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.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set?vanity=don.hunter.56&set=a.4987661561250369
 

Number of Ramblers today: 31
 

Today’s emphasis: Seeking what we find in the formal gardens.
 

Reading: Avis read a poem: Grass by Joyce Sidman. [link]
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/54675/grass-56d2354b8c8e0
 

Today’s Route:  From the pergola to the sidewalk between the Ceramics bldg. and the Visitor’s center then the first right down the steps to the formal garden then past the Pawpaws and down the steps following the walkway to the right and past several beds and across the stepping stone to the steps back up to the formal garden and back to the parking lot.
 

OBSERVATIONS:

Sidewalk between Ceramic museum and Visitor Center:

Swamp Milkweed beginning to bloom.

Swamp Milkweed is developing flower buds in the bed to the right of the sidewalk. This plant is a food source for the larval stage of the Monarch butterfly, so it will be worth checking in future rambles. 

Monarchs are not the only insects that feed exclusively on milkweed species. There is a moth and several species of beetles that are specialized as milkweed feeders. Two true bugs, several aphids. The beetles and bugs are warningly colored in black and red. 

 

Herb Garden:

American Toad

An American Toad was captured in one of the mulched beds next to the steps leading into the Herb Garden. Toads, like all amphibians, have a moist skin through which they lose water by evaporation. They compensate for this water loss by rapid absorption of water through their belly skin; i.e., they find a wet spot and sit in it. Usually, they are most active at night when the relative humidity is higher. During the day they seek out moist areas like leaf litter or dense vegetation. Daily spraying of water at the Garden creates an ideal habitat for them.

Pill Bug

Roly-poly, Wood louse, Pill Bug are just a few of the common names for a terrestrial crustacean that rolls up into a sphere when disturbed.
What is a crustacean? Most people are familiar with edible crustaceans like lobsters, crabs and crayfish (crawdads). But these are just a few of the crustaceans. Most are marine (living in the ocean) or aquatic (living in fresh water), but a few have made it to the terrestrial environment. Those that live on dry land need to have access to water because they get their oxygen through gills and gills are effective only if they are moist. (Land crabs need to return periodically to the sea to moisten their gills.) Pill Bugs reduce  moisture loss like toads: by hiding under rocks or pieces of wood and only venturing forth when the relative humidity is high. That’s why we saw a Pill Bug this morning on the brick surface of the Herb Garden. The Gardens are usually sprinkled early In the morning, raising the humidity of the bricks and allowing the Pill Bugs to venture forth in daylight for a short period of time.

 

Monarch butterfly; upper wing surface

Monarch butterfly; lower wing surface

A Monarch butterfly was nectaring on some of the open flowers in the Herb Garden. Judging by its bright colors this was probably a first or second generation descendent of the Monarchs that overwintered in Mexico. How do we know this? The colors of a butterfly’s wings are produced by millions of microscopic scales attached to the transparent wing surface, like shingles on a roof. When a butterfly flies a few scales are knocked off with each flap of the wings. The older the butterfly, the more scales it has lost and the less intense its color pattern is. Because the Monarch we saw this morning was still beautiful it was probably recently emerged from its chrysalis.
Is it a boy or girl Monarch butterfly? Male Monarch butterflies have a swelling on one of the dark veins on the upper side of the hind wings. This enlargement contains scales that carry a perfume the male will use to court a female. This so-called “scent patch” is not found in females. The difference is clearly seen in a photo from the Journey North website.
https://journeynorth.org/tm/monarch/id_male_female.html
 

Lizards

Carolina Anole basking on bench

Eastern Fence Lizard

The bricks in the Herb Garden not only retain water when sprinkled, they also soak up sunlight during the day and radiate it away during the night. When the days are hot and the nights short the brick structures are favorite places for cold-blooded animals like grasshoppers and lizards to gather and warm up. For the lizards there is the added benefit of having their insect food supply on the bricks nearby. Today we found a Carolina Anole and an Eastern Fence lizard basking on the bricks and wooden benches. The fence lizard scooted away before most of the ramblers had a chance to see it, so I included a photo that Don took back in 2019.
 

Heritage Garden
 

Pawpaw fruit (only 2 seeds)

Pawpaw flower; (usually dark maroon in color)

The Pawpaw trees had a lot of flowers earlier this spring, but didn’t produce much fruit. This can probably be attributed to a lack of pollinators. We were able to find one small fruit, but, as they are the same color as the leaves, we may have missed some. Don located a late flower, but its green colored petals are not typical.

Longleaf Pine

Longleaf Pine once covered most of the southeastern USA. It was maintained by periodic, low intensity fires set by lightning. It’s thick bark and rapid growth to put its upper reaches above the flames make is fire-resistant. It has been replaced by faster growing species and suppresion of fire that allows non-fire resistant species to outcompete it.

Flower Garden:

Eastern Cottontail rabbit

An Eastern Cottontail rabbit sampled the greens while ignoring us. 

 

Bumble bee nectar robbing Foxglove?

Foxglove is planted in several locations in the Flower Garden and an assortment of bees are visiting all of them.  The photo above looks like a Bumble bee cutting an opening at the base of a Foxglove flower to get access to nectar, bypassing the route through the open blossom.

 

Honeybee gathering pollen from Evergreen Rose. Note the pollen carried in the pollen baskets.

Bumble bee gathering pollen from Evergreen Rose. Masses of orange pollen are in both pollen baskets.

Species Observed:

Swamp Milkweed     Asclepias incarnata
American Toad     Anaxyrus americanus
Pill woodlouse     Family Armadillidiidae
Poppy     Papaver sp.
Western Honey Bee     Apis mellifera
Monarch Butterfly     Danaus plexippus
Yaupon Holly     Ilex vomitoria
Carolina Anole     Anolis carolinensis
Pawpaw     Asimina triloba
Evergreen Rose (tentative)     Rosa sempervirens
Eastern Carpenter Bee     Xylocopa virginica
Common Eastern Bumble Bee     Bombus impatiens
Long-legged Fly      Chrysotus sp.
Tumbling Flower Beetle     Mordell sp.
Japanese Spirea     Spirea japonica
Longleaf Pine     Pinus palustris
Eastern Cottontail Rabbit     Sylvilagus floridanus
Purple Foxglove     Digitalis purpurea
California Poppy     Eschscholzia californica

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.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.5873645862651930&type=3
 

Number of Ramblers today: 26
 

Today’s emphasis:  Cool season grasses, Carolina Milkvine and anything else we saw in the ROW.
 

Announcements:
Don announced the 2022 Pollinator Fair at the Madison County Library, on May 21st, from 10:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m.  The event is hosted by the Ladies Homestead Gathering of Madison County.  Don will be presenting on his documentation of the common roadside pollinators in south Madison County.  In addition, there will be presentations by other speakers.  Carole Knight, Madison County Extension Coordinator and Ag Agent will talk about the importance of pollinators in Georgia and author Cathy Payne will talk about how to turn your yard into a pollinator sanctuary, in particular, addressing removing invasive plants and replacing them with beneficial native flora. Directions:  Take Hwy. 29 north to Danielsville.  At the redlight north of the old courthouse roundabout, take Hwy 98 west for 1.3 miles.  The library will be on your left.

Reading: Linda read “Spring” by Gerard Manley Hopkins
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/51002/spring-56d22e75d65bd

Show and Tell:  Gary brought a handful of Eastern Cottonwood (Populus deltoides) fruits from the North Oconee River Greenway. Cottonwoods are bottomland trees that flourish in both the North Oconee and Middle Oconee river floodplains; they are distinguished by their dark, deeply furrowed bark and triangular leaves with flattened petioles. 

Cottonwood seed pods The dark structures are the seed pods The white fluff is the “parachute”

The pale green pointed object is a single Cottonwood seed, surrounded by its cottony hairs.

The source of the common name is obvious when the trees go to seed. Each oval seedpod (the dark shapes in the photo) contains thousands of tiny seeds, each equipped with a tuft of long, cottony hairs. A single cottonwood tree can produce over 25 million seeds. This species is dioecious: only female trees produce seedpods. The seeds require bare mineral soil for germination, provided naturally by the scoured soils and sediment accumulations that follow winter and early spring floods.  Here’s a short and interesting article about this amazingly prolific tree: https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/metro/urban-jungle/pages/100518.html
 

Today’s Route:   We left the Children’s Garden pergola and headed down through the Lower Shade Garden, exiting through the gate on to the White Trail Spur and over to the Georgia Power right-of-way.  We worked our way up the ROW to the Carolina Milkvine, near the top of the hill.  We then returned to the upper parking lot, much the way we came

OBSERVATIONS:
Lower Shade Garden:

Oak Apple Galls

The paved path through the Lower Shade Garden was littered with Oak Apple Galls. These are the created when a Gall Wasp (Family Cynipidae) lays an egg inside a newly expanded leaf of a red oak. The leaf responds to the invasion by creating an enlarged mass of tissue, inside which the egg matures into a larva, suspended in the center of the gall by the radiating fibers seen in the opened gall, on the left. This helps protect the wasp larvae from parasitoids as well as providing food. Oak Apple Galls are green when newly formed; when the gall dries out and turns brown, the mature wasp escapes from holes that have formed in the exterior of the gall. 

Tulip Tree flower

The Shade Garden paths are also littered with Tulip Tree flowers, dropped by squirrels that bite off the young, tender twigs and lap up the sap that flows from the twig. Squirrels aren’t the only forest animals that enjoy Tulip Trees. Most of the flowers we picked up had ants scurrying around inside the flowers, looking for the nectar produced by tiny glands in the orange patches on the petals. The nectar produced by these flowers is an important energy source for other insects, as well as birds, in early spring; according to one source, each flower produces about one-third of a teaspoon of nectar.  

Pipestem

Pipestem is blooming now. This tall evergreen shrub is in the Heath Family and closely resembles the shorter wetland plant Doghobble. Common in central peninsular Florida, it occurred historically in southeastern Georgia but hasn’t been seen there in many decades.

Harvestman (AKA Daddylonglegs)

A small harvestman (aka Granddaddy Longlegs) was seen on its leaves.

Sweetshrub ‘Athens’

The yellow-flowered cultivar of Sweetshrub, named ‘Athens’ by Michael Dirr, UGA horticulturist and former Garden director, is in flower. The pale greenish-yellow color is due to a mutation that leads to a lack of anthocyanin, the plant pigment responsible for reds and purples in plants. Though pale, the flowers are extra fragrant, something like a very ripe strawberry.

White Trail Spur:

Smooth Spiderwort will be flowering for months

Cool-season grasses are flowering and going to seed now. These are grass species that grow rapidly in the early spring, then flower and fruit while temperatures are still moderate; they cease growing during the summer and begin again when temperatures cool down in the fall. Many species overwinter as low leaf rosettes, continuing to photosynthesize and preparing for the spring growth spurt. Given Georgia’s brutal summers, it’s no surprise that most of our grass species are warm-season grasses that flourish in late summer and early fall; but even so there are plenty of interesting grasses to admire in May and June.

Eastern Needlegrass seeds + awns

My personal favorite is Eastern Needle Grass, a perennial grass with a finely tuned seed dispersal system. In Don’s photo, you can see each dark seed partially enclosed by flower parts. Each seed comes equipped with a long spirally twisted bristle it into the ground. A patch of tiny upwardly pointing hairs at the seed’s tip helps to hold the seed in place; barbs lining the sides of the seed serve the same purpose.

Needlegrass hairs at tip of seed

Needlegrass barbs (magnified) photo courtesy of Bill Sheehan

The bristles, barbs, and hairs also ensure that a variety of animals carry the seeds long distances. As Don wrote in his Facebook album, “The more you walk with these in your socks, the deeper they bore into them, until they reach your skin, at which point, you are driven mad until you stop and pull your shoes and socks off to systematically remove every one of the bristles. I would imagine the sensation is something akin to standing on a fire ant hill, letting them attack you, unabated.”

Needlegrass: The Joy of Socks

Little Barley photo by Matt Lavin from Bozeman, Montana, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25124158

Little Barley is a native grass species; it is an annual that thrives in sunny, dry, gravelly soils. Like all grasses, it is wind-pollinated. Little Barley was domesticated by Native Americans before the arrival of maize; its seeds have been found in archaeological sites along with other domesticated plants such as squash. The grains are high in protein. Little Barley is easier to recognize than many grasses: it is short (less than 1.5 feet tall) with erect seed heads tightly packed with bristle-tipped spikelets (grass talk for flower clusters).

Two-flowered Melic Grass

Two-flowered Melic Grass is another common native cool-season grass that is relatively easy to identify. The spikelets have only two florets and are widely spaced and drooping along a delicate, erect stem. It usually occurs in forests and woodlands in dappled sunlight.

Deer Tongue Witch Grass has the open, sparsely flowered seedhead typical of species in the genus Dichanthelium. The wavy branches are usually tipped with a single spikelet  which, though small, bears two florets.

Deer Tongue Witch Grass

In this photo, the maroon style branches can be seen peeking out of the tips of the spikelets and will soon be sweeping pollen out of the air.

 

Deer Tongue Witch Grass stem + leaf

The stems are usually softly hairy as are the leaf sheaths. Perhaps someone familiar with deer can tell us if the pointed, hairy leaf blades resemble a deer’s tongue. 

Several non-native and invasive grass species are also in flower in the right-of-way.

Brome Grass

So-called Rescue Grass, one of many introduced Brome Grasses, is a common, highly invasive plant that is native to South America. Introduced as a forage crop, it’s found throughout much of North America in disturbed openings, roadsides, pastures, etc. The spikelets, held at the tips of slender branches, are strongly flattened. Don’s closeup photo captures the stamens dangling from the florets, waiting for a breeze to scatter pollen.

Meadow Fescue

Meadow Fescue (or Meadow Ryegrass), a native of Eurasia, is abundant in fields, pastures, rights-of-way, and other disturbed areas. It was introduced as a forage grass and is also widely planted for erosion control. In this photo, both stamens and brushy-tipped styles are visible. The styles, which comb pollen from the air, typically mature after the stamens to prevent self-pollination.

Annual Ryegrass

Annual Ryegrass Photo by Harry Ross https://www.flickr.com/photos/macleaygrassman/6773226750/in/photostream/

Annual Ryegrass, another grass introduced as forage, is easy to identify even at 60 miles per hour. The flattened spikelets are held more or less in one plane and alternate up the tall erect stem. In Don’s photo, a small mite is exploring a newly expanding spikelet.

A Vetch seed pod (called a legume)

A non-native vetch with long, open seedpods remaining. As a member of the bean family, Fabaceae, this fruit type — dry, several-seeded, and opening along both seams — is properly called a legume 

ROW:

Small’s Ragwort

Small’s Ragwort, with tufts of woolly hairs in the leaf axils.  These are described in irresistible terms as “persistent floccose tomentum” in Weakley’s Flora of the Southeastern United States. 

Nodding Thistle

Nodding Thistle (also called Musk Thistle) is one of the most destructive plants in the U.S.  The developing head shown here (and the fully flowered heads soon to come) are attractive, but don’t be fooled: these plants can ruin a pasture and degrade a native prairie in a few brief years. When the head matures, it begins to droop, hence the common name. The whole plant is spiny, from the bristly flower head to the winged stems and lobed leaves down to the leaf rosette. If you can’t dig it up, at least break off the stem and flower head. Since they are biennials that bloom then die in their second year, you may have disarmed that particular plant by beheading it. However, the plants are capable of resprouting from dormant buds held in the stem below ground level. To really kill the plant, cut the stem 2-4 inches below the ground surface with a shovel. The plants are also susceptible to a variety of herbicides, a much easier and more assured way to kill them.  Our native Tall Thistle has broadly oval leaves that are densely white-hairy on the lower surface. Nodding Thistle leaves are narrower and green on both surfaces.

Sheep’s Sorrel seeds

Sheep’s Sorrel plant

Sheep’s Sorrel, a European native, is found in disturbed areas throughout most of North America. In early spring, the red flowers are a common sight along roadsides and pastures in Georgia. Now, the female plants have gone to seed, giving the plants a pale appearance. The three-sided seeds have three showy wings, typical of many plants in the Buckwheat Family. 

 

Green & Gold

Green-and-Gold, still in flower, is scattered along the low bank of the road through the Nash Prairie.

Southern Beardtongue

Southern Beardtongue is also thriving in the Nash Prairie. The flowers, buds and stems are covered with glandular hairs and the flowers are white and pink, with “tongues” covered with golden yellow hairs. 

 

Foamy mass concealing a Spittlebug nymph.

The Spittlebug nymph revealed.

Foamy spittlebug masses are commonly found on a variety of grasses and other plants in the ROW.  Dale selected one, from an unidentified aster or daisy, and removed the foam to reveal a leafhopper nymph inside.  The foam is a froth created as the larva agitates the excreted plant sap upon elimination.  

 

Bracken Fern

Bracken Fern is one of the few Georgia ferns that thrives in full sun.

Wild Onion

The native Wild Onion, with both bulblets and pretty pink flowers. Unlike the weedy onion that pops up in lawns, which also has aerial bulblets, Wild Onion leaves are grass-like and flat not round. Wild Onion can reproduce asexually by both the aerial bulblets and an underground bulb.

Summer Bluet is getting an early start in the right-of-way.

Carolina Milkvine flowers and leaf

Carolina Milkvine flowers closeup

Carolina Milkvine thrives in the right-of-way in an area that is underlain by amphibolite, a type of bedrock that is high in calcium and magnesium. It is a close relative of the milkweeds and produces milky latex that discourages herbivores. There are reports that monarch butterflies use milkvine leaves as a larval host as they do with milkweeds

Blackberry fruits developing

Sue pointed out how pretty the young blackberries are.

Sparkleberry tree in flower

Sparkleberry bark

Ants climbing Sparkleberry tree trunk

Sparkleberry branches covered with silk of Fall Webworm caterpillars.

Fall Webworm caterpillars inside their silken tent.

A large heavily flowering Sparkleberry tree overlooks the patch of Carolina Milkvine. Sparkleberry bark is shaggy, peeling and flaking away to reveal rusty-red inner bark.  A parade of red ants were seen making their way up and down along a defined path between bark plates — headed to the flowers for a bit of nectar?  Fall Webworms have spun a web on the tip of one of the limbs, with many tiny, slender new caterpillars. Fall webworms are often mistaken for Eastern Tent Caterpillars that build tents in the crotch of a Cherry tree. They never extend their tent to include the leaves they eat. Fall Webworms have three generations in our area; Eastern Tent caterpillars only one generation per year.

Nettle-leaf Sage

A small population of Nettle-leaf Sage has been hanging on for many years near the edge of the woods. A calciphile, it testifies to the presence of amphibolite beneath the right-of-way soils. Its square stems, opposite leaves, and two-lipped flowers testify to its membership in the mint family. The cobalt blue flowers are diminutive but gorgeous. 

Phylloxeran gall on hickory leaf.

Bill collected several examples of a hickory leaf gall on Mockernut Hickory.  The galls are caused by the Hickory Phylloxeran (Phylloxera caryaecaulis), a small aphid-like insect.  The phylloxeran survived the winter as an egg deposited on the bark of the tree or near an old gall from a previous year.  About the time when leaf buds are breaking, these eggs hatch into tiny nymphs destined to become breeders called fundatrices.  Each fundatrix hunkers down on the rapidly expanding leaf blade or its petiole and inserts its needle-like mouthparts into the leaf tissue.  This feeding brings about remarkable transformations as the leaf develops.  Chemicals secreted by the phylloxeran cause the hickory’s cells to differentiate and create a strange globular gall. Within the hollow gall, the fundatrix develops into a fully mature female that lays hundreds to more than a thousand eggs parthenogenetically, that is, without the assistance of a male.

Opened Phylloxeran gall with eggs and 1st instar nymphs inside.

Opened Phylloxeran galls with winged adult and possible parasites in gall.

After hatching, legions of tiny nymphs feed within the gall and eventually develop into winged forms. By late May, galls split open and the winged phylloxerans exit and move to the undersurface of leaves where they lay hundreds of eggs. These eggs hatch and produce nymphs destined to become males and females that will ultimately mate and lay eggs to endure the next winter. Talk about a complicated lifestyle, phylloxerans certainly have one.
Visit this link for more detais: https://bugoftheweek.com/blog/2013/1/27/gall-darn-it-gall-insects-on-hickory-oak-and-elm-iphylloxera-caryaecaulis-andricus-palustris-colopha-ulmicolai
 

Let Aldo Leopold have the last word on this week’s ramble: “No matter how intently one studies the hundred little dramas of the woods and meadows, one can never learn all the salient facts about any one of them.”

OBSERVED SPECIES:

Oak Apple Gall Wasp   Amphibolips quercusinanis (synonym A. inanis)
Bigleaf Magnolia     Magnolia macrophylla
Oak-leaved Hydrangea     Hydrangea quercifolia
Pipestem, Florida Fetterbush     Agarista populifolia
Harvestman     Order Opiliones
Black Cohosh     Actea racemosa
‘Athens’ Sweetshrub     Calycanthus floridus ‘Athens’ cultivar
Tulip Tree     Liriodendron tulipifera
Smooth Spiderwort     Tradescantia ohiensis
Red-shouldered Hawk     Buteo lineatus
Black-seeded Needle Grass     Piptochaetium avenaceum
Little Barley     Hordeum pusillum
Deer Tongue Grass     Dichanthelium clandestinum
Two-flowered Melic Grass     Melica mutica
River Oats     Chasmanthium latifolium
Rescue Grass     Bromus catharticus var. catharticus
Meadow Fescue     Festuca pratensis, synonym: Lolium pratense
Annual Rye     Festuca perennis
Unidentified non-native vetch     Vicia sp.
Small’s Ragwort     Packera anonyma
Nodding Thistle     Carduus nutans
Sheep’s Sorrel     Rumex acetosella
Green-and-Gold     Chrysogonum virginianum
Southern Beardtongue     Penstemon australis
Spittlebug     Order Hemiptera
Mountain Mint     Pcynanthemum sp.
Bracken Fern     Pteridium aquilinum
Wild onion     Allium canadense
Summer Bluet     Houstonia purpurea
Blackberry     Rubus sp.
Carolina Milkvine     Matelea carolinensis
Sparkleberry     Vaccinium arboreum
Red ant     Family Formicidae
Fall Webworm Moth caterpillars     Hyphantria cunea
Nettle-leaf Sage     Salvia urticifolia
Mockernut Hickory     Carya tomentosa
Hickory Phylloxeran     Phylloxera caryaecaulis

 

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.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.5852056758144174&type=3

 

Number of Ramblers today: 31

 

Reading:  Dale brought an excerpt from “Crow Planet:  Essential Wisdom from the Urban Wilderness” by Lyanda Lynn Haupt. (Read by Terry).
 

Announcements:

What: 2022 Pollinator Fair 

When: Saturday, May 21st, from 10:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m.

Where: Madison County Library,  

Directions: From Athens, take
Hwy. 29 north to Danielsville.  At the red light north of the old
courthouse roundabout, take Hwy 98 west for 1.3 miles.  The library will
be on your left.

Details: The event is hosted by the Ladies Homestead Gathering of Madison County.  Don will be presenting on his documentation of the common roadside pollinators in south Madison County.  In addition, there will be presentations by other speakers.  Carole Knight, Madison County Extension Coordinator and Ag Agent will talk about the importance of pollinators in Georgia and author Cathy Payne will talk about how to turn your yard into a pollinator sanctuary, in particular, addressing removing invasive plants and replacing them with beneficial native flora.

Today’s Route:   From the Children’s Garden pergola we went through the American South Section, crossing the Flower Bridge, then through the China and Asia Section, the Native American and Southeastern Tribes Section and over to the Mediterranean and Middle East Section. Then we went across the lawn to the Pitcher Plant Bog.  We retraced our path to the Freedom Plaza before we returned to the parking lot.

 

OBSERVATIONS:

Piedmont Azalea 

Piedmont Azalea

Single flower of Piedmont Azalea The stamens and style project far forward, The style is longer than the stamens and ends with the stigma. The stamens are tipped with the brown anthers that contain pollen.

Azaleas are justly
celebrated for their masses of colorful flowers. Humans are not the only species
attracted to the blossoms; casual observers have noticed a variety of small
bees visiting the flowers and assumed that they were responsible for
pollination. But assumption is not proof, only opinion. Looking at the structure
of the flower one thing stands out: the stamens and pistil style project a
considerable distance in front of the petals. The nectar is at the base of the
flower’s throat, so an insect, like a bee, who was seeking nectar would not
come in contact with either the pollen producing anthers or the stigma of the
pistil which is at the end of the style. (In order to produce seeds pollen
needs to be deposited on the stigma.) Small bees that are collecting pollen to
feed to their offspring climbed up the stamen to the anther. In doing this the
stamen was bent away from the stigma of the flower. This suggested that such
bees would not be effective pollinators.Working at Mountain
Lake Biological Station in Virginia, a team of researchers devised a way to
test these ideas on a related species of Azalea. More details of the study can
be found here.

The
surprise of their study was that the most effective pollinator was the Eastern
Tiger Swallowtail butterfly and it carried the pollen on its wings, not its
body! Swallowtail butterflies flap their wings while nectaring on flowers. The
azalea anthers and stigma are arranged at the correct distance to contact the butterflies
wings as they sip nectar. Not only do the wings pick up pollen, they also
deposit pollen on the stigma. The surprise here is that the pollen is carried
on the wings of the butterfly, not the body.

 

Franklinia alatamaha

Extinct in the wild, this unique species is conserved in arboreta and botanical gardens around the world.  In 1765, John Bartram and his son, William, journeyed to the Altamaha River in Georgia, where they first spotted the tree on the banks of the Altamaha River.  Several years later, William returned to the location to collect seed to collect seed.  Later, in 1791, he wrote, “We never saw it any other place, nor have I ever seen it growing wild, in all my travels, from Pennsylvania to Point Coupe, on the banks of the Mississippi.” He brought the seeds back to Philadelphia. His collection of the species was timely; within 50 years, the tree was extinct in the wild. All living Franklin trees-which Bartram named for family friend Benjamin Franklin-are descended from the seeds Bartram collected. 

(Factual information from the Arnold Arboretum website)

You may have noticed that the specific epithet is not the way we spell “altamaha.” This not a typo; the original description spelled it that way. The rules of nomenclature state that the original spelling, even if incorrect, must stand.)

 

Palmately Compound leaves

Bottlebrush Buckeye has palmately compound leaves. Each leaf is composed of five leaflets that arise from the end of the leaf stalk (the petiole).

A compound leaf is a leaf with two or more leaflets. So how do you tell when a “leaf” is a leaf or a leaflet? Look at where it is attached. Is there a bud there or is the bud absent? If present, you’re looking at a leaf, otherwise ii is a leaflet.
If you are looking at a leaflet you are looking at a leaf that is made up of  many leaflets — it’s a compound leaf. There are two types of compound leaves: palmate and pinnate. A palmately compound leaf has all of its leaflets attached at the same point. The trees and shrubs of the Buckeye genus, Aesculus, have palmately compound leaves.

Arum family (Araceae)

Aroid plants have seen better days.

In the China section of the Garden we found a group of unusual plants that look like they belong to the Arum family. (That’s the family of the Jack-in-the-Pulpit. ) 

The spathe was dark and mottled with maroon blotches, giving the impression of decaying flesh. On the previous day Emily and I saw clouds of fungus gnats and a green bottle fly swarming about these plants. 

A fungus gnat is a fly about the size of a mosquito. It’s larvae feed on mushrooms or decaying organic matter, as does the green bottle fly larvae. Many aroids are known to produce the scents of decaying animal flesh or vegetation to attract pollinators.

Pitcher Plant Bog:

Purple and White-topped Pitcher Plants

We saw several species of pitcher plants in the little artificial bog, including Yellow Pitcher Plant, Purple Pitcher Plant and White-topped Pitcher Plant.

Pitcher plants can grow in very nutrient poor soils because they trap and digest insects (and sometimes small vertebrates). The pitcher part of the plant is a modified leaf. Imagine a long leaf that is curled about its long axis so that the lateral edges meet and fuse. This makes a cylinder. If the lower opening is sealed and the other end carved out to form a flap then you’ve made a pitcher. Fill it with water and you’re ready to trap bugs. The inner surface of the lip is slick and waxy and the upper portion of the pitcher has downward pointing bristles. These features prevent insects that fall into the pitcher from crawling out. Eventually they die from exhaustion and are gradually digested in the pitcher “soup.” Each pitcher develops its own ecosystem microbes that feed on drowned insects and mosquitoes that feed on the microbes. Elements like Nitrogen and Phosphorus are freed into the soup and absorbed by the pitcher walls.

Pitcher plant flower structure

The flowers of pitcher plants are also bizarre. I’ll review flower structures so you can appreciate just how different they are. In a typical plant the central structure of the flower is the pistil. It is made of three parts: ovary, style and stigma. The ovary is where the seed will develop. The style is a tube the connects the ovary to the stigma. The stigma is the surface that receives the pollen. Pollen lands on the stigma, the pollen grain germinates and a pollen tube begins to grow through the style. Eventually the pollen tube, which carries the sperm nucleus, reaches the ovule in the ovary. That’s the female part of a flower.

Surrounding the pistil are the stamens, the male reproductive structures of the flower. Stamens have two parts, the filament and the anther. The filament holds the anther aloft and the anthers make and hold the pollen grains until they are needed.

Petals pushed aside to show the five pointed style of a pitcher plant.

The fuve-pointed style is pushed aside to show the mass of stamens and anthers. Pollen released from the anthers will fall into the style “basket” below the anthers.

Pitcher plant flowers are held upside down. There are five pistils fused together to form a five chambered ovary. The fused styles have stretched out to form an umbrella shape and that “umbrella” reaches beyond the stamens that surround the fused ovaries. Turn the flower upside down and you can see how pollen can fall out of the anthers into the stylar umbrella. Where are the stigmas? There were five fused pistils, making the five ribs of the umbrella. The stigmas are at the end of each rib.

When a bee forces its way into a pitcher plant flower it walks across a floor of pollen grains that are picked up by its hairy body. When it enters or leaves it crawls over the stigmatic surfaces at the ends of the “ribs.”

Plant galls are abnormal growths on plant parts. They may be caused by bacteria, viruses, fungi, and a variety of insects. Today, we saw two types of galls induced by insects.

Witch Hazel Cone galls on Chinese Witch Hazel leaf.

Witch Hazel Cone Gall Aphid
The puzzle: The Garden has at least four kinds of Witch Hazel: Common Witch Hazel (native to Georgia), Ozark Witch Hazel (native to Missouri), Japanese Witch Hazel and Chinese Witch Hazel. The first four of these can be found growing near each other in the Shade Garden and we have never seen the Cone Gall on the Japanese plants and only a few galls on the Ozark plants. It looks like the aphids are species-specific, either because they only recognize the native species or they actively discriminate against the non-native plants. But the mystery is that we found numerous galls on the Chinese Witch Hazel. Something strange is going on here.
The complex life history of the Cone Gall Aphid begins in autumn with the aphid eggs laid near the leaf buds of the Witch Hazel. As the leaves emerge from their buds the eggs hatch and the aphids, all females, lay an egg on the young leaves. This causes the leaf to grow a hollow conical structure that surrounds the freshly hatched aphid. Inside this protective gall the aphid matures and begins to produce daughters asexually. The aphids feed by sucking fluids from the walls of the gall. Soon there 50 or more aphids in each gall and they develop wings. The winged aphids emerge from the gall and fly to an alternate host plant, a Birch tree. (In our area this would be a River Birch.) There they produce asexual wingless offspring the feed on the lower surface of the Birch leaves. Several more generations of wingless aphids are produced until autumn when sexual, winged adult aphids are produced. These mate and the females disperse, seeking their Witch Hazel host and laying eggs near the leaf buds, completing the life cycle.
Another mystery: Among the green cone-shaped galls we usually find a few red galls. I’ve unsuccessfully tried to find more information about the gall color. Your guess is as good as mine. I suspect it is a polymorphism: some aphids produce a substance that stimulates anthocyanin production by the Witch Hazel. Other aphids don’t produce this substance. Some people have brown hair, some red. It’s natural variation (code words to cover ignorance).

Maple Eye Spot gall

Maple Eye Spot gall (upper surface of Red Maple leaf)

Maple Eye Spot gall (under surface of leaf showing exit holes)

This pretty gall was induced by a flying insect called a “midge.” Midges resemble mosquitos but do not bite. I’m indebted to fellow rambler Bill Sheehan for the identification: 

“According to this source, midge larvae emerge from the galls on the bottom of the red maple leaf in 8 to 10 days, drop to the soil and pupate. There is only one generation a year. Since all of the galls we saw had exit holes, the larvae are apparently all in the soil  now pupating and waiting until next year to emerge and start the cycle again. Given the moist appearance of the galls, this probably happened pretty recently.”

https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/maple-eyespot-gall-midge-acericecis-ocellaris-osten-sacken-diptera-cecidomyiidae
 

Tree Growth Patterns

Each year a tree adds to its size as new shoots emerge from their buds. For many trees these terminal buds contain the entire years worth of growth. For these trees their shoots elongate and leaves expand but no additional leaves are produced. The entire summer’s growth occurs within the first few weeks. Since the number of leaves is set in the bud that formed in the previous year this pattern of growth is called determinate or preformed.

But not all trees compress their annual growth within this short period of time. Their buds contain only a single leaf that emerges with bud-break. Growth of the shoot does not cease. Instead, new leaves appear for the rest of the growing season. Such a growth pattern is called indeterminate or sustained.

How can you tell which pattern a tree follows? If the new growth has a terminal bud it is preformed growth; no terminal bud, sustained growth.

But, as always, biological definitions have fuzzy edges. Some common plants have a mixture of preformed and sustained growth. The begin with a short preformed shoot that continues to add leaves throughout the growing season.
 

White Oak new shoot with terminal bud. (photo by Emily Carr)

Pawpaw new shoot showing indeterminate growth. Note absence of terminal bud presence of new developing leaves. (photo by Dale Hoyt)

Trees with determinate (preformed) growth

American beech, Ash, Black cherry, Hickories, Oaks

Trees with indeterminate (sustained) growth

Birch sp.,  Cottonwood, Elm, ,Flowering dogwood, Hackberry, Holly, Pawpaw, Redbud. Sycamore, Tulip poplar

Trees with both growth forms

Red maple, Sugar maple, Sweetgum

 

[source]

 

OBSERVED SPECIES:
 

Oak-leaf Hydrangea     Hydrangea quercifolia
Harvestman     Class Arachnida: Order Opiliones
Beardtongue     Penstemon sp.
Fringed Bluestar     Amsonia cilliata
Native azalea     Rhodendron sp.
Franklin Tree     Franklinia alatamaha
Bottlebrush Buckeye     Aesculus parviflora
Tea Trees     Camellia sinensis
Orchard Orbweaver       Leucauge venusta
Chinese Witch Hazel     Hamamelis mollis
Arum ??     Family Araceae
Paperbark Maple     Acer griseum
Whitebark Magnolia    Magnolia hypoleuca
Fragrant Snowbells     Styrax obassia
Indian Pink     Spigelia marilandica
Rose Hooktip Moth     Oreta rosea
Yellow Pitcher Plant     Sarracenia flava
Purple Pitcher Plant     Sarracenia purpureum
White-topped Pitcher Plant     Sarracenia leucophylla
Inch worm/Geometer moth caterpillar     Order Lepidoptera: Geometridae
Red Maple     Acer rubrum
Ocellate Gall Midge     Acericecis ocellaris

 

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.
 

Number of Ramblers today: 27
 

Today’s emphasis: Seeking what we find in the Children’s Garden, Dunson Garden, and Power line right of way.

 

Note: The regular Ramble Report for this week is replaced by Don Hunter’s Facebook Album. It has been supplemented with comments by Linda.

 SPECIES OBSERVED

Foxglove, (Digitalis purpurea) ‘Camelot Cream’
Smooth Spiderwort, (Tradescantia ohiensis)
Honey Garlic, (Allium siculum)
Catawba Rhododendron (Rhododendron catawbiense)
Fringed Bluestar (Amsonia ciliata)
Yellow Wild Indigo (Baptisia sphaerocarpa)
Chinese Violet Cress (Orychophragmus violaceus)
Crossvine (Bignonia capreolata)
Royal Fern (Osmunda regalis)
Nash’s Blue-eyed Grass (Sisyrinchium nashii)
Red Columbine (Aquilegia canadensis)
Piedmont Azalea (Rhododendron canescens, aka Southern Pinxter Azalea)
Japanese Snowball Viburnum (Viburnum plicatum var. plicatum)
Mountain Laurel (Kalmia latifolia)
Autumn Ferns (Dryopteris erythrosora)
Pale Yellow Trillium (Trillium discolor)
Sourwood tree (Oxydendrum arboreum)
Strawberry Bush AKA Hearts-a-bustin’ (Euonymus americanus).
Poison Ivy (Toxicodendron radicans)
Florida Anise (Illicium floridanum)
Rattlesnake Fern (Botrypus virginianum)
Early Bluegrass, Poa cuspidata.
Indian Pink (Spigelia marilandica)
Golden Ragwort (Packera aurea)
Northern Horsebalm (Collinsonia canadensis)
Perfoliate Bellwort (Uvularia perfoliata)
Common Wild Ginger (Asarum canadense)
Leatherwood (Dirca palustrus)
Early Meadow Rue plant (Thalictrum dioicum)
American (Yellow) Trout Lily (Erythronium americanum)
Dimpled Trout Lily (Erythronium umbilicatum)
Violet Wood Sorrel (Oxalis violacea)
Mountain Catchfly (Silene ovata)
Jack-in-the-Pulpits (Arisaema triphyllum)
Ashe’s Magnolia (Magnolia ashei)
Green-and-Gold (Chrysogonum virginianum).
Atamasco Liliy (Zephyranthes atamasco)
American Wisteria (Wisteria frutescens)
Tulip Tree (Liriodendron tulipifera)
Asian Jumpseed (Persicaria filiformis)
Lyre-leaf Sage (Salvia lyrata)
Eastern Needle Grass (Piptochaetium avenaceum)
Japanese Roof Iris (Iris tectorum)
Red Buckeye (Aesculus pavia)
Bottlebush Buckeye (Aesculus parviflora)
Asian Fringe Tree (Chionanthus retusus)
Small’s Ragwort (Packera anonyma)
Yaupon Holly (Ilex vomitoria)