, and here was a miniature ocean in a depression in the center
of the boulder, where all the water pooled.

Just across this
ocean – which was half the size of Alma’s shawl – she found another continent
of moss altogether. On this new continent, everything was different. This
corner of the boulder must receive more sunlight than the other, she surmised.
Or slightly less rain? In any case, this was a new climate entirely. Here, the
moss grew in mountain ranges the length of Alma’s arms, in elegant, pine
tree-shaped clusters of darker, more somber green. On another quadrant of the
same boulder still, she found patches of infinitesimally small deserts,
inhabited by some kind of sturdy, dry, flaking moss that had the appearance of
cactus. Elsewhere, she found deep, diminutive fjords – so deep that,
incredibly, even now in the month of June – the mosses within were still
chilled by lingering traces of winter ice. But she also found warm estuaries,
miniature cathedrals, and limestone caves the size of her thumb.

Then Alma lifted her
face and saw what was before her – dozens more such boulders, more than she
could count, each one similarly carpeted, each one subtly different. She felt
herself growing breathless. This was the entire world. This was bigger than a
world. This was the firmament of the universe, as seen through one of William
Herschel’s mighty telescopes. This was planetary and vast. These were ancient,
unexplored galaxies, rolling forth in front of her – and it was all right here!

Today’s
route
was through the Shade Garden and the White Trail to the Dunson Native Flora
Garden, through the Dunson Garden and then the power line right-of-way down to
the river.  At the river we took the
White Trail to the first bridge, turned around and followed the river in the
other direction on the Orange Trail for a very short distance beyond the Orange
Trail Spur, then returned to the parking lot via the Orange Trail Spur and
White Trail.

There were lots of mushrooms today, way
beyond our ability to identify. In the Shade Garden we found a white one that
was probably one of the amanitas.  There
was a red capped one pushing through the leaf litter.

In the Dunson Native Flora Garden we
first stopped to look at a crane fly orchid with seed pods on its stem. We
reminded everyone that this common orchid is found in every county in
Georgia.  The next stop was a nice patch
of Allegheny spurge, which I have never seen in bloom here.  Do not know why. Perhaps I never get there
early enough in the spring.  We then saw
the broad beech ferns and again described how to identify it.  It has winged stems

Netted chain fern fertile frond

and the last two leaflets
bend back toward the base. Nearby was the netted chain fern that still had its
characteristic fertile frond with lateral branches like a tree. The sori (spore
capsules) on its branches are arranged like a netted chain.

We stopped at the royal ferns and pointed
out their wetland habitat.  Near Track
Rock Gap it grows in a wetland with brilliant red cardinal flowers.  As I stepped off the trail to point out the
fern, my foot landed near an American toad that leaped away.  Conveniently, it stopped where Don and
Rosemary could take its portrait.

At the wetland at the end of the Dunson
Garden, we stopped for the still-blooming cardinal flowers and great blue
lobelias, whose scientific name (Lobelia
syphilitca) suggests that it was used to treat syphilis.  Also in the wetland was a pitcher plant,
probably the yellow trumpet.  Along the
path where we stopped to see these flowers, we could also see the buckeyes on
the painted buckeye (Aesculus sylvatica)
growing there.  The rattlesnake master
was still going strong.    A new

Saltmarsh mallow

plant in
bloom this week was the saltmarsh mallow, a small beautiful pink-flowered
member of the mallow family.  The swamp mallows
were still in bloom, as were the horsemints (Monarda punctata).  We also
sniffed the characteristic camphor odor of our first camphorweed for
today.  We would find more along the
Orange Trail along the River.

A big surprise – some new fence posts
marching up the hill at the end of the Dunson Garden. They are extending the deer
fence from the International Garden to the Callaway Building and then from the
other end of the Callaway building down the slope to the end of the Dunson
Garden. This will connect to the fence already built along the road beside the
Dunson Garden, enclosing more of the gardens. 
Here Martha pointed out a huge sourwood that one could see still had the
faded finger-like stems that once held its blooms.

On the power line right-of-way our first
find was the very tall yellow common evening primrose. Just below it was the
first of several sightings of invasive sweet autumn clematis.  As we walked along we reviewed the three
wingstems:  Verbesina alternifolia, V.
occidentalis, and V. virginica.  Two were present here, and the third was
found farther along.  The V. alternifolia, of course, has
alternate leaves, and has yellow flowers. 
V.

White crownbeard

occidentalis has opposite
leaves and a yellow flower.  V. virginica has alternate leaves and a
white flower.  The flowers on all three
look rather incomplete because they have sparse ray flowers.  V.
virginica (white flower) is called white crownbeard or frost flower because
with the first hard frost the sap freezes and oozes out of the stem forming
beautiful frost flowers.

Rosemary found mating Eastern leaf footed
bugs on a dried out thistle flower. 
Below it was the Carolina horse nettle we had seen in previous
weeks.  Also there were still many
blooming Maryland or wild sennas, as well as many late flowering

Ironweed

thoroughworts.  The tall ironweeds were a
gorgeous deep purple, and they were tall! 
Pokeweed was mostly in fruit. 
There were still quite a few field thistles.  Someone found a Silvery checkerspot
butterfly.

At the old deer fence a small red morning
glory was climbing on a gatepost.  A
caterpillar of the Cloudless sulfur (Phoebia

Cloudless sulfur caterpillar

sennae) was found on the wild senna. 
And once again we found the delightful passion vine.  Its other common name is maypop.  Sure enough we also found the fruit, maypops,
on the vine.  Next to it was mild water
pepper that we found in the same place last year.  Looking

Passionflower (AKA Maypop)

around we could see quite a few
apical galls on the goldenrods.  For the
last two weeks we have identified the wild potato, Ipomoea pondurata.  We
remembered that its root was really used as a potato. The roots can be up to 30
pounds and four feet long.

Jewelweed

At the bridge we again saw jewelweed and
more goldenrod.  But this time a new
flower was in bloom, groundnut.  On the
other side of the bridge was bur cucumber and a vine with small green fruits
that we finally decided was coral bead. The fruit will turn red later.  We recalled that crushed jewelweed leaves can
help relieve the itch of poison ivy.

The next stretch of the ramble was on the
Orange Trail along the river where Thomas Peters has removed the privet.  Emily picked up a grey toad. Nearby was more white
crownbeard, and also river oats.  We
noted the huge privet, so big that Thomas Peters could not cut through it with
his hand saw and girdled it instead, plus using a type of Round-Up that would
not hurt the amphibians in the area.

Vegetation here is thick where the sun
hits the soil, and sparse where it is shaded by the

Leafy Elephant’s foot

canopy and sub-canopy of
trees.  Right beside the path was a lot
of leafy elephants foot.  We talked about
the difference between this plant and its relative in drier areas, elephants
foot.  The later has a basal rosette of
large leaves usually flat on the ground and has few and small leaves on the
stem, whereas the leafy elephants foot usually has no basal leaves and lots of
leaves on the stem.  The flowers are
similar disc flowers.  Found more
mushrooms, and common wood sorrel that was in bloom but not yet open at this
hour of the morning.  The fireweed or
pilewort was really tall.  There is a
different fireweed out west and up north, Epilobium

Fireweed (AKA Pilewort)

angustifolium, that has beautiful racemes of pink flowers.  The pilewort has an indistinct yellow flower
barely showing above the calyx.  The
fruit is an achene attached to a bright white pappus that carries the seed on
the wind.  This feature gives it the name
pilewort.  We were able to see this plant
in all stages of growth.

Right away we started seeing a grass with
a white stripe down its leaf.  This could
be either Saccharum alopecuroides (Silver
plume grass) or Sorghum halepense
(Johnson grass).  Silver Plume grass is
great, but Johnson grass is a thug.  “A
single mature plant can produce over 80,000 seeds and 200 feet of rhizomes.”
[Tennessee Field Guide. p402]  Linda
explained that the difference is in the hairs at the base of the leaf.  Johnson grass has a small line of bristles,
whereas plume grass has soft hairs that start at the base and go up the leaf a
way.  The first plants we saw did not
seem to show hairs at all, but we soon found some that showed the line of
bristles.  Most were on the Orange Trail
just past the junction with the Orange Spur Trail.

Camphorweed

Other plants coming up after privet
removal were smart weed, Indian heliotrope, a false nut sedge, and more camphor
weed.  Some ramblers did not like the
fragrance of the camphor weed, but I think of it as pleasant.

Bur cucumber was crawling over everything,
almost like

Bur Cucumber tendrils

Kudzu.  We noted that this
particular species has branched tendrils which may give it even more power to
spread over the piles of cut down privet. 
Rosemary spotted a red headed bush cricket.  Dog fennel was beginning to show up here. 

Bark beetle tunnels

We stopped to look at the bark beetle
trails on the dead green ash.  Nearby Don
spotted a carpenter bee on a late flowering thoroughwort.  Catherine saw a number of bees on another of
the thoroughworts.  Don sampled the young
stems of a catbrier or saw greenbrier. 
He had heard that they were tasty. 
They were.  So a group gathered to
sample the young shoots.

We started back along the Orange
Spur.  At the junction there were a
number of vines on the huge tree there. 
One was a cross-vine.  Just before
leaving the flood plain we found a

Ebony spleenwort fertile frond

patch of false nettle (Boehmeria cylindrica).  There
were slime molds to photograph.  Along
the path on the bluff we found a number of ebony spleenworts.  Sandra asked me where the fertile frond was.
I did not remember ever seeing such a thing. Well right in front of us we
turned over the pinnae of an ebony spleenwort, and there were sori on the back
sides.  They were elongate on each side
of the mid-veins of the pinnae. The fertile frond is longer than the sterile
fronds.

Our last finds were more mushrooms.  These were yellow/red capped.

After making it back to the Lower Parking
Lot we dispersed, with many heading to Donderos as usual for snacks and
conversation.

Hugh

SUMMARY OF OBSERVED SPECIES:

Cranefly orchid	Tipularia discolor
Allegheny spurge	Pachysandra procumbens
Broad beech fern	Phegopteris hexagonoptera
Netted chain fern	Woodwardia areolata
Royal fern	Osmunda regalis
American toad	Anaxyrus americanus
Cardinal flower	Lobelia cardinalis
Great blue lobelia	Lobelia siphilitica
Buckeye	Aesculus sp.
Green pitcher plant	Sarracenia oreophila
Virginia saltmarsh mallow	Kosteletzkya virginica
Camphor weed	Pluchea camphorata
Rattlesnake master	Eryngium yuccifolium
Sourwood	Oxydendrum arboreum
Common evening primrose	Oenothera biennis
Sweet autumn clematis	Clematis terniflora
Wingstem	Verbesina alternifolia
Yellow crownbeard	Verbesina occidentalis
Eastern leaf-footed bug	Leptoglossus phyllopus
Carolina horsenettle	Solanum carolinense
Maryland senna	Senna marilandica
Late flowering thoroughwort	Eupatorium serotinum
Tall ironweed	Vernonia gigantea
American pokeweed	Phytolacca americana
Field thistle	Cirsium discolor
Silvery checkerspot	Chlosyne nycteis
White crownbeard	Verbesina virginica
Red morning glory	Ipomoea coccinea
Cloudless sulfur	Phoebis sennae
Passionflower	Passiflora incarnata
Mild water pepper	Polygonum hydropiperoides
Small white morning glory	Ipomoea lacunosa
Jewelweed	Impatiens capensis
Groundnut	Apios americana
Bur cucumber	Sicyos angulatus
Tall goldenrod	Solidago altissima
Coral bead	Cocculus carolinus
River oats	Chasmanthium latifolium
Privet	Ligustrum sp.
Leafy elephants foot	Elephantopus carolinianus
Common yellow wood sorrel	Oxalis stricta
Pilewort fireweed	Erechtites hieracifolius
Pennsylvania smartweed	Polygonum pensylvanicum
False nutsedge	Cyperus strigosus
Red headed bush cricket	Phyllopalpus pulchellus
Indian heliotrope	Heliotropium indicum
Carpenter bee	Xylocopa virginica
Dog fennel	Eupatorium capillifolium
Virginia day flower	Commelina virginica
Saw greenbrier	Smilax bona-nox
Silver plume grass??	Saccharum alo????
Johnson grass	Sorghum halepense
Crossvine	Bignonia capreolata
Ebony spleenwort	Asplenium platyneuron
White finger slime mold	Ceratiomyxa fruticulosa
Variety of other mushrooms	No IDs