by
Tim Homan
In the mid-to-late 1970s, when I began exploring the mountains of North Georgia, written directions to trailheads were often short, cryptic, and inaccurate. In general, directions, trailhead signage, and parking areas were all primitive by today’s standards. Back then, a trail was often more difficult to find than to follow. In part, those problems led to my decision to write a guide that would include easily understood and accurate directions to the trailheads.
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| American Beech fruit The husk of the fruit is covered with spines and divided into four lobes. Each fruit contains 2 or 3 seeds. (photo by Don Hunter) |
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| Opened American Beech fruit showing the four husk lobes and two three-sided nuts. The grid lines are 1/4 inch apart. (photo by Dale Hoyt) |
American Beech begins to produce fruit at the age of 40 and hits its stride at age 60. That might seem ancient in human terms, but a tree can live 300 to 400 years.
American Beech has another way of reproducing: root suckering. The shoots that are produced are, of course, genetically identical with the tree that produced them. The tendency to produce these off shoots varies geographically. It is more common in the north and at higher elevations in the Appalachians. Trees growing in lower elevations, coastal plains and in the piedmont tend to produce more seeds and fewer root suckers.
When talking to people of a certain age about Beech trees the subject of Beech-Nut Gum generally comes up: “Was it really made from Beech nuts?” As far as I’ve been able to determine, Beech-Nut Gum is no longer made. Wikipedia tells us that the company that made the gum started out as a ham- and bacon-producing enterprise in 1891, known as Beech-Nut Packing Company. Perhaps their hogs were fed beech nuts the way some hogs are fed on acorns? It was a common practice, back in the day, to turn hogs loose in the woods to find their own food. That food, called “mast,” consisted mostly of acorns and beech nuts. For the old timers and the edification of those who do not remember Beech-Nut Gum, here is a commercial that you might remember. (You may have to wait for a political ad to play before the commercial.) The name seems to be more a brand than a reference to the contents of a product. The internet has pictures of Beech-Nut Baby Food and Beech-Nut peanut butter.
The other context that most people associate with “Beech” is in Budweiser beer: “Beechwood aged.” For me, this conjured up row after row of large barrels made from the wood of American Beech trees. Once again, the imagination doesn’t match the reality. Consult this website for the full story.
FINE = Fun, Interesting, Novel, Exciting
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| Cranefly Orchids, Tipularia discolor, are blooming in woods near you. (photo by Catherine Chastain} |
Linda says: The Great Georgia Pollinator Census is this week, August 21, 22. It is a wonderful opportunity to participate in citizen science! Details available here.
The unique faunas of islands all over the world suffer from invasive predators like rats. New Zealand has decided to get rid of these rats and other invasive predators to preserve their native birds.
This video from Knowable Magazine explains the difference between
Locusts and Grasshoppers and shows locust swarms in current day Africa.
Swarms of migratory locusts regularly devastate crops
across the world, but why these swarms form has been a mystery. Now, a team of
researchers have identified a pheromone that causes solitary locusts to come
together and form flocks that number in the billions. (A pheromone is a volatile chemical, an odor, that causes a change in the behavior or physiology of another individual.) Find out how this pheromone was discovered and how this knowledge could lead to preventing locust swarms.
Emily recommends “The Pleasures of Moth-Watching.”
Milkweeds are protected from many herbivores because they carry a poison, but some insects, like the Monarch butterfly, can eat milkweed leaves. How they are able to do this is an interesting evolutionary story.
Jan Coyne suggested this article from the NYT: A Honeybee’s Tongue Is More Swiss Army Knife Than Ladle.
That’s it for this week.
Dale
FINE = Fun, Interesting, Novel, Exciting
Helen Macdonald in the NYT Magazine: The Mysterious Life of Birds Who Never Come Down. It’s about Swifts; by the author of H is for Hawk.
Freshwater mussels; an overview with videos from Knowable Magazine.
I posted about freshwater mussels earlier this year.
This article talks about freshwater mussel’s role in stream ecology and current restoration efforts.
Catherine Chastain recommends this article about mosses that use quartz parasols.
Comic book: Centuries of pondering – and squabbling about – trees
Until next week,
Dale
Yesterday, on our daily walk in the neighborhood, we found this strikingly patterned turtle in the middle of the road. It’s a male Eastern Box Turtle, Terrapene carolina.
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| Male Eastern Box Turtle, Terrapene carolina |
The symmetrical orange markings in the middle of the upper shell are each in a separate scute. Each scute is a bony plate covered by a horny epidermis. As the turtle grows the scutes expand at the edges and the epidermis keeps pace with this growth, producing a ring on the margin of the scute. These rings of epidermis accumulate, one per year, and produce a “tree ring” like effect. You can clearly see the edges of each ring on the large scutes. Try to count them — the number of rings indicates the approximate age of the turtle. Approximate because, as the turtle ages, the older epidermis rubs off causing a ring to disappear, so counting the scute rings is an under-estimate of the age. (I could make out somewhere between 10 and 15 rings on the scutes in the middle of the back. Did you get more or less?) So, conservatively, the turtle was between 10 and 15 years old. The shell was approximately 8 inches in length.
How did I know this is a male turtle? The lower shell, that covers the belly of the turtle, holds the secret. It is either flat or has a concave depression toward the tail half of the shell. If the depression is flat, the turtle is a female. Males have the depression.
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| Lower shell of box turtle showing the depression typical of male turtles. |
The photo above shows the underside of the box turtle. I hope you can make out the depression just to the right of the darker, damp area. Why would a male turtle have this depression? When turtles mate the curve of the female shell fits into the male shell depression, facilitating reproduction.
We moved the turtle off the road and released it in a more heavily vegetated area.
Box turtles have a diet that includes fungi, earthworms, fruits, and green leaves; in short, almost anything they can catch or reach. They appear to be major dispersers of Mayapple seeds. The turtle eats the fruit and, some distance away, defecates the unharmed seeds.
FINE = Fun, Interesting, Novel, Exciting
The best way to control the spread of virus on a college campus.
Satellite photos and what they can tell us about Earth’s vegetation.
Many vines use tendrils to assist their upward climb toward the light. The tendrils wrap around the supports they encounter and then the tendril coils up, pulling to plant toward its support. Here is how the cucumber tendril manages to coil, along with a cool video.
Some South American lizards that live at high elevations can freeze solid and recover!
There Are Two Ways Out of a Frog. This Beetle Chose the Back Door.
Until next week,
Dale
by Tim Homan
Crags Campground, Lassen Volcanic National Park*. The end of June in 2014 and the next to last night of a long camping trip to northernmost Arizona and California.
After hiking and touring from early morning to mid-afternoon, Page and I returned to camp for rest and a little reading. During the early evening we sat together on the picnic table-talking softly, writing in our trip journals, and planning the next day’s hike. We wrote entries for a new aquatic chick sighting. While walking around a scenic front-country lake, Manzanita, we were treated to good looks, especially close on several occasions, at the fuzzy and fluffy young of the Pied-billed Grebe for the first time ever. The greblings were tricked out in black-and-white stripes above the waterline. Their eyes and the bases of their bills were ringed in yellow. An intermittent halo of orange-red crowned their heads with an additional flourish of color.
Continue reading
FINE = Fun, Interesting, Novel, Exciting
or
FINED =
Fun, Interesting, Novel, Exciting, Depressing
Emily suggests this piece about the age of ancient diseases.
This NY Times piece tells you everything you might need to know about dealing with yellow jackets and their relatives.
Genes tell us where slaves came from and now, what happened to them after their arrival.
Before industrialization our climate wasn’t unchanging. Many forces interacting together determine our climate. Here is an article that will help you understand how they work and interact.
Eugenia recommends this article about how farming practices can be changed to protect pollinators.
Emily recommends: A recently published study shows that US crops are already seeing a decline in production due to pollinator decreases. The Guardian has the story.
Another paper shows a decline in bee-plant pollinator interactions over the last 125 years.
by
Tim Homan
The North Carolina Wildlife Commission has restored a fast and wild ferocity-a taut arrow, feather fletched and set free on the wind-to the state’s Southern Appalachian skies. The commission accomplished this feat by bringing back the perfect aerodynamic form of the fastest being on Earth, the Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus). With a moderate amount of luck, you can claim witness to the striking sight of this raptor on the wing, to the fluid grace of its spear-fast flight. With even more luck and more time spent atop mountains open to the high blue, you might witness this falcon turn warlord if another large bird-Common Raven, Turkey Vulture, or Red-tailed Hawk-ventures into peregrine airspace while the proprietor is on high-altitude patrol. Then this predator may tuck its dagger-tipped wings into one of the Earth’s most exquisite expressions of form and function as it dives toward the intruder.
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Fun, Interesting, Novel, Exciting Things
Invasive earthworms are in the northeast and they are here in Georgia too! Emily and I found a strange worm on our daily walk yesterday. It looked and moved like a small snake. I think it was a Crazy Worm, Amynthas agrestis. See the link above for a photo. Here is a video of one of these worms. Notice the snake-like movement as it attempts to escape.
Do you like podcasts? And plants? Then you will enjoy this source of podcasts about things botanical. Scroll through the various offerings and you’ll be sure to find something that piques your curiosity. In Defense of Plants Podcasts
Here’s another compilation of podcasts from the Royal Botanical Garden in Australia.
How can migratory birds can find their destination? Scientists think they can sense the earth’s magnetic field. But how? Find out here.
Want to know how viruses evolve?
I know a lot of Ramblers are bird watchers and many can identify birds by their vocalizations. But the “Old Sam Peabody-Peabody-Peabody” call of the White-throated sparrows may soon be a thing of the past.
Coming up next month: a Webinar on Snakes of Georgia, August 14, 2020; Noon to 1 PM; to register email: uge3039@uga.edu
