Here’s the link to Don Hunter’s Facebook album for today’s
Ramble. (All the photos in this post are compliments of Don.)

Today’s post was written
by Dale Hoyt.

Twenty-one Ramblers met
today – a glorious spring morning!

Today’s reading: Linda read a composite and minor paraphrase of
quotes on the subject of naming plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer, author of Gathering Moss and Braiding Sweetgrass.

It’s a sign of respect to
learn the name of someone else, a sign of disrespect to ignore it. And yet the
average American can name over a hundred corporate logos and only ten plants.
Is it a surprise that we’ve accepted a political system that grants personhood
to corporations and no status at all to wild rice and redwoods? Learning the
names of plants and animals is a powerful act of support for them. Words and
names are the ways we humans build relationships, not only with each other, but
also with plants.

But one of the
difficulties is that when we name something with a scientific name, this name
can become an end to inquiry. We say, “well, we know it now. We’re able to
systematize it and put a Latin binomial on it, so it’s ours. We know [all] we
need to know.” But that is only looking at the morphology of the organism, at
the way that it looks. It ignores all of its gifts, its relationships. It’s a
mechanical, wooden representation of what a plant really is.

But when we learn their
names and their gifts and their relationships – 
it opens the door to reciprocity and to an intimacy that speaks of
careful observation. Intimate connection allows recognition in an all-too-often
anonymous world. Intimacy gives us a different way of seeing. Having the words
for plants and their relationships at your disposal, you can see more clearly. Finding
the words is another step in learning to see. [emphasis added]

Today’s route: The cement walkway from the Arbor down to the
White trail, avoiding the Dunson Garden, then over to the Power line
right-of-way and up the recently mowed prairie, looking for what was blooming
and a few things that were not. Then back to the Arbor.

Arbor & Shade Garden:

Bob A. brought a
“mystery weed” from his garden and Linda immediately identified it as
Youngia japonica, or Asian
hawk’s-beard. It hasn’t been noticed much until lately and may be becoming
invasive. We pulled several of them later on the ramble today.

The Ginkgoes are fully
leafed out and we tried to find the male “flowers” without success.
Three years ago they were found on the April 11, 2013, ramble. Perhaps we
missed them this year. (You can read more about this unusual tree here.

Leaving the Arbor we took
the cement sidewalk toward the Visitor’s center. We stopped to admire the Bigleaf magnolia with
it’s enormous leaves and a Cross vine climbing up a nearby tree trunk. The
Cross vine flower is often confused with that of the Trumpet vine, but the
interior of the Cross vine flower is yellow while that of the Trumpet vine is
red inside and out. The Cross vine gets its name from the shape of the pith when the stem is
cut – a “+” shape that looks like the Red Cross logo. Each node of
the vine bears what looks like four leaves, but there are really only two
leaves; each of the two has two leaflets. Each node also has a pair of tendrils
(which are modified leaves) that attach themselves to the surface the vine is
climbing. The tendrils can attach to smooth surfaces like vinyl sideing!

Further along the walkway
we passed a beautiful hybrid Clematis with large white flowers and a bed of
Sensitive ferns.

Tuliptree flowers (minus petals)

Tuliptree petals discarded by squirrels?

Toward the bottom of the
Shade garden there is an artificial, boulder bordered stream bed with Woodland
phlox blooming among the rocks. And on the bridge over the stream we found the
fallen flowers of Tuliptree, compliments of the resident squirrels. Why they should
wantonly toss the flowers seems a mystery, but it probably has something to do
with the nectar they, the flowers, profusely produce. All the petals had been
removes from the fallen blossoms, suggesting that the squirrels were after the
sweetness secreted at the base of the petals.

At this point Linda explained
that the Tuliptree is sometimes called a Tulip poplar, but it is not a poplar –
it is in the Magnolia family (Magnoliaceae). This can be seen in the flowers
with their many stamens and multiple pistils. (The poplar name is due to the
similarity of Tuliptree wood to that of poplar.) She also told us the derivation
of the lilting scientific name of the Tuliptree: Liriodendron tulipifera. The genus name is from the Greek leiron, which means lily + dendron,which means tree. The specific
epithet, tulipifera, means tulip
bearing; the suffix -ifera, is from
the Latin verb ferare, meaning
carrying or bearing.

[Digression: Plants are classified into a hierarchy of categories: Kingdom, Division (called a Phylum in Zoology), Class, Order, Family, Genus and Species. The last three are most frequently used by field botanist and amateurs. In modern times the name of the family is based on one of the genera included in the family. The family name must end in the suffix –aceae, for example: Asteraceae for the sunflower family, Fabaceae for the bean family, etc. So any time you see that suffix you know that it refers to a plant family. End Digression.]

White flowered variety of Sweetshrub

Near the bridge is an
unusual form of Sweetshrub that has white petals. It was developed by the
well-known UGA horticultural professor Michael Dirr; the varietal name is
“Athens.” The flowers of this plant resemble what are believed to be
characteristic of the most ancient flowers: multiple undifferentiated petals
and stamens and beetle pollination. The seed capsule lacks any opening or
suture that would release seeds. Some think that the seeds may have been
dispersed by a large animal eating the entire capsule and the passing the seeds
through its digestive tract. The likely candidates are now extinct – they could
have been among the Pleistocene megafauna, the large herbivorous mammals that ranged
across North America as recently as 10-15 thousand years ago and were possibly
driven to extinction by human immigrants.

This part of the garden
has several Ohio spiderworts that seem to spread widely wherever they are
planted. Next to the road are several Virginia sweetspires whose long inflorescences
of white flowers are just about ready to bloom.

White trail:

American Beech new growth (green stem)

Crossing the road we
stopped to examine the new growth of the American beech tree. Ramblers will
remember the pointed, cigar-shaped buds of the Beech from last Fall and Winter.
Within those buds were formed the stems and leaves of this spring’s new growth.
They passed the winter in dormancy. As the days grew longer and the
temperatures warmed the buds emerged and the scales that protected them over
the winter fell off. In just the span of a few weeks the buds elongated and the
leaves expanded. The photo shows a new twig, still green, bearing six leaves.
The miracle is that the elongation and expansion comes not from new cells but
from the increase in size of the cells produced in the bud last summer and
fall. The force driving this increase in size is water. As the bud breaks open
the cells each absorb water, increasing the pressure inside the cells and
causing them to elongate and expand. At this time of year the new growth is
easy to distinguish from last year’s growth – it is still green but will turn
brown as it ages.

Hawthorn flower

A short distance from the
Beech is a small Hawthorn with numerous white flowers. Hawthornes are members
of the rose family, along with apples, pears and cherries, and are difficult to
identify to species, so we will just settle with calling this a Hawthorn.

Black needlegrass seeds and awns

Black needlegrass flowers white, fuzzy stigmas; yellow anthers

Black needlegrass is now
in bloom and some plants have started to produce seed as well. The seed is
covered with backward-pointing bristles and tipped with a long awn. The awn twists
and turns in response to changes in humidity and this action results in
drilling the seed into the ground. The seeds also stick into socks and easily
penetrate to irritate the skin beneath. In the close-up photos of the grass you
can see the fuzzy white stigmas, the structure of the grass flower that
captures the windblown pollen. Pollen is produced by the yellow anthers that
dangle from the flowers.

Galls on leaf (Hop hornbeam? or Winged Elm?)

Nearby someone spotted
some tiny galls on either a Hop hornbeam or Winged Elm leaf. Galls are
difficult to identify; not many people study them and they can be caused by
several different kinds of organisms. These look like tiny golf balls on tees.
They may have been caused by mites in the genus Eriophyes.

Elaine Nash prairie:

On reaching the prairie
we abandoned the confines of the trail and we all spread out, each of us
calling out when we found something of interest. In this way little groups of
people formed up, exchanged and merged and split up again. Not everyone (including
myself) saw everything but everyone saw the majority of plants and animals.

Small’s ragwort

Small’s ragwort is
starting to emerge and a few plants are even blooming. This plant is similar to
the Golden ragwort that we saw blooming in the Dunson garden earlier this year.
It can most easily be distinguished from Golden ragwort by the finely divided
basal leaves. In Golden ragwort the basal leaves are almost circular in shape.
Why is it called Small’s ragwort when the specific epithet is not smallii? In 1890 a well-known botanist
described it as Senecio smallii,
apparently unaware that it had previously been described as Senecio anonyma. Small was also a well
known botanist, the author of one of the best floristic references for the
South, The Flora of the Southeastern
United States, published in 1903, and revised in 1913 and 1933.

Beaked cornsalad

Beaked cornsalad showing dichotomous branching

Beaked cornsalad is
abundant in the prairie and the adjacent disturbed areas. Its unusual name
refers to its edibility. In Britain cereal grains are called “corn”
and what we call corn is called maize. Many English names were applied by early
colonists to plants that were similar to ones in the Old World. Beaked
cornsalad has growth form called dichotomous, which means dividing into
two. As the plant grows the original stem divides into two equal-sized stems
and each of these continues to split into two, up to and including the short
stems that produce the clusters of tiny white flowers.

Low Hop Clover

Low hop clover is a
legume and can fix nitrogen, like its clover relatives. It was first introduced
to improve soils and has spread widely into lawns and other disturbed areas
with poor soils. It is not invasive, though. The name refers to the similarity
of its inflorescence to that of hops.

We found evidence of
several kinds of animals today: armadillo burrows, spider webs, several beetles
and the cast off skin of a Black rat snake.

Bowl & Doily web

Sheet web

There were two types of
sheetweb weaver spiders. These spiders spin a bowl shaped web that consists of
complexly connected strands of silk attached to a more tightly woven
hemispherical platform. The very small spider is found outside the bowl,
clinging to the bottom. It’s prey blunders into the network of threads and, as
it struggles to escape it tumbles into the bowl where the spider grabs it from
below. The other type of sheetweb weaver, called the Bowl and doily spider, weaves
the same bowl-shaped web, but also produces a flat platform below the bowl.
Today we would call this arrangement a bowl and platter, but when the webs were first
discovered a doily was a common thing. A doily is a circular piece of hand-made
lace used under a bowl to protect the finish of the furniture. The bowl and
doily spider lives between the bowl and doily, so it is protected from both
above and below.

Spittle on blackberry stem

Spittlebug nymph (spittle removed)

Growing near the edge of
power line path is a Painted buckeye currently in bloom. Don noticed an Asiatic
Multicolored lady beetle resting on one of its leaves. In the immediate
vicinity we also found Green & Gold and a much rarer plant, Dwarf dandelion.
Several plants in the area have what looks like small blobs of spittle on them.
These are produced by the nymphal stages of an insect called, you guessed it, a
Spittlebug. The nymph sucks plant juices and the honeydew that passes through
its digestive tract is frothed up by its legs and abdomen. It is very tacky and
protects the enclosed nymph from attack by predators and parasites.

[A digression: Insects
can be divided into two general types, those with complete metamorphosis and
those with gradual (or incomplete) metamorphosis. Butterflies and moths have a
complete metamorphosis – a larval stage (like a caterpillar) changes
into a pupal stage from which an adult butterfly or moth emerges.
Neither the larva nor the pupa look like the adult or, for that
matter, each other. Hence, complete metamorphosis. But many insects, like true bugs
or grasshoppers, don’t have such dramatic changes in form as they develop. When
they hatch from their eggs they look like tiny copies of their adults, only
with incompletely formed wings. As they shed their skins they grow larger and
the wing buds increase in size until, at the last molt, the adult emerges with
fully formed wings. These immature stages are called nymphs, to
distinguish them from the larvae who have complete metamorphosis. End of
digression.]

Shed skin of Black rat snake

We also found the shed
skin of a Black rat snake. It was approximately five feet long when we stretched
it out to its full length. But the actual snake was probably only around four
feet in length because the skin stretches as it is shed. (In the living animal
the scales overlap each other so when the skin is shed all the parts that lay
under the scales are now located between them.) Black rat snakes feed on
rodents, birds and bird eggs. They can climb trees and several ramblers told
how they had seen Black rat snakes in the act of swallowing a squirrel. The
Red-cockaded woodpecker excavates its nest hole in living Long leaf pine trees.
When constructing the nest it taps into the pitch channels of the tree below
the nest opening. The pitch flows out and dribbles down the trunk creating a
smooth surface that rat snakes can’t climb up.

Pussytoes

There are several large
patches of Pussytoes, a pretty, fuzzy gray plant with a cluster of flowers that
never really open. This tight, gray cluster at then end of the plant resembles
the paw of a cat, thus the common name. One of native butterflies, the American
lady, lays its eggs on Pussytoes and the caterpillars feed on the plant. What
the Pussytoes lack in glamour is more than made up by the butterfly.

Hairy bushclove

A new plant for me, Hairy
Bushclover, is scattered throughout the prairie, but it is not blooming at
present. Like other members of the Bean family, the Fabaceae, bushclovers can
fix nitrogen. This makes them valuable members of the plant community, especially
in nitrogen poor soils. (Fixing nitrogen means converting the nitrogen in the
air into a form, like ammonia or nitrates, that is accessible to plants. The
fixation is actually done by symbiotic bacteria that live in specialized
nodules that form on the roots of Bean family plants. The plants provide the
home and carbohydrate food, the bacteria provide the fixed nitrogen.)

[Another digression: Nitrogen
is an essential element for both plant and animal growth. It is used to make
protein and proteins not only make up the bulk of animal muscle, they make up
all the literally tens of thousands of different enzymes and structural materials
that plant and animal bodies are composed of. All of our nitrogen comes to us
either directly from plants or indirectly from eating other animals that got
all their nitrogen from the plants they ate. Plants get their nitrogen from the
soil or, for nitrogen fixers, from the air. Nitrogen gets into the soil from
weathering of rocks or the decay of dead plants and animals. Decay of dead
plants and animals is performed by bacteria and fungi, thus recycling the
nitrogen once held by living plants and animals. End another digression.]

Birdsfoot violet

The beautiful Birdsfoot violet has the largest flowers of our
native violets and they are oriented upward in contrast to the other native
violets, which are oriented horizontally. This orientation facilitates
pollination by butterflies. The Birdsfoot violet grows principally in poor
soils where there are few competing plants. The Birdsfoot name comes from the
resemblance of the leaves to the foot of a bird,

Lyreleaf sage leaf

Lyreleaf sage is
currently blooming and it exhibits the typical characteristics of the Mint
family (Lamiaceae): opposite leaves and square stems, tubular flowers that are
bilaterally symmetrical, with a lower lip and upper hood-like projection. The
common name is a reference to the shape of the basal leaves which suggest the
form of a medieval stringed musical instrument.

Whorled coreopsis

Another plant that will
be blooming in the next few weeks is Whorled coreopsis. At each node it looks
as though there is a whorl of six leaves, but, like the Cross vine, appearances
are deceiving. Each node actually has a pair of leaves, but each leaf is
subdivided into three lobes united at their bases.

Deerberry

Deerberry, in the same
plant family as Blueberries (Ericaceae), now blooming. It has more open
flowers that are not as vase or urn shaped as other members of the family.

Other plants that were
not discussed above can be found in the list of Observed Species.

SUMMARY OF OBSERVED
SPECIES: