Leader for today’s Ramble: Linda, Gary
 

Link to Don’s Facebook album for this Ramble. All the photos that appear in this report, unless otherwise credited, were taken by Don Hunter.

 

NOTE: THIS IS A SPECIAL EDITION OF DON’S FACEBOOK ALBUM. IT IS SUPPLEMENTED BY LINDA AND GARY AND TAKES THE PLACE OF THE REGULAR RAMBLE REPORT FOR THIS WEEK.

 

Number of Ramblers today: 34
 

River Cane with exposed stamens

Today’s emphasis: Flowering River Cane, Moonseed, Mountain Laurel on the White Trail.
 

Reading: None today
 

Show and Tell: Assistant Horticulturist Emily brought River Cane flowers and harvested seed.

Today’s Route: From the Mimsie Lanier Center to the White Trail, then upstream to the Mtn. Laurel and return to the Mimsie Center.

 

SPECIES OBSERVED

 

Rivercane (Arundinaria gigantea)
 Blue Field Madder (Sherardia arvensis (syn. Galium sheradia))
 Cleavers/Bedstraw (Galium aparine)
 shrubby species of honeysuckle (Lonicera sp.)
 Butterweed (Packera glabella)
 Mountain Laurel (Kalmia latifolia)
 Rattlesnake Weed (Hieracium venosum)
 Horse Sugar (Symplocos tinctoria)
 Coral Bells (Heuchera americana)
 Solomon’s Plumes (Maianthemum racemosum)
 Tulip tree (Liriodendron tulipifera)
 Moonseed (Menispermum canadense)
 Blue Grass (Poa sp.)
 Cinnamon Vine (Dioscorea polystachya)
 Wingstem (Verbesina alternifolia)
 Yellow Passionflower (Passiflora lutea)
 Lyre-leaf Sage (Salvia lyrata)
 Antlion trap (Neuroptera: Myrmeleontidae)
 Wood Nettle (Laportea canadensis)
 Goose Grass, Fowl Manna Grass (Glyceria striata)
 sedge (Carex sp.)
 Mushroom 1
 Jewelweed (Impatiens capensis)
 Multiflora Rose (Rosa multiflora)
 Hispid Buttercup (Ranunculus hispidus)?
 Sensitive Fern (Onoclea sensibilis)
 Moth (Herpetogramma sp.?)
 Myosotis macrocarpa.

 

Leader for today’s Ramble, Linda
 

Link to Don’s Facebook album for this Ramble. All the photos that appear in this report, unless otherwise credited, were taken by Don Hunter.

Today’s emphasis:  Today, we Rambled at Sandy Creek Park, seeking what we found on the White Trail, heading west and north from the boat launch area on the Lakeside Trail.

Ramblers today: 22

Announcements:

”       Gary told us that some of the River Cane at the Botanical Garden has bloomed, something that only occurs after many years of growth, as much as 50 – 100 years. River Cane is monocarpic, a term that describes plants that flower and set seeds only once in their lives, and then die. Since River Cane is clonal, forming patches of many genetically identical stems that are essentially one plant, an entire clone of several to many stems flowers at one time then dies. In this case only a small clone within this particular River Cane stand bloomed, so most of the stems in that part of the Garden will remain alive. The patch probably comprises several clones. It is not known what triggers a particular clone to flower and set seed, though fire or other disturbance is one likely possibility.

”       Emily announced Georgia Museum of Natural History events:  May 20-22 there will be a trip to Broxton Rocks; and, on May 7, the annual meeting for the Friends of the GMNH will be held at the museum annex across Jimmy Daniels Road from the Sam’s Store.

”       Roger announced that the Athens/Clarke Green Lights Awards Festival will be held at the Terrapin Brewery on April 22, beginning at 4 pm. The Oconee River Land Trust and Friends of Sandy Creek Nature Center will both have booths set up.  At 6 pm, the awards ceremony will be held. Pat Nielsen will get an award for her volunteer work at the Botanical Garden.

Reading:  Robert recited a recent nature poem, the epilogue to his in-progress manuscript, “A Dream of Reading Bartram.” [link]

Show-and-Tell:

Cramp Balls (AKA Carbon Balls)

o       Richard brought a piece of decaying wood, bearing a patch of “cramp balls,” a fungus in the genus Annulohypoxylon that breaks down organic matter in order to extract nutrients.  The balls are semi-shiny, black spheres, with tiny perforations on top of each sphere from which spores are released.

Today’s Route:   We left the boat launch area, taking the white-blazed Lakeside Trail west and north, staying close to the lake for the entire route.  We walked for almost two hours and returned back to the vehicles.

LIST OF OBSERVATIONS:

Pussytoes flowers

Pussytoes leaves

o       A small patch of Pussytoes is flowering near the trail head. There were four or five flower stems, each topped with several fuzzy flower heads, the eponymous “toes.” Pussytoes are on the short list of spring-flowering composites (members of the Aster family) in our area. Each “toe” is a separate head consisting of many tiny whitish flowers held tightly by a whorl of green bracts. The flowers on a given plant are either female or male. Even when they are not in flower, Pussytoes are easy to identify by the dense layer of white, felted hairs on the lower surface of the spoon-shaped basal leaves.

 

Two Great Blue Herons and a single Osprey were seen flying over the lake.

PHOTO AND TEXT: Several Asian azalea cultivars are in glorious bloom at the beginning of the trail, in shades of white, coral, and pink. These evergreen azaleas are imports from the Himalayan Mountains of south-central Asia, and have been in the horticultural trade for centuries.

A burl, looking somewhat like a Koala climbing a tree, appears to engulf the trunk of this young Sweet Gum. Burls are formed when an insect or pathogen of some kind (fungus, virus, or bacteria) invades a tree. The tree responds by growing a woody, tumor-like tissue that isolates the invader. Burls continue to grow along with their tree host, but faster as this example demonstrates. They often have unusually patterned grain, making them highly desirable to wood turners and furniture makers, but removing a large gall is usually fatal to the tree.

Southern Grapefern sterile fronds; fertile fronds will appear in late summer or early fall and release a host of spores

Solomon’s Seal is common along the trailsides, most with buds that dangle below the stem on slender stalks that arise from the leaf axils. Don was lucky enough to photograph a Red-spotted Ant Mimic Spider crawling on this plant.

Solomon’s Plume is often confused with Solomon’s Seal when in vegetative condition, but two features are useful. Solomon’s Seal has a waxy, white coating on its leaves and stems, giving it a blue-green color. Solomon’s Plume stems are bright green and slightly zigzagged. Once the terminal cluster of flowers appears on Solomon’s Plume, they are easily distinguished.

Downy Rattlesnake Plantain is one of several Piedmont forest species whose leaves overwinter. The leafless canopy allows them to photosynthesize throughout the winter, compensating for the greatly reduced light during the summer months.

Pippsissewa is another overwintering wildflower found in Piedmont forests. “Wildflower” is stretching it-these diminutive plants are actually “subshrubs” with woody stems.

Last year’s dried stems and fruit (note the slits from which seeds were released) persist on some Pipsissewa plants. Other plants are already in bud.

A beautifully camouflaged American Toad was seen in the leaf litter beside the trail. The loud, high-pitched nasal trill of the similar Fowler’s Toad followed us along the first part of the trail. To relive the experience, click here

This Green Frog was hanging out in the area where the Fowler’s Toads were calling. Green Frogs are smaller than Bull Frogs and have a dorso-lateral fold that runs along the side of the back from the eye to the pelvic region. Bull Frogs lack this skin fold. (photo by Robert Ambrose, Jr.)

Common Yellow Wood-sorrel, with its clover-like leaves and hairs that are soft and lie flat along the stems. The leaves fold up at night and on cloudy days. It is a close look-alike to Southern Yellow Wood Sorrel (Oxalis dillenii), which is covered with hairs that spread stiffly from the stems.

Japanese Stilt Grass is abundant along the first part of the trail, especially near the first creek crossing. Small green seedlings have recently emerged from a persistent seed bank. Mats of dry, brown stems of this rampant invasive grass also persist through the winter, earning it another common name, Nepalese Browntop. The dead stems accumulate into dense, sodden mats that, over time, completely suppress germination and growth of native ground cover species.

A native aquatic species, Arrow-arum, surrounded by Water-milfoil, one of several species of aquatic invasives in the genus Myriophyllum. These invasive species have degraded many lakes and waterways throughout the south, by way of boat propellers that carry fragments from one water body to another. Some ramblers asked if Arrow-arum is related to the edible Taro (Colocasia esculenta), native to South Asia and cultivated widely around the world; they are in the same family, Araceae, along with Jack-in-the-pulpit and the famous shopping mall plant called Peace Lily (not a true lily).

 

Netted Chain Fern grows with Arrow-arum in the tiny stream we first crossed. Its leaves closely resemble those of Sensitive Fern, which we commonly see at the Botanical Garden. It takes a 10X hand lens to see the difference until fertile fronds emerge in the summer. The lower surface of Netted Chain’s sterile fronds has a line of small veins that parallel both sides of the main veins and appear to form a series of chain links.

Dwarf Cinquefoil, another bright yellow spot along the trail, grows all along the trail. Its leaflets are toothed only in the upper half; Common Cinquefoil (Potentilla simplex) leaflets are toothed nearly to the base.

Blackberry brambles with large, white flowers. Their five petals and abundance of stamens are two clues to their membership in the Rose family.

Large Sweet Gum trees are a common member of Georgia’s hardwood forests, both in uplands and lowlands. The spiny female fruit is well known to irate homeowners and barefoot children but the female flower clusters, held high in the upper branches, are rarely seen. However, the male flowers are familiar to anyone who visits the woods this time of year. Our trail today was littered with fallen clusters of staminate (male) flowers. Although colorful, Sweet Gum flower clusters are not pollinated by insects. Instead, vast quantities of pollen are released to the winds. Luckily, Sweet Gum pollen does not seem to trigger allergies in humans.

At first acquaintance, it’s hard to hate the sprawling shrub Multiflora Rose: the flowers are so pretty and they smell so sweet. But these traits disguise one of the worst invasive shrubs in eastern North America. Brought from Asia for erosion control, Multiflora Rose is now legally prohibited or listed as noxious in a number of states. To distinguish it from native roses, or even benign non-natives, look at the very base of the leaf stalk. A structure known as a stipule lines the base of the stalk and is divided, comb-like, into segments.

Witch Grass, with its small oval flower spikelets held at the tips of delicate branches, is beginning to flower.

Basal rosette of Wild Lettuce.  These plants will soon send up a stout, waxy, purple-spotted stem bearing dozens of yellow flower heads in the summer and fall. All parts of the plant ooze a milky latex when broken.

Soft Rush Closeup of flowers

Several examples of Soft Rush provided an opportunity to recite the graminoid poem: “Sedges have edges, Rushes are round, and Grasses are hollow all the way to the ground.” (Graminoid is a term applied to the three unrelated families of grass or grass-like plants.) Rushes do indeed have round stems (like grasses but unlike sedges) and they are filled with pith (like sedges but unlike grasses). This particular species, Soft Rush, also has another distinguishing feature that can be very confusing if you’re using one of the older technical manuals to key it out. The key will describe this species as having a “terminal” inflorescence (flower cluster), which means the flowers are located at the very tip of the stem. However, the “terminal” flower for Soft Rush is located several inches from the top of the plant. So, what gives? The tricky thing is that what looks like a length of stem above the flowers is, believe it or not, actually a bract (a modified leaf) – a bract that looks just like the stem. Should this plant be re-named Deceptive Rush, or should the keys be modified? I am happy to report that the most current key has done the right thing. Here is the relevant portion of the Rush family key, written by Bruce Sorrie and Bill Knapp, and published in Weakley’s “Flora of the Southeastern United States” (2020):

-Inflorescence appearing lateral; inflorescence bract erect, appearing to be a continuation of the stem
versus
-Inflorescence appearing terminal; inflorescence bract not appearing to be a continuation of the stem.

The first line of that key will take you to Soft Rush.

Oak Apple gall detached from oak leaf

Gall above, opened to show interior.

 An Oak Apple Gall had fallen from a leaf of its host, probably a White Oak, and was lying on the ground.  The interior tissue is developed around a gall wasp larva and the suspension system keeps it away from prying predators. Here is a great description of this fascinating example of the complexity of forest ecosystems:

Little Brown Jugs

Heartleaf, also known as Little Brown Jugs and Wild Ginger, pictured here with five fresh, jug-shaped flowers. New arrowhead-shaped, mottled leaves have appeared and will last for about a year. The flowers are formed by the fusion of three fleshy sepals; there are no petals. Well inside the “jug,” twelve stamens and a six-lobed ovary comprise the sexual parts of the flower. The flowers are pollinated by crawling insects or possibly self-pollination. The ovary develops into a fruit entirely within the jug, and its seeds are dispersed by ants. Wild Ginger plants may live to 20 or more years.

Smooth Spiderwort. The common name refers to the cobwebby look of the hairy stamens.

Hearts-a-burstin’ or Strawberry-bush, has odd-looking, reddish-green flowers that usually lie on top of the leaves (a tan cluster of Beech flowers has slipped into this photo at top center). Dominating the flower is a central, round, nectar-producing disk with five stamens fused to its rim. In this photo, you can see the pistil beginning to develop in the middle of the disk. As interesting as the flowers are, we were all mostly amazed that this plant, and several other examples we saw along the way, has not been  grazed to death by deer. Another common (and local) name for this species is Deer Ice Cream (thanks, Dr. Cook!).

Catesby’s Trillium flowers were a highlight of today’s ramble.

Sweet Shrub tepals and petals are a rich, deep burgundy and give off a fleeting sweet fragrance before they are pollinated. The flowers are visited by beetles who are lured inside by tiny food bodies attached to the tips of the inner tepals. As they bump around inside the flower, eating the tasty treats then trying to escape from the inwardly curved petals, they deposit pollen picked up from previously visited flowers.

Painted Buckeye, a Piedmont specialty, in full flower.

Mockernut Hickory leaves emerging from a large terminal bud. Their characteristic hairiness is on full display in Don’s photo.

Coral Honeysuckle vines are abundant along the trail. Their bluish-green leaves and burgundy stems easily distinguish this species from Japanese Honeysuckle. When in flower, they resemble no other native wildflower. Needless to say, they are pollinated by hummingbirds.

 

 

A Partridge Berry fruit derives from the fusion of two separate ovaries from two otherwise separate flowers. The remnants of the bases of both flowers can be seen on this fruit.

Ebony Spleenwort fern with its characteristic black stem.

 

Perfoliate Bellwort at peak flower.

Possumhaw Holly in bud. Both leaves and flowers are produced on short shoots that grow only a few millimeters a year.

Don captured a Harvestman on one of the holly’s leaves

Autumn Olive, one of the most common invasive plants in Clarke County is in flower.

On our return walk to the boat launch, Don spotted what at first appeared to be a white slime mold, growing on a bare patch of ground among some thin leaf litter. It is actually a fungus, pale lavender in color with a few dark purple, pillow-like, velvety structures, all part of the same fungus.  It has no common name so it goes by its fancy scientific name, Chromelosporiopsis coerulescens.  As it matures, it will change color to ochre.

Crane-fly Orchid leaves are withering; they will disappear altogether by the time the plants flower in June. Last year’s fruits are visible in this photo.

Violet Wood-sorrel

SUMMARY OF OBSERVATIONS:

Pussytoes     Antennaria plantaginifolia
Great Blue Heron     Ardea herodias
Asian deciduous azaleas     Rhododendron sp.
Sweet Gum     Liquidambar styraciflua
Southern Grape-fern     Botrychium biternatum
Solomon’s Seal     Polygonatum biflorum
Solomon’s Plume     Maianthemum racemosum (synonym: Smilacina racemosa)
Red-spotted Ant Mimic Spider     Castianeira descripta
Downy Rattlesnake Plantain     Goodyera pubescens
Pipsissewa     Chimaphila maculata
American Toad     Anaxyrus americanus
Fowler’s Toad     Anaxyrus fowleri

Common Yellow Wood-sorrel     Oxalis stricta
Southern Yellow Wood-sorrel     Oxalis dillenii
Japanese Stilt Grass/Nepalese Browntop     Microstegium vimineum
Water-milfoil     Myriophyllum sp.
Netted Chain Fern     Woodwardia areolata
Arrow-arum     Peltandra virginica
Dwarf Cinquefoil     Potentilla canadensis
Violet Wood-sorrel     Oxalis violacea
Blackberry     Rubus sp.
Sedge      Carex sp.
Multiflora Rose     Rosa multiflora
Witch Grass     Dichanthelium sp.
Wild Lettuce     Lactuca canadensis
Lyre-leaf Sage     Salvia lyrata
Soft Rush     Juncus effusus
Eastern Red Cedar     Juniperus virginiana
Hearts-a-burstin’/Strawberry Bush     Euonymus americanus
Oak Apple Gall created by a gall wasp    Biorhiza pallida
Heartleaf, Wild Ginger     Hexastylis arifolia
Smooth Spiderwort     Tradescantia ohiensis
Resurrection Fern     Pleopeltis polypodiodes
Painted Buckeye     Aesculus sylvatica
Catesby’s Trillium     Trillium catesbaei
Sweet Shrub     Calycanthus florida
Mockernut Hickory     Carya tomentosa
Coral Honeysuckle     Lonicera sempervirens
Whorled Loosestrife     Lysimachia quadrifolia
Lion’s Foot     Prenanthes sp. (synonym Nabalus sp.)
Partridgeberry     Mitchella repens
Ebony Spleenwort     Asplenium platyneuron
Possumhaw Holly     Ilex decidua
Autumn Olive     Elaeagnus umbellata
Green Frog     Lithobates clamitans
Lavender/purple fungus (no common name)      Chromelosporiopsis coerulescens

Leader for today’s Ramble: Dale

Link to Don’s Facebook album for this Ramble. All the photos that appear in this report, unless otherwise credited, were taken by Don Hunter.

Number of Ramblers today: 29

Today’s emphasis: What’s happening on the Orange Trail

 

Reading:

Bob Ambrose

Bob Ambrose recited his most recent poem, A Humble Petition.

 

Show and Tell: 

Dale brought a Sweetgum inflorescence. Sweetgums are monoecious — their flowers are either male, bearing stamens that produce pollen, or female, bearing flowers that will produce seeds. Both sexes are found on the same plant. (If the sexes occured on separate plants, they would be called dioecious. The two kinds of inflorescences look very different. The male inflorescence is a tall, lumpy cluster of pollen producing flowers that the tree drops soon after they exhaust their pollen supply. The female inflorescence develops into a spikey globe about the size of a golf ball. They drop off the tree in autumn, just to annoy you when you step on them barefooted.

.

Sweetgum inflorescences uppermost is a group of male flowers The spherical structure in the middle, just in front of my finger, is the female inflorescense

 

Announcements: 

 

Next week’s (April 14. 2022) Nature Ramble will be held at Sandy Creek Park (the Park, not Sandy Creek Nature Center). Click here for directions.

 

Sue introduced her sister, Emily, from Boston.

Today’s Route:  From our meeting place we walked between the Ceramic Arts bldg. and the Visitor Center, then followed the sidewalk to the Meditation area and turned left on to the Orange Trail Spur, which we followed to the Orange Trail where we turned left (upstream)

OBSERVATIONS:
 

Flower Garden Path to Orange Trail Spur:
 

Little Brown Jugs; one flower revealed at the top of the photo by removing the leaf litter

Little Brown Jugs are named for their flowers that are hidden in the leaf litter. Why would a plant hide its flowers from view? Pollination biologists discover potential pollinators by patiently peering at the visitors to a flower. This won’t work for Little Brown Jugs. Their buried flowers make it impossible to see what visits the flowers. If the leaf litter is cleared away the pollinator may be discouraged from visiting an exposed flower. An indirect approach is to bag the flowers with a fine mesh cloth and leave other flowers unbagged. If the seed production of bagged and unbagged flowers is the same then the plant is likely to be self-fertilizing. This does seem to be the case, as reported by this brief paper: Don’t Judge a Book by its Cover: The Curious Case of Wild Ginger Pollination

: 

Orange Trail Spur and Orange Trail (moving upstream):

American Beech with “Warty” bark.

American Beech tree warty bumps on the bark, We’ve visited this tree for 12 years with no evidence that the warts have damaged its health. It has been suggested that the warts are Beech Bark Disease (BBD), a serious problem in the Northeast states where thousands of Beech trees have been killed. BBD is caused by a fungus that invades bark damaged by scale insects. For pictures of BBD and more information consult this brochure from the University of Massachusetts.

https://ag.umass.edu/landscape/fact-sheets/beech-bark-disease

Jack-in-the-Pulpit

Jack-in-the-Pulpit (JP) When young the single leaf with three leaflets can be confused with a Trillium. Here’s how to tell the difference: imagine a circle with a stem growing up from the center. At the top of the stalk there are three leaflets, two of which are aligned with the diameter of the imaginary circle. The third leaflet is perpendicular to the diameter. That’s a JP.

In a Trillium the three leaflets emerge from the center of the circle in a Y-pattern, but all three angles are equal to 120 degrees; no two of the leaflets lie on a diameter.

 

Previously we called all the JP in the Botanical Garden, Arisimea triphyllum, but recent opinions have caused a re-think.

Jack-in-the-pulpit is widely distributed in eastern North America and has been treated as a single species with several subspecies, forms or varieties. 

Jack-in-the-Pulpit with 5 leaflets (photo from 2014 ramble)

The 2017 version of Weakley’s Flora of Georgia recognizes an additional species in our area: A. quinetum, formerly treated as a subspecies of A. triphyllum. It has 3 to 5 leaflets. But why should it be considered a distinct species, rather than a variety, subspecies or form. Is it solely a matter of judgement?
Species concepts. A widely accepted definition of a species hinges on the concept of reproductive isolation. Reproductive isolation means that, in nature, individuals of different species do not mate with one another, or, if they do, the resulting organisms have lower fitness. In the case of the two JP species there are more differences than just the number of leaflets; they have different numbers of chromosomes. A. triphyllum is tetraploid and A. quinetum is diploid. A cross between these two is a triploid plant. It has three sets of chromosomes, one set from quinetum and two sets from triphyllum. The triploid can reproduce vegetatively by budding of the rhizome, but it is sexually sterile. Therefore quinetum and triphyllum are reproductively isolated and best viewed as distinct species.

Why triploids are sterile. You probably remember that during the formation of eggs and sperm the chromosome number is halved. For example, humans are diploid; they have two sets of 23 chromosomes. Their eggs and sperms carry 23 chromosomes, one from each of the 23 pairs of chromosomes. To produce eggs or sperm the chromosomes pair up and the sex cells get one member from each pair. 

A triploid has three sets of chromosomes. When the chromosomes prepare for the cell divisions that produce sperm and eggs they attempt to pair up. But with three sets of chromosomes there is always one pair and a loner. The two paired chromosomes separate from one another and the singleton goes randomly into one or the other of the sex cells. This is happening to each chromosome in each set.

The result is a mixture of singles and doubles of each chromosome. Consequently some of the genes are present in one dose, others in two or three doses. This causes defects in gene expression that cause the developing seed or pollen to abort.

 

Wild Geranium

A female Wild Geranium lacks stamens.

A hermaphroditic Wild Geranium has both male (stamens) and female parts (pistil)

 

Wild
Geranium is currently blooming and we
found many plants along both the Orange Trail Spur and Orange Trail. In this area the plants are of two types: those
that have both stamens and pistils (called perfect flowers, bisexual flowers, or  hermaphroditic flowers), and those that
lack stamens (pistilate flowers).
(Remember: the stamens produce pollen, the pistil holds the egg that
develops into the embryonic plant inside the seed.) This condition, where a species has two types
of flowers, perfect or female, is
called “gynodioecious” (pronounced: Gy-no-dye-E-shus). (Note that this
term applies
to the population or species, not the individual plant or flower.)

Gynodioecy may be a stepping
stone on the way to evolving into a species in which there are only two kinds
of plants, those with male flowers and those with female flowers. That
condition is called dioecious (pronounced: dye-E-shus). Examples of dioecious species we have seen in the Garden are Spicebush and the various holly species.

Plants have two ways of passing
their genes on to the next generation: via seeds or pollen. If a plant loses
the ability to produce pollen you would think that it would lose the
evolutionary race to those that produce both seeds and pollen. But making pollen takes energy
and a plant that doesn’t have to make pollen can divert more energy to produce more
or larger seeds. That could give it an advantage over the plants with
perfect flowers.

If the female only plants produce more seeds that inherit that trait then they will increase in frequency in the population. But this means that there will be fewer plants producing pollen. Eventually, as pollen becomes less available, the pistilate plants advantage in seed production will decrease because there are too few pollen producers. Then the plants that are producing pollen have the
evolutionary upper hand and they will start to increase. It would seem to be
pretty difficult to evolve into a dioecious species from a gynodioecious one. Not producing pollen may be advantageous when it is rare, but as it becomes more numerous it loses that advantage. (This is an example of frequency-dependent selection.)

Christmas Fern

Christmas Fern fertile frond showing the pinules that bear the spore producing structures near the end of the frond.

Often we are guilty of ignoring the commonplace. I plead guilty of this when it comes to Christmas Ferns. It seems to grow almost everywhere, yet I can’t really answer the symplest questions about it’s biology. Here are a few examples.

When the new fronds emerge in the spring not all of them develop into fertile fronds. How many will form on a single plant? Does the number depend on how much light the plant is exposed to? Or the age of the plant? Did the overwintering fronds supply any energy to the new fronds? What would happen if someone were to cut off part of the winter fronds? Would that affect the number of new fronds or their fertility or both or neither? 

 

Mystery Observation

Strange object gripping the top of a Mayapple leaf.

Object removed and broken in half. Recesses in the open surface suggest it held seeds.

The white object in the photos above looked initially like a gall growing from the center of a Mayapple leaf. But it wasn’t really attached to the leaf. It looked like might have been an empty seed capsule that had accidentally fallen to the surface before the Mayapples emerged. Then one leaf poked up into the hollow center of the capsule and found its leaf confined by the capsular walls. We couldn’t figure out what plant the capsule came from.

 

Another Mystery Object

What is this thing?

Heather found a curious object firmly attached to a beech twig. One end was rounded, the other, had what looked like a lid. You could bend the flap or lid open with a finger nail and, when released, it snapped shut. Heather and Don guessed that it might be cocoon of some moth, but it didn’t look like that to me. Most cocoons have the texture of fine silken threads, but this thing didn’t, at least to my poor vision.

Click beetle

Click Beetle Head is to left, followed by 1st thoracic segment, then the wing covers that extend over the last 2 thoracic segments and the abdomen.

A click beetle is named for the unusual way it has of righting itself. When placed on its back it is helpless. How to get back on its feer?! While on its back it bends its head-thorax upward toward its belly. The head-thorax suddenly snaps down, hitting what it’s lying on with enough force to propel its body upward, spinning in the air, and emitting a sharp “click.” This action is repeated until it lands on its feet.The sadistic entomologist, or small boy, can deliberately turn a click beetle several times to discover how many times it takes to fatigue the poor beetle.

Post-Ramble Observations:

After leaving the Orange Trail and cutting over to the upper parking lot, I noticed a lot of activity on the large Chinese Holly hybrid (according to Gary).  The abundant yellow flowers were attracting a wide assortment of pollinators, including:  Western Honey Bee, Common Flower Fly, Eastern Carpenter Bee, tachinid fly, halictid bee, Transverse-banded Flower Fly and Potter Wasp

SUMMARY OF OBSERVATIONS:

Pre-Ramble
Chattahoochee Trillium     Trilium decipiens
Doublefile Viburnum     Viburnum plicatum tomentosum ‘Mariesii’
Mount Airy Fothergilla     Fothergilla major ‘Mount Airy’
Flowering Dogwood     Cornus florida

American Beech     Fagus grandifolia
Confederate Azalea     Rhododendron ‘Semmes’
Green-and-Gold     Chrysogonum virginianum
Wild Ginger     Hexastylis arifolia
Jack-in-the-Pulpit     Arisaema triphyllum
Solomon’s Seal     Polygonatum biflorum
Three-parted Yellow Violet     Viola tripartita
Wild Geranium     Geranium maculatum
Christmas Fern     Polystichum acrostichoides
Elliott’s Blueberry     Vaccinium elliottii
Mayapple     Podophyllum peltatum
Carolina Anole     Anolis carolinensis
Orchard Orbweaver     Leucauge venusta
Rattlesnake Fern     Botrychium virginianum
Wood Ear Mushroom     Auricularia auricula
Bloodroot     Sanguinaria canadensis
Coral Honeysuckle     Lonicera sempervirens
Click beetle     Gambrinus sp.
Jack-in-the-Pulpit rust fungus     Uromyces caladii
Buckthorn Bully     Sideroxylon lycioides
Perfoliate Bellwort     Uvularia perfoliata
Mayapple Rust fungus     Allodus podophylli
Hooked Buttercup     Ranunculus uncinatus
Wood Rush     Luzula glomerata
Elm (with galls)     Ulmus sp.
Slime Mold    ?? Fuligo septica ??
Broad Beech Fern     Phegopteris hexagonoptera
Rue Anemone     Thalictrum thalictroides
Common Blue Violet      Viola sororia
Common Chickweed     Stellaria media
Kidney-leaf Buttercup     Ranunculus abortivus
Bedstraw     Galium aparine
Southern Chervil     Chaerophyllum tainturieri
Eastern Tent Caterpillar     Malacosoma americanum

Post-Ramble
Western Honey Bee     Apis mellifera
Common Flower Fly     Syrphus ribesii
Eastern Carpenter Bee     Xylocopa virginica
Tachinid fly     Family Tachinidae
Halictid bee     Halictus sp.
Transverse-banded Flower Fly    Eristalis transversa
Potter Wasp     Euodynerus bidens

 

Photos by Heather Larkin

Red-bellied Snake small, eats slugs and snails

Red-bellied Snake      Storeria occiputomaculata

 

White-banded Fishing Spider

 White-banded Fishing Spider        Dolomedes albineus

 

Chestnut Carpenter Ant

Chestnut Carpenter Ant      Camponotus castaneus

 

 

A Virtual Nature Ramble

 

Today’s Ramble was cancelled due to inclement weather.

But our photographer, Don Hunter, visited the Dunson Garden earlier in the week and captured many wonderful images of pollinators at work.

Here’s the link to his “Virtual Nature Ramble.”