Ramble Report – November 21, 2024

Posted on December 2, 2024 by Linda Chafin

Leaders of Today’s Ramble: Roger Collins and Heather Larkin

Authors of Today’s Report: Don Hunter, Linda Chafin

Nature Ramble Rainy Day Policy: We show up at 9:00 a.m., rain or shine. If it’s raining, we will meet and socialize in the conservatory (bring your own coffee); if there is a break in the rain, we’ll go outside and do a little rambling.

Today’s Emphasis: Trees (mainly American Beech, Tulip Tree, and four Hickory species) and Fungi/Slime Molds (supported by Bill, Heather, and Don)

Number of Ramblers today: 25

Today’s Route: We left the Children’s Garden Arbor and walked through the Lower Shade Garden, crossing the entrance road onto the White Trail Spur, and moving across the right-of-way into the woods at the intersection of the White, Blue, and Green trails.

Announcements and other interesting things:

Today’s Ramble was the last one in 2024; we will resume in 2025 on the first Thursday in March, the 6th. However…. Winter Walks will begin this week on Thursday, December 5! The first Winter Walk will be on the Cook’s Trail at Sandy Creek Park. We will meet at 10:00 a.m. at the parking lot on the east side of Lake Chapman, on the far side of the dam, and walk out and back on Cook’s Trail to the oxbow lake, a round-trip total of 5 miles; walkers can turn back at any point for a shorter walk. Bring water and lunch to eat on the trail. The Winter Walks calendar is posted here and at the link on the Nature Rambler webpage. The schedule of walks is a work-in-progress; if you’d like to lead a walk on one of the TBD days, please let us know!

Halley announced that she will be hosting the Rambler Holiday Party on Thursday, December 12, 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., at her house: 405 Ponderosa Drive, in the Cedar Creek subdivision in east Athens. There will be a potluck lunch so bring your favorite holiday dish to share. Halley will provide beverages. PLEASE RSVP to Halley at halleypage@charter.net OR 706-318-0854.

Friends of the Georgia Museum of Natural History is holding its Holiday Party and Open House at the Museum on campus on Thursday, December 12th, from 5-8 pm. This is a very casual pot-luck. Please drop in any time and bring a small munchie for others to try. You can see the Museum display, talk to Board members, hear about news of the Museum, and share good cheer with folks you haven’t seen in a while. The Museum address is 101 Cedar Street, the corner of Cedar and East Campus Road. There is parking at Facilities South (STEM building), Food Science, and East Campus South parking lot.

Wolves as pollinators??? “Wolves Like a Little Treat: Flower Nectar“

Spotted Lanternfly has been discovered in Georgia. Spotted Lanternfly is a serious threat to trees and crops, both native and introduced. Native to China and Vietnam, its preferred host plant is the invasive Tree of Heaven (Ailanthus altissimus), also a native of southeastern Asia. Spotted Lanternfly is likely to establish itself wherever Tree of Heaven is present, underlining the importance of eradicating this invasive exotic tree. More info here.

Today’s Ramble began with a toast to the 2024 Ramble Season! Roger led us in a toast to the 2024 Nature Ramble season and ramblers lifted cups of Gary’s famous hickory nut milk. Here’s a video of Roger’s speech.

Roger introduced today’s Ramble with a little known fact: Athens/Clarke County used to be home to American Chestnut trees. Chestnut is typically thought of as an Appalachian Mountains tree, but the reality is that Chestnut trees occurred in a broad swath across the eastern United States, even reaching the coastal plain, before being wiped out by a blight. It is believed that Chestnut trees comprised 25% of the forest canopy throughout its range and formed the majority of the diet of many species of wildlife. Because of its high resistance to rot, Chestnut was widely used for fence rails and for marking property lines.

Historic distribution of American Chestnut. Map derived from the Biota of North America

Historic distribution of American Chestnut in Georgia, U.S. Forest Service map

Roger searched for mention of Chestnut trees in the Athens newspaper archives and found a story about a moonshine still raiding party which crossed Sandy Creek on an old Chestnut log. He also found mention of the historic Chestnut Grove School on Timothy Road, the only surviving one-room schoolhouse for Black children in Clarke County. It stands adjacent to the 143-year old Chestnut Grove Baptist Church on what is now Epps Bridge Parkway. There are only three historic specimens of Chestnut in the UGA herbarium (labels below) that were collected in Clarke County, none collected in the vicinity of Chestnut Grove School.

In addition to Chestnut, Clarke County’s forests were composed of two pine species, five species of hickory, at least five species of oak, as well as Black Gum, Flowering Dogwood, and Black Walnut, among many others. As cotton became king, it is estimated that 78% of the original forest had been removed, leaving only 22% of the original forest intact. The land now occupied by the Botanical Garden was part of a large cotton-growing operation for most of the 1800s; plowing probably occurred in the soils under the Visitor Center and the Children’s Garden, with the planted rows ending at the point where the Forest Play Area begins. Today, it is estimated that Clarke County’s tree canopy covers 58.2% of the county, making it the county with the highest canopy cover of any city with a population over 100,000 in the U.S. (For comparison, Tallahassee has a 55% tree canopy; Atlanta, 48%; Jacksonville, 38%; Baltimore, 20%).

Roger estimated that several Beech trees in the Lower Shade and Dunson Gardens are, respectively, 100, 150, and 200 years old. Beech trees are unique in the Piedmont for their ability to conduct photosynthesis through their bark: sunlight penetrates the thin outer bark to reach chlorophyll in the inner bark. Not surprisingly, there is more chlorophyll on the south-facing sides of the trees.

Coppicing is an ancient forest management practice that allows stems to sprout from the stump of a logged tree. After some time, the young stems may be harvested for firewood, poles, or fencing, a common practice in Europe and England until the last century. Repeated harvests create woodlands of coppiced trees called copses. Southeastern forests often contain coppiced trunks that formed incidentally after logging. Undisturbed, many stumps will produce several sprouts of which two or three will dominate and grow to large diameters, forming a mature, doubly or triply trunked tree, as in this Tulip Tree, left. Roger has determined that the secondary trunks here are at least 60 years old, meaning the logging probably occurred in the early 1960s; the age of the original tree has not been determined.

Fungi grow on almost every conceivable substrate, including the living bodies of insects. Now that the leaves are dropping, Don is starting to check for “zombie ants” – ants that have been parasitized by fungi – on twigs of a variety of tree species. In this photo, a Carpenter Ant has been parasitized by a “zombie ant” fungus. A fungal spore invaded and spread throughout the ant’s body. Once the fungus reached the ant’s head, the ant climbed a nearby tree, attached itself to an exposed twig, then died. Soon after, a stalk-like reproductive organ called a stroma emerged from the ant’s head and began releasing spores that will then infect other ants on the ground below.

Red Hickory is one of the most common trees at the Garden. The raised ridges of its bark are looser than that of Mockernut and Pignut hickories, leading some to call it a False Shagbark Hickory.

Red Hickory nuts (left) are smaller than those of Mockernut and have thin husks. Mockernut husks (right) can be as thick as 1/4 inch.

The ridges of Mockernut Hickory bark appear to be tightly braided.

The ridges of Pignut Hickory bark are not as tight as Mockernut’s and are often broken or “checked” horizontally.

Pignut Hickory is so named because its nuts were eaten by wild pigs and reportedly made for excellent pork. Conveniently for our ID purposes, the husk enclosing the nut has a “pig
snout” on one end. Pignut has tough, durable wood that was used for ax
handles and wagon wheel hubs. The husk splits at the fat end but opens only about a third of the way down.

The long, loose plates of Shagbark Hickory bark are usually attached toward the middle and curve outward at top and bottom. Upper trunks and branches of White Oaks also have long, loose plates but they are attached along the vertical edge and open to one side.

Ramblers examining the bark on the lower trunk of a White Oak, right. It looks quite different from the loose plates found on the upper trunk, below.

The annual growth rings of trees reveal the history of the tree and the environment in which it grew. This Northern Red Oak was about 105 years old when it fell. The innermost rings in the center of the trunk are narrow and account for only 4 inches of diameter growth, indicating that the tree first grew in a dense forest with lots of competition for light, water, and nutrients. Around 1962, the rings suddenly become wider. It’s likely that larger, surrounding trees were logged out at that time, freeing this tree from competition.

Yaupon Holly, the source of the famous Native American Black Drink, is in fruit.

During the ramble, Don and Bill began to notice an amazing diversity of fungi on the many fallen trees in this forest.

Sulphur Tuft fungi on a fallen trunk, left; gill surface shown below

Asian Beauty, a toothy crust fungus, has “teeth” in many different shapes. It is a recent arrival to North America and its impact on native species is unknown.

Witch’s Butter jelly fungus, left, sharing a downed limb with Giraffe Spots crust fungus (close-up below)

The larva of a predatory fungus gnat prowling among a patch of White Tubelet Fungus

Ramblers have seen lots of examples of guttation from the tips and margins of plant leaves. Fungi also guttate, exuding water produced by respiration during rapid growth. Above, left, an orange-colored crust fungus (growing among White Tubelets) is covered with guttated droplets. Right, amber-colored droplets are exuding from a pink-colored crust fungus.

Pink-colored crust fungus covered with pores from which spores will be released.

Bill peeled back the bark on a downed hardwood, exposing a dendritically patterned yellow slime mold plasmodium.

Bicolored Bracket fungus is actually a crust fungus.

Common Gray Disco fungus

Shadowy Oysterling fungus upper surface, left; lower pore surfaces, right

Ceramic Parchment Crust fungus

Small black cramp balls

Yellow balls of Trichoderma gelatinosum (no common name), growing on a pink poroid crust fungus, left. Right, the same species, with the yellow balls turning green.

Unidentified poroid crust fungus

Hypoxylon species, a kind of cramp ball fungus, on a hardwood branch, right, and dissected, below.

Xylariales species are usually firm and solid; this species has a soft, dusty coating. In the photo on the right, Xylariales is growing on a pale-colored lichen that has produced the smaller, black, lipped disks that are the lichen’s reproductive structures.

SUMMARY OF OBSERVED AND DISCUSSED SPECIES:

American Chestnut Castanea dentata
American Beech Fagus grandifolia
Tulip Tree Liriodendron tulipifera
Zombie Ant Camponutus sp. (ant) and Ophiocordyceps kimflemingiae (fungus)
Red Hickory Carya ovalis
Poison Ivy Toxicodendron radicans
Mockernut Hickory Carya tomentosa
Pignut Hickory Carya glabra
Shagbark Hickory Carya ovata
Northern Red Oak Quercus rubra
White Oak Quercus alba
Yaupon Holly Ilex vomitoria
Sulphur Tuft fungus Hypholoma fasiculare
Asian Beauty crust fungus Radulomyces copelandii
Scarlet Oak Quercus coccinea
Witch’s Butter jelly fungus Tremella mesenterica
Giraffe Spots crust fungus Peniophora albobadia
White Tubelet Henningsomyces candidus
Predatory fungus gnat Family Keroplatidae
Pink crust fungus Steccherinum nitidum
Slime mold plasmodium, not specified Class Myxomycetes
Bicolored Bracket fungus Gloeoporus dichrous
Common Grey Disco fungus Mollisia cinerea
Shadowy Oysterling fungus Hohenbuehelia grisea
Ceramic Parchment Crust fungus Xylobolus frustulatus
Small, black cramp balls Rosellinia subiculata, Order Xylariales
Trichoderma gelatinosum fungus Order Hypocreales
Unidentified poroid crust
Orange cramp ball Hypoxylon sp.
Soft, powdery cramp ball Order Xylariales

Ramble Report – November 7, 2024

Posted on November 12, 2024 by Linda Chafin

Leaders of Today’s Ramble: Don and Linda

Authors of Today’s Report: Linda Chafin, Don Hunter

With its long purple rays and white disk flowers, this is undoubtedly Georgia Aster, one of the rarest plants in Georgia. It is listed as Threatened by the State of Georgia and was a candidate for federal listing under the Endangered Species Act from 1999 until 2014. At that point, a Conservation Agreement was reached by a number of state and federal agencies, conservation groups, and private companies to protect this species throughout its range. It was then removed from the candidate list. Georgia Aster is the logo for the Bot Garden’s Mimsie Lanier Center for Native Plant Studies.

A Georgia Aster in full bloom on October 18, 2018

Don has had great luck this year finding interesting plant-insect interactions on Rattlesnake Master’s flower heads. Here a Red-shouldered Stink Bug is using its piercing-sucking mouthparts to suck sap from the plant. Alas, there were no anoles of daddy-long-legs on these flower heads this morning.

Catherine spotted this Southern Two-lined Salamander in the Children’s Garden bathroom. It seemed dead but when she held it for a while, the warmth of her hand restored it. It was released soon after the photo was taken. This species hatches from an underwater egg in late winter or spring and lives underwater in larval form in streams for 1-3 years. When the larva reaches a certain size it metamorphoses to the adult form seen here.

On our way into the Visitor Center, we stopped to admire the freshly emerged pitchers of the White-topped Pitcherplant hybrids in the Visitor Center Plaza fountain. Whitetops produce two flushes of pitcher growth per growing season, with the showiest and largest pitchers coming in the fall. All of the pitcherplants in this fountain are the result of hybridization experiments, in this case, a cross of Whitetops with Purple Pitcherplant.

Once gathered in the Conservatory in the Visitor Center, we ate lots of comfort food, commiserated, and waited for the skies to clear. Don remembered a poem by Wendell Berry that I’d read on a similar occasion in 2016 entitled “The Peace of Wild Things” [(c) 2012].

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

As Ramblers wandered outside into the woods beyond the Forest Play area, we were struck by the beauty of the brightening leaves.

Heading down the hill on the White Trail extension, ramblers spotted a stump whose cut surface was wreathed in Gilled Polypore fungi. Close-up pix below.

Due to overcrowding, there were many abnormal examples of the Gilled Polypore growing among the otherwise normal examples, appearing almost like a coral reef in a shallow sea

A normal gilled, spore-bearing surface of the Gilled Polypore. Although it is a member of an order of fungi that typically shed spores from pores on their lower surface, this species has gills from which spores emerge, similar to common mushrooms.

Turkey Tail fungi are also in the Polypore order and produce spores from pores on the lower surface. I am intensely curious about what determines the colors of the bands on Turkey Tails. If anyone can find the answer to that question, I will be grateful. Recent research has confirmed that Turkey Tails contain compounds that bolster the human immune system.

Crowded Parchment, another polypore fungi, on fallen twigs. Below, the lower side of the twig showing the spore-bearing surface of the Crowded Parchment.

Violet-toothed Polypore fungi have colored zones (left) on the upper surface similar to Turkey Tails, but the lower surface is covered with sharp folds of tissue that somewhat resemble teeth (right). In time, the lower surface turns rich shades of purple.

Can you spot the Common Garter Snake in this photo? Roger C and Jan did! Photo by Jan Coyne

After reaching the bottom of the slope, ramblers wandered through the floodplain slough and spotted a caterpillar of what is probably a Yellow-spotted Graylet Moth.

Don was checking out a cavity in a hollow standing tree in the floodplain and discovered Trembling Crust, a common, globally distributed fungus that grows on rotting wood of hardwoods and conifers. The name refers to its jelly-like texture. It is inedible.

Beech leaves with sooty mold
Photo by Linda Chafin

Turban Cup Lichen occupying a rock in Dunson Garden. Photo by Linda Chafin

Sasanqua Camellias are blooming and shedding their flowers all over the Lower Shade Garden sidewalks

And speaking of shedding…

The Ginkgos in the Children’s Garden plaza are beginning to shed their leaves – a good time to re-read Dale’s 2012 account of Ginkgo leaf fall.
“Autumn has an abundance of dreary, drizzly days when everything is drained of color and the chill penetrates to the bone. On such days it’s difficult not to be depressed and the gray sky just reinforces that absence of cheer. But fortunately there is one joy that overcast skies cannot diminish: the Ginkgo tree. As fall begins, the Ginkgo starts to absorb all the green from its fan-shaped leaves. They become yellow at their base and the border between green and yellow gradually advances to the edge of the fan, as if all the green is being inhaled into the tree itself. Then the tree seems to hold its breath, as if waiting for some sign. When that mysterious signal arrives the tree suddenly exhales and all the lemon-colored leaves cascade to the ground within a few hours. If you’re lucky enough to be standing under a Ginkgo at that very moment you can experience the joy of their soft pelting – summer sunlight and air made palpable – as in their twisting descent they brush against your head and hands, casting your shadow on the earth beneath. Their brilliant yellow defies the drab autumnal sky and, for a moment, you can imagine you see the sun reflected in the pooled leaves beneath the naked branches above.”

SUMMARY OF OBSERVED SPECIES:

Georgia Aster Symphyotrichum georgianum
Rattlesnake Master Eryngium yuccifolium
Red-shouldered Stink Bug Thyanta custator
Southern Two-lined Salamander Eurycea cirrigera
White-topped Pitcherplant hybrid Sarracenia leucophylla X Sarracenia purpurea
Gilled Polypore Trametes betulina
Turkey Tail fungus Trametes versicolor
Crowded Parchment Fungus Stereum complicatum
Violet-toothed Polypore Trichaptum biforme
Common Garter Snake Thamnophis sirtalis
Yellow-spotted Graylet moth caterpillar Hyperstrotia flaviguttata
Trembling Crust fungus Merulius tremellosus (synonym Phlebia tremellosa)
Beech Fagus grandifolia
Sooty Mold an Ascomycete fungus
Turban Cup Lichen Cladonia peziziformis
Sasanqua Camellia Camellia sasanqua
Ginkgo tree Ginkgo biloba

Ramble Report – October 24, 2024

Posted on November 12, 2024 by Linda Chafin

Leader of Today’s Ramble: John Schelhas

Authors of Today’s Report: John Schelhas, Don Hunter

Today’s Reading: John read a paragraph from the essay, “Conservation” from Round River: From the Journals of Aldo Leopold.

“The outstanding scientific discovery of the twentieth century is not television or radio, but rather the complexity of the land organism. Only those who know the most about it can appreciate how little we know about it. The last word in ignorance is the man who says of an animal or plant: “What good is it?” If the land mechanism as a whole is good, then every part is good, whether we understand it or not. If the biota, in the course of aeons, has built something we like but do not understand, then who but a fool would discard seemingly useless parts? To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent tinkering.” Aldo Leopold, "Conservation," Round River: From the Journals of Aldo Leopold.

Tree Microhabitats

“Tree microhabitats” is a new term for a category that came out of European forest research. It brings together things we already know, but establishing the category helps group them and understand their importance. Microhabitats refer to small habitats that are on trees (not places on the ground where different trees are found), such as a limb or twig, or perhaps a hollow or decaying knot hole filled with soil or containing water. Maybe it’s a rivulet of sap, dripping from a woodpecker hole or from a fissure caused by a lightning strike, attracting ants, which attract birds. Maybe it’s a leaf, hosting a wasp gall. It might be a tangle of limbs and leaves, providing a safe haven from predators for a variety of small species of insects or other critters. It could be a bird’s nest. The important thing to know is that these microhabitats are all structural things. You don’t really have to know the species of the trees – or the insects or the fungi, etc. that live there – to appreciate the concept and look for tree microhabitats. Just being able to recognize the different microhabitats can get you thinking about all of the connections found within a forest and can help you see some of “the cogs and wheels” of forest ecosystems.

Illustration from Martin et al. 2022. Tree-Related Microhabitats Are Promising Yet Underused Tools for Biodiversity and Nature Conservation: A Systematic Review for International Perspectives. Frontiers in Forests and Global Change, Vol. 5: 818474.

European researchers have developed a catalogue of different tree microhabitats that offers an accessible classification system for identifying small and valuable structures for biodiversity. The Catalogue was developed by a group of experts at the European Forest Institute to serve as a field guide. The vast array of existing tree microhabitats (TreMs) is subdivided into a few concise categories of saproxylic (cavities, injuries and wounds, bark, dead wood) and epixylic (deformations, epiphytes, nests) structures that can serve as shelter or home for different flora and fauna.

Left, decayed hole at the base of a hickory tree has an accumulation of soil-like wood at the bottom. Right, a patch of moss on a Beech trunk is an epiphyte that provides cover for small insects.

While there is a lot of forest ecology and silvicultural science behind the categories, the Catalogue can be used simply as a field guide and handy support for determining valuable microhabitats during forest management. In addition to being available in pdf form, there is also an “Integrate+tree microhabitat” phone app for identifying biodiversity-relevant tree microhabitats. The app content has been taken from the publication Catalogue of tree microhabitats – Reference field list and is available in several languages. The I+TreMs catalogue is available as a free app, running on Android and Apple.

Tree microhabitat resources:
Kraus, D., Bütler, R., Krumm, F., Lachat, T., Larrieu, L., Mergner, U., Paillet, Y., Rydkvist, T., Schuck, A., and Winter, S., 2016. Catalogue of tree microhabitats – Reference field list.
Integrate+ Technical Paper. 16p.

Bütler, R.; Lachat, T.; Krumm, F.; Kraus, D.; Larrieu, l. 2020. Field Guide to Tree-related Microhabitats: Descriptions and size limits for their inventory. Birmensdorf, Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL. 59 p.

Old growth Tulip Tree in Cooper’s Creek Recreation Area in the Chattahoochee National Forest. Old growth trees have many more microhabitats than younger trees. Photo by Georgia Forestwatch

In general, research has shown that the more tree microhabitats you have in a forest, the greater the diversity of organisms in that forest. As you might expect, natural forests have more tree microhabitats in them than plantation forests, which are generally, as a part of their management, kept “cleaned up” by removing deadwood and fungi, keeping fallen limbs picked up, keeping shrubs thinned out, etc. Additionally, old growth forests have many more tree microhabitats than younger forests, as you can see looking at almost any large, old tree or visiting an old growth forest such as the Tulip Trees in the Cooper’s Creek Recreation Area in the Chattahoochee National Forest near Suches, Georgia. Importantly for forest management, you can enhance tree microhabitats in a plantation forest by leaving diverse tree microhabitats, such as deadwood, cavities, and fungi, or by leaving one or more large trees. Having more microhabitats and diversity in a forest in general will increase the resilience of a forest and perhaps even its productivity as trees often grow better in complex natural-like ecosystems rather than in simple ones focused on producing wood fiber.

Today’s Route: We left the Children’s Garden, and, via the entrance road, made our way to the White Trail and headed across the powerline ROW to the turkey-foot intersection of the Blue, Green, and White trails. We stayed within sight of the intersection, checking out various trees for microhabitats.

Today’s Observations:
John led the ramblers to the junction of the Blue, Green, and White Trails just west of the powerline right-of-way. Here he handed out forms for recording different tree microhabitats. As examples of things to look for, John mentioned that he had seen, in a reconnaissance for today’s Ramble, a dead branch up in one of the trees, the loose bark of White Oaks that provides shelter for insects (and even small bats), and Hook Moss providing cover for small insects avoiding predation by woodpeckers and other birds. John sent us out in small groups to check out different trees in the vicinity to find and identify microhabitats. We regrouped after 30 or 40 minutes to see what the different groups found.

Loose plates of White Oak bark (left) and Hook Moss on a Hop Hornbeam (right)
provide shelter for insects.

Don noted fresh sap oozing from a Northern Red Oak’s bark, potentially attracting insects and birds.

Page spied a twig supporting a row of Little Nest Polypore fungi.

Gary spotted a deep, damp hole at the base of a tree with a large mushroom growing in the bottom.

Linda’s group discovered a Beech tree with a cascade of reddish liquid down the trunk; it appeared to originate about 15 feet above the ground, perhaps in a large knot hole.

The base of the Beech tree is buttressed, the spreading roots creating several types of microhabitat.

Another Beech growing nearby has a cavity, left, where a large branch of the tree had decayed near the base of the tree. The bark on the trunk supports lots of crustose lichens, below.

A Hop Hornbeam with a cavity, left, that measured 30 inches deep. Further up the trunk, a knothole was provides habitat for moss.

In a nearby Hop Hornbeam, we spotted an unusual sight: another tree had, at some time in the past, fallen against the Hop Hornbeam, wedging in a fork in its trunk. Though the rest of the fallen tree was long gone, the short section that lay in the fork had become incorporated into the living tissue of the larger tree.

The large, loose plates of Shagbark Hickory bark provide shelter for insects, birds, and small bats.

Large, partially healed wound in the base of a Shagbark Hickory, right. Dried hickory leaves provide shelter for a spider and her web, below.

A forked White Oak twig supporting a spider web

Several species of fungi thriving on the bark of a dying White Oak.

Jan noticed a train of red American Winter Ants (tentative ID) moving up and down along a path among the bark plates of a Red Hickory, right. On the same tree a bracket fungus had established itself on the bark, below.

A network of Wall Scalewort, a species of leafy liverwort, spreads across part of the Red Hickory trunk. From a distance, liverworts look like moss, but up close you can see that the leaves are opposite while moss leaves spiral around their stems.

Kathryn spotted this slug on a Beech tree. After a while, it attempted to transfer to a nearby branch five or six inches away by curving over backwards. Alas, it did not make it on this attempt, falling into the fork of the two branches. This is likely a Carolina Mantleslug.

Don’s Pre- and Post-Ramble Observations:

An Aster stem rising above a cluster of goldenrod in the Children’s Garden is tipped with a tight bud. The rough hairs, the outwardly curved phyllaries, and the hint of purple at the top suggests this may be a Georgia Aster. Another clue is the timing – Georgia Asters typically bloom about a month later than other asters.

Nearby, a dew-covered Eastern Carpenter Bee in a deep state of torpor rested on a Rattlesnake Master inflorescence.

Later in the morning, the temperatures rose and Carpenter Bees got busy, in this case nectar-robbing a Candy Corn flower in the Visitor Center Plaza.

SUMMARY OF OBSERVED SPECIES

White Oak Quercus alba
American Beech Fagus grandifolia
Northern Red Oak Quercus rubra
Hop Hornbeam Ostrya virginiana
Red Hickory Carya ovalis
Winged Elm Ulmus alata
Hook Moss Leucodon sp.
Little Nest Polypore Trametes conchifer
White Micrathena orbweaver Micrathena mitrata
Shagbark Hickory Carya ovata
Hypoxylon Canker Biscogniauxia atropunctatum
Wall Scalewort Porella platyphylla
American Winter Ant (tentative ID) Prenolepis imparis
Carolina Mantleslug (tentative ID) Philomycus carolinianus
Candy Corn Plant Cuphea micropetala
Aster Symphyotrichum sp.
Eastern Carpenter Bee Xylocopa virginica
Rattlesnake Master Eryngium yuccifolium

Ramble Report – October 31, 2024

Posted on November 12, 2024 by Linda Chafin

Leader of Today’s Ramble: Catherine Chastain, whose background as a children’s librarian and teacher makes her uniquely qualified to lead on Halloween!

Authors of Today’s Report: Linda Chafin, Don Hunter

Number of Ramblers today: 21

Announcements and other interesting things:
Kathy Stege announced that from now on she will be using her given name, Kathryn.

Dave Miller shared this interesting youtube video, The Surprising Map of Plants, that summarizes the evolutionary history of plants from algae to the aster family. The author and illustrator explains how plants across the evolutionary spectrum are related to each other and what makes them so successful.

From the Washington Post: A Year in the Life of a Leaf: explore a leaf’s magical transformations across seasons.

Forest fires are shifting north and intensifying – here’s what that means for the planet.

Don’s Pre-Ramble Observations:

The Handsome Meadow Katydid, with its white face, pale blue eyes, turquoise wings, bright green body, and legs brownish-red fading to yellowish-green, is indeed handsome. It lives in moist to wet forests and in brushy thickets near streams and lakes from Florida north to New York, and east to Mississippi. They eat pollen, seeds, and leaves and are eaten by other insects and birds. Females lay their eggs in rows along plant stems, where they overwinter. Small wingless nymphs hatch in the spring, becoming larger during a succession of molts and eventually developing wings. When they mature in mid to late summer, the males attract females with their songs (to hear the song, click here) and the females select a mate based on the strength of the song. The song is created by stridulation: one wing has a “file” that is rubbed against the other wing that has a “mirror” that amplifies the sound.

Show-and-Tell:

I had just returned from a trip to the mountains, bringing with me several White Oak and Northern Red Oak leaves with numerous neatly incised circular holes (photos above). I’d never noticed this in the woods before and thought first of the circular bites taken out of Redbud leaves by leaf-cutting bees, a favorite of Dale’s. But that yielded nothing on the internet, so I googled “oak leaves with round holes,” and right away was taken to several websites about the Oak Shothole Leaf-miner Fly.

Oak Shothole Leafminer Fly
Photo by Katja Schulz

The female of this tiny fly feeds in the early spring by inserting her hairlike ovipositor into an oak leaf bud and then lapping up the sap that seeps from the microscopic wound. She may do this several times to the same bud before moving on to another bud. As spring progresses, and the leaf emerges from the wounded bud, the tiny holes expand as the leaf does, turning the tiny wounds into easily visible holes. Where the developing leaf expands evenly in all directions, the wound becomes a round hole; where the leaf grows mostly lengthwise, an oval hole forms. When the leaves are mature, the females return to deposit their eggs inside the leaves. The eggs then hatch, and tiny larvae emerge and eat their winding way inside the leaf, “mining” the nutritious tissue within and leaving trails of dead tissue behind. Oak Shothole Leaf-miner Flies visit several oak species that occur in our area – Black Oak, Northern Red Oak, White Oak, and Post Oak – as well as Chinese Chestnut and some maples. If you take a look at the list of Observed Species at the end of this report, you’ll see that the genus for this fly is Japanagromyza, suggesting that it’s not native to North America, but it is an American species of an otherwise Asian genus.

Today’s Reading: Catherine brought a reading relevant to monster creation, a poem by Shel Silverstein entitled “The Worst.”

When singing songs of scariness,
Of bloodiness and hairyness,
I feel obligated at this moment to remind you
Of the most ferocious beast of all:
Three thousand pounds and nine feet tall –
The Glurpy Slurpy Skakagrall –
Who’s standing right behind you.

At least two ramblers chose to dress appropriately for monster creation!
(Myrna, left, and Gary, right)

Today’s Activities and Observations:
Catherine brought boxes of nature finds: sweet gum balls, grape vine tendrils, okra pods, dried leaves, lichen-encrusted twigs, acorns, and magnolia and chinaberry fruits, as well as googly eyes, hot glue and gun, twine, and felt scraps. Ramblers got busy!

And the results were spectacular!

Monsters by Roger C and Marsha (above)

Don’s Gingko Bee and Halley’s monster

Monsters by Henry and Linda

Dave’s Snake Mummy and Myrna’s Mr. Lichen Face with two small cohorts

Monsters by Jan and Gary

Monsters of unknown parentage

The entire family of creepy critters

Inspired by the monsters, Ramblers set off for a short ramble through the Lower Shade Garden to the floodplain….

Bigleaf Magnolia leaves (above) and Sasanqua Camellia in flower (below)
in the Lower Shade Garden

Sycamore’s outer bark is thin and brittle in shades of green, brown, gray, russet, and cream. As the tree expands in girth, the thin bark splits into random shapes and falls from the trunk, exposing the white inner bark. There are 10 species of Sycamore in the world, including eight on our continent: ours in the eastern U.S., two out west, and five in Mexico.

From the New York City Park Daily Plant: “The American Sycamore attains the largest girth of any tree native to Eastern North America. In colonial times, families used hollow sycamores as temporary shelter, and a single trunk cavity was known to hold up to 15 men on horseback! The current record holder in Ohio is 15 feet in diameter. The sycamore is very long lived, sometimes reaching 500 years of age. After 200 or 300 years, it becomes hollow. Sycamores grow in rich, alluvial or bottomland soil, usually along river banks and streams. Sycamores prefer well-drained soils, but tolerate periods of waterlogged, anaerobic conditions (lacking oxygen). Urban soils are notoriously compacted with poor aeration, so this natural adaptation allows Sycamores to function well in the urban environments.”

Yellowwood’s golden yellow leaves and Sourwood’s coral-red leaves in the Dunson Garden

The Middle Oconee River continues to be low.

SUMMARY OF OBSERVED SPECIES:

Rattlesnake Master Eryngium yuccifolium
Handsome Meadow Katydid Orchelimum pulchellum
Oak Shothole Leafminer Fly (leaf damage only) Japanagromyza viridula
Carolina Anole Anolis carolinensis
Daddy Longlegs Order Opiliones
Bigleaf Magnolia Magnolia macrophylla
American Witch-hazel Hamamelis virginiana
Sasanqua Camellia Camellia sasanqua
Yellowwood Cladrastis kentukea
Sourwood Oxydendrum arboreum
American Sycamore Platanus occidentalis
Neoscona orbweaver spider Neoscona sp.
Dotted Smartweed Persicaria punctata

Ramble Report – October 17, 2024

Posted on October 23, 2024 by Linda Chafin

Leader of Today’s Ramble: Gary Grossman

Authors of Today’s Report: Linda Chafin, Don Hunter

The photos that appear in this report were taken by Don Hunter unless otherwise credited. Photos may be enlarged by clicking them with a mouse or tapping on your screen. Not all of Don’s photos from today’s ramble made it into the Ramble Report, so be sure to check out his Facebook album at this link.

Nature Ramble Rainy Day Policy: We show up at 9:00 a.m., rain or shine. If it’s raining, we will meet and socialize in the conservatory (bring your own coffee); if there is a break in the rain, we’ll go outside and do a little rambling.

Today’s Emphasis: Ecology of Piedmont rivers and streams

Announcements and other interesting things:

Today’s ramble leader is Gary Grossman. After 41 years of research and teaching in animal ecology, with an expertise in riverine and fish ecology, Gary retired as a UGA Professor Emeritus in 2022. He is the author of 150+ scientific articles, and has also published many poems, creative nonfiction pieces, and short fiction in more than 50 publications. He has also published two poetry books and a graphic memoir My Life in Fish—One Scientist’s Journey. He is also the creator of a Youtube channel – openecologyresources – “designed to provide open educational video resources for studying ecology, behavior and natural history of animals and plants in North America.” Below are links to two essays and three poems that Gary published in Salvation South, an online publication that is “a refuge for Southern storytellers and a haven for Southern readers, [a] publication for every writer and reader who wants to celebrate the culture of the American South and to see beyond its historical baggage and current divisions.”
Will the Rivers Still Run?
Window Splat: The Great Southern Brood of Cicadas
Three Poems: Paying Attention on the Baldwin Grade, Bomb Cyclone in Athens, and Quartering an Apple

Terry announced that Cumberland Island is once again in the news and in need of advocates. Wild Cumberland, an organization that is dedicated to protecting the wilderness, native species, and the ecology of Cumberland Island by educating the public, is seeking to block proposed land exchanges on the island and invites its supporters to comment on these plans.

Very interesting article! How Scientists Started to Decode Birdsong: Language is said to make us human. What if birds talk, too? An article in the New Yorker by Rivka Galchen. If you don’t have a subscription, you should be able to see a few articles per month for free.

Let’s remember to keep our eyes open next summer for Maple Leafcutter Moth Holes (scroll down a bit). Naturally Curious, by Mary Holland

Today’s Route: We left the Children’s Garden, heading down through the Lower Shade Garden, to the entrance road and the ADA path to the Middle Oconee River. From there, we walked the Orange Trail downriver to the beaver pond wetland. Crossing over the boardwalk, we reconnected to the Orange Trail and followed it along Humphrey’s Spring Branch and back up to the upper parking lot.

Don’s Pre-Ramble Observations:

Don has been tracking Daddy Long Legs in the Children’s Garden for a couple of months; they seem to always be hanging out on the Rattlesnake Master’s flower and seed heads. Daddy Long Legs are omnivores and eat just about anything: decaying organic matter, live and dead invertebrates, feces, fungi, and much more. Perhaps the Rattlesnake Master seed heads harbor small insects? Daddy Long Legs are a species of arachnid, a group that includes mites and ticks – they are neither insects or spiders, and they are not venomous.

A Joro Spider’s web is a complex, multi-layered trap composed of many, very sticky, very tough, yellow strands. Joros first appeared in Georgia about 10 years ago and have spread everywhere – with their highly effective webs, it seems likely (and tragic) that they will outcompete our native orbweaver spiders and even impact native pollinator populations.

Ramble Observations:
On our way to the river, we noticed changes in the vegetation in the Shade Garden and right-of-way that confirm what today’s cool morning temperatures were telling us: it is finally, blessedly, Fall in Athens.

The overwintering leaves of Cranefly Orchid have recently emerged from their underground corms. Cranefly’s new leaves are usually green on the upper surface and bright purple on the lower surface. Occasionally the upper surface will be a dark brownish-purple, as seen in the photo, left. Sometimes the upper surface is green with raised, purple dots (right). Whatever the pattern and location, the purple pigment – one of several different types of anthocyanin – serves as a sunscreen, protecting the leaves from excess sunlight now until late spring when the leaves will wither and the plants prepare to flower in late spring.

Blue Mistflower is one of the last members of the Aster Family to remain in flower. It is a native perennial, unlike the look-alike landscape plant Ageratum which is an annual from Mexico and Central America. Both species have dense clusters of tiny disk flowers with long, showy style branches that give the heads a fluffy look. There are no ray flowers. There are technical differences in the flowers that are hard to see without magnification, but the leaves also differ: Mistflower’s leaves are triangular in outline; Ageratum’s leaves are heart-shaped.

Coralbead is named for its juicy berries that are translucent and seem to glow in the sunlight. It’s a high-climbing or sprawling vine, reaching 12 or more feet in length. Coralbead is sometimes called Carolina Moonseed, referring to the seed (right) that is etched with a crescent moon.

Spotted Cucumber Beetle is a native insect that is an important agricultural pest. Both adults and larvae do considerable damage to roots, stems, leaves, and flowers of crop plants, especially in the south. Here, the beetle is munching on a Tall Goldenrod flower head.

Common Wingstem seed heads, left, and their winged seeds, below.

Former River Cane patch

The Garden is experimenting with the River Cane patch, mowing it with hopes to access and eliminate the invasive vines that were strangling the cane. Not surprisingly, given their abundance in the right-of-way, aggressive wingstems have taken over now. If there is any hope of getting ahead of these thuggish natives, herbicide treatment should take place before first frost.

Common Wingstem (left) and Southern Crownbeard (center) are both in the wingstem genus Verbesina and both are thriving in the cane patch. Common Wingstem has alternate leaves, Crownbeard has opposite. A few shoots of River Cane (right) have sprouted from the extensive network of underground rhizomes that underlies the cane path.

As we approached the river, Gary stopped to read “American Sycamore,” a poem he published in the Trouvaille Review in 2022.

American Sycamore

It is a ghostly obelisk,
breathless among the paused
leafless gray soldiers of the forest.
Post and water oaks, shagbark
and mockernut hickories, red and
chalkbark maples, and silverbells.
So many trees hold up the cobalt
southern sky.
White on white echoes through
the Georgia woods in January
and the visual music pulls my eyes
back to the solitary sycamore, trunk
shedding a few last puzzle pieces
of elderly taupe bark.
Forty-nine years ago I met the
companion who now walks beside
me on the trail—today we are
the wrinkled, white-barked, trees
of the town.

Water level in the Middle Oconee River is extremely low. October is typically the driest month of the year in Athens and this year it follows two months of below average rainfall except for the rain brought by Hurricane Helene.

Gary introduced today’s topic by talking about the current condition of the Middle Oconee River. Piedmont rivers, before cotton farming’s reckless practices took their toll, typically ran clear, with bedrock bottoms. Most Piedmont streams, such as the Middle Oconee, have enough sediment accumulation that it would take, with no further additional sedimentation, more than 500 years for it to be flushed further downstream. In his 1791 Travels, documenting his explorations in the south, William Bartram wrote that he could see dinner plates lying on the Oconee River bottom, 30 feet below the surface. It’s estimated that loss of top soil in the Piedmont averaged 7 inches with up to 12 inches lost in some counties. The result? Sediment accumulations in some Piedmont rivers is more than 15 feet deep and has completely buried some riverside buildings such as grist mills. Anyone interested in learning more about historic soil erosion in the south can read these two great resources:
Stanley W. Trimble, Man-Induced Soil Erosion on the Southern Piedmont, 1700-1790
Paul Sutter, Let Us Now Praise Famous Gullies

A large sandbar composed of sediments is exposed in the riverbed behind Catherine, Jan, and Gary.

Despite this history, Gary described the fish fauna in the Oconee River as fairly diverse. Overall, riverine faunal diversity in the southeast U.S., including fish, mussels, and amphibians, is the greatest in North America, excluding Mexico, and the diversity of freshwater mussels is the highest in the entire world. Regarding diversity in the Middle Oconee River, Gary said the stretch of the river here at the Garden could easily have 25 or more species of fish. Most of the species are small fishes, such as minnows, chubs, and darters. Before damming, most rivers had at least one species of larger fish, such as Largemouth Bass. Many of the rivers in the southeast U.S. once had riverine bass species that were endemic to those streams but fisherman and fisheries programs have moved some of these species to other locations. The Spotted Bass, endemic to Alabama, has become one of the most common bass species in the southeastern river systems. The introduction of species to areas outside of their endemic range has resulted in many hybrids.

Riverine fishes fall into two major categories: (1) fish in the water column – from the surface down to but not including the substrate – and (2) fish that live and subsist on a variety of plant and animal material on or in the substrate. Darters, for example, feed only on the bottom and have a diet that is mostly aquatic insects. There are two sources of energy for the animals that live in rivers: allochthonous (material that comes from outside the river, such as leaf litter and other woody debris) and autochthonous (material that originates in the river itself, such as biofilm and aquatic plants). The Middle Oconee River is largely allochthonous; much of the river bottom is covered with leaves and woody debris. One consequence of the relatively smooth and level sediment layer in Piedmont river bottoms is that leaves and other organic debris are easily swept downstream even during normal flows; rocky bottoms, on the other hand, offer nooks and crevices where leaves and branches are trapped. The sediment itself may have mineral nutrients but they are not available to foraging fauna.

As we moved along the Orange Trail beside the river, we paused to discuss the characteristic landforms of a many southeastern floodplains.

Standing on the levee between river and the floodplain, we could easily view the slough on one side and the river on the other. Less than ten years ago, the slough was an impenetrable thicket of Chinese Privet that transpired much of the standing water. Once the privet was removed (thank you, Thomas Peters!), an astonishing diversity of plant species showed up. The sloughs are also prime breeding ground for a variety of amphibians. A wide variety of frog species, perhaps up to ten species, can be found in these areas at one time or another, including Spring Peepers, Southern Cricket Frog, Southern Leopard Frog, Upland Chorus Frog, Cope’s Gray Tree Frog, Green Frog, Bird-voiced Tree Frog, and Narrow-mouthed Toad.

A springtime view of the slough at the Garden with Butterweed in full glory

Many Piedmont rivers are lined with sandy berms called levees. These form when the river repeatedly overflows its banks and soil carried in the floodwater is deposited on the floodplain. The heaviest and largest soil particles – sand – fall out first, forming sandy levees along the river’s bank. As the floodwaters continue to move across the land, finer soil particles – clay and silt – settle out, forming deep layers of fine-textured soil that can hold water for long periods. Semi-permanently flooded areas called sloughs or back swamps form in the lowest areas of the floodplain. These are a distinctive floodplain feature here at the Garden that usually remain flooded throughout the winter and spring. Today there was no standing water. An in-depth look at southern floodplains is in Charlie Wharton’s The ecology of bottomland hardwood swamps of the southeast. Dr. Wharton’s survey of natural communities at the Botanical Garden, including the floodplain, is available here.

This large Winged Elm is growing on the levee along with River Birch, Box Elder, Sycamore, Red Maple, Sweet Gum, American Elm, and Green Ash in the canopy and Musclewood, Silverbell, and Chinese Privet in the subcanopy. The river is constantly undercutting the riverbank which eventually slumps into the stream carrying the trees with it.

Some facts about the Oconee River watershed:
– The river’s name derives from the Oconee people who lived in present day Baldwin County (county seat Milledgeville) at a village known as Oconee Old Town. Source.

– The North Oconee and the Middle Oconee rivers flow about 60 miles each before coming together about a mile south of the Botanical Garden on the edge of UGA’s Whitehall Forest. The headwaters of the North Oconee are located just south of Lula, and the headwaters of the Middle Oconee arise slightly northeast of Braselton. These two rivers, plus the Apalachee River, form the Upper Oconee Watershed which drains all or part of 18 Georgia Piedmont counties. Source. Source.

–Athens/Clarke County is the largest municipal user of surface water in the basin, with two surface water withdrawal permits that total an average of 28 million gallons per day. Source.

–The Oconee River and its tributaries drain about 5,330 square miles of land before joining with the Ocmulgee River to form the mighty Altamaha near Lumber City. Source.

The sunny, open marsh at the confluence of the river and the small creek once called Humphrey’s Spring Branch was originally created by beaver. In the 1990s, the pond was permanently dammed and converted to a pollution filtration pond with the goal of absorbing waste products from UGA’s nearby hog research facility. The hog facility has since been re-located to an outlying county but the low dam is still in place. Neither beaver or beaver-chewed trees have been seen in many years. The marsh is dominated by Rice Cutgrass and sizeable patches of Duck Potato. Interestingly, there is only one small patch of Cattails on the western edge of the marsh. Cattail has the reputation of spreading aggressively and outcompeting all other aquatic plants; perhaps the dense growth of Cutgrass has kept it in check. Other plants in and around the marsh, below, include Water Hemlock (left, in August), Arrow Arum (center, in July), and Winter Grape Fern (coated with mud today, right).

Walking along the pond edge, Don spotted this fuzzy gall created by a Furry Oak Leaf Gall Wasp on a Water Oak leaf

Walking upstream along Humphrey’s Spring Branch, we left the muddy sediments behind and entered the portion of the creek with a rocky bottom and clear water.

While along the banks of the stream, Gary talked about the nests built by a small fish called Bluehead Chub (below) that inhabit this stream. Male chubs pick up small stones from the stream bottom in their mouths and drop them at a nest location, creating a domed underwater structure. Nests may be up to 3 feet long and contain thousands of stones. Females are drawn to the nest sites and release their eggs which fall between the stones where they are protected from predation. The nest-builders then release their milt which fertilizes the eggs.

SUMMARY OF OBSERVED AND DISCUSSED SPECIES

Daddy Longlegs Order Opiliones
Rattlesnake Master Eryngium yuccifolium
Joro Spider (web construction) Trichonephila clavata
Cranefly Orchid Tipularia discolor
Blue Mistflower Conoclinium coelestinum
Carolina Coralbead Cocculus carolinus
Red-bellied Woodpecker Melanerpes carolinus
Spotted Cucumber Beetle Diabrotica undecimpunctata
Tall Goldenrod Solidago altissima
River Cane Arundinaria gigantea
Southern Crownbeard Verbesina occidentalis
Spotted Sandpiper Actitis macularius
Largemouth Bass Micropterus nigricans
Alabama Bass Micropterus henshalli
Eastern Gray Squirrel Sciurus carolinensis
Chinese Privet Ligustrum sinensis
Bullfrog Rana [Lithobates] catesbeiana
Spring Peeper Pseudacris crucifer
Southern Cricket Frog Acris gryllus
Southern Leopard Frog Rana [Lithobates] sphenocephala
Upland Chorus Frog Pseudacris feriarum
Cope’s Gray Tree Frog Hyla chrysoscelis
Narrowmouth Toad Gastrophryne carolinensis
Green Frog Lithobates clamitans
Bird-voiced Tree Frog Hyla avivoca
Butterweed Packera glabella
Winged Elm Ulmus alata
Beaver Castor canadensis
Rice Cutgrass Leersia oryzoides
Duck Potato Sagittaria latifolia
Cattail Typha latifolia
Water Hemlock Cicuta maculata
Arrow Arum Peltandra virginica
Southern Grape Fern Sceptridium [Botrychium] biternatum
Furry Oak Leaf Gall Wasp Callirhytis furva
Water Oak Quercus nigra
Bluehead Chub Nocomis leptocephalus

Ramble Report – October 10, 2024

Posted on October 14, 2024 by Linda Chafin

Leader of Today’s Ramble: Dan Williams

Authors of Today’s Report: Linda Chafin, Don Hunter

Slug eggs! Mary Holland’s excellent nature blog takes a look at slug eggs this month.

Number of Ramblers Today: 32

Today’s Route: We left the Children’s Garden through the American Chestnut tunnel and walked through the Forest Play Area to the Orange Trail Spur, which we took to the lower slope above the Middle Oconee River floodplain. Downed trees stopped our progress into the floodplain and we returned uphill by bushwhacking up to the Callaway Building and the road back to the Visitor Center.

Don’s Pre-Ramble Observations:

Asian Tiger Mosquito, with its black-and-white striped legs, on a Rattlesnake Master inflorescence

Magnolia Green Jumping Spider on a Castor Bean leaf

Observations:
As always, Ramblers welcomed Dan Williams and his encyclopedic knowledge of trees and forests. He opened his walk with recent thoughts about the legacy that forests create: rich, organic soil; flood control and mitigation by slowing and absorbing rainwater; carbon sequestration – forests absorb twice as much carbon as they emit; and peace – the forest as a temple and a place of beauty and retreat. Dan also shared some facts: Before Europeans arrived in what is now the United States, as much as 90% of the eastern U.S. was in forest or woodland, with the remainder in natural prairies or openings created by fires set by Native Americans. By 1900, that percentage had declined to 30% due to demand for lumber and clearing for agriculture. Today, about 50% of the eastern U.S. is forested, with the increase due to abandonment of farmland or its conversion to silviculture. Currently, only 2% of the original eastern deciduous forest remains in virgin condition, best seen in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Dan paused in the American Chestnut tunnel to talk about the Fraser Magnolias planted along the trail. Fraser Magnolia leaves have “ears” – rounded lobes at the base of the leaf. Ears are also found on Bigleaf Magnolia leaves, distinguishing these two Magnolia species from Umbrella and Cucumber Magnolias, two other species of deciduous magnolia found in north Georgia. Cucumber Magnolia leaves (below) have tapered bases.

Cucumber Magnolia photo by Janie K. Marlow

As ramblers gathered around a Black Oak in the Forest Play area, Dan read a passage from William Bartram’s Travels where Bartram describes a grove of Black Oaks about 50 miles southeast of Athens.

“…we continued eight or nine miles…to the north branch of the Little River, [where] we entered an extensive fertile plain, bordering on the river, and shaded by trees of vast growth, …the most magnificent forest I had ever seen…with the most stately forest trees, such as the gigantic black oak (Quercus tinctoria), Liriodendron, Juglans nigra, Platanus, Juglans exalta, Fagus sylvatica, Ulmus sylvatica, Liquidamber styraciflua, whose mighty trunks, seemingly of an equal height, appeared like superb columns… Describing the magnitude and grandeur of these trees, would, I fear, fail of credibility; yet, I think I can assert, that many of the black oaks measured, eight, nine, ten, and eleven feet in diameter five feet above the ground, as we measured several that were above thirty feet girt, and from whence they ascend perfectly strait, with a gradual taper, forty or fifty feet to the limbs…”

Black Oak leaves have pointed lobes and shallow sinuses between the lobes. They resemble Northern Red Oak leaves but the difference in the bark of these two species, below, is so distinctive and easy to spot that there should be no confusion.

Black Oak bark (left) is uniformly dark, nearly black, while Northern Red Oak bark is vertically striped with broad white ridges.

The yellow inner bark of Black Oak was used to make a dye called Quercitron that produced shades of yellow, orange, and tan, and was mixed with metals to create brighter yellows and olive green.

The scientific name of Black Oak is Quercus velutina, the species name “velutina” meaning velvety. If you rub a Black Oak leaf between your fingers you can feel a layer of soft, velvety hairs on the lower surface. This highly magnified photo shows the dense coating of branched hairs on the lower surface of a Black Oak leaf. Photo by H.M. Ling of the New Jersey Native Plant Society.

Oaks are divided into two subgenera: the white oaks and the red oaks. Georgia’s white oaks include White Oak, Post Oak, Chestnut Oak, Swamp Chestnut Oak, and Live Oak (Georgia’s state tree). Members of the white oak subgenus have acorns that mature in one growing season and germinate in the fall. White oak acorns have less of the bitter-tasting tannins than do red oak acorns, and were preferred eating by Native Americans. Even so they need leaching in multiple changes of water before grinding into a flour. Here‘s some good info about preparing acorn flour.

White Oak is the most common of the white oaks in Botanical Garden forests, though there are also lots of Post Oaks around too. White Oak bark is distinctively flaky: the flakes are usually large, longer than wide, and attached along one side. The loose bark of both White Oak and Shagbark Hickory provide important roosting sites for small bats. White Oak is an intermediate shade-tolerant tree. It will grow into the subcanopy and wait there until an opening occurs in the canopy from the death of another tree. Then it grows up into the sunlight.

Northern Red Oak, Scarlet Oak, and Southern Red Oak are all common in the Garden’s forest. Distinctive traits of members of the red oak subgenus:
-Leaf lobes are pointed, with a bristle tip
-Acorns mature in their 2nd year on tree
-Acorns have higher tannin content, which protects the slowly developing acorns from insects and rodents

Northern Red Oak bark (left) has broad white ridges aka “ski trails.”

Oaks in the white oak group have leaves with rounded lobes that are not tipped with bristles. Red oak group leaves have pointed lobes tipped with tiny bristles.

Oak-Hickory forest once blanketed the uplands of the Georgia Piedmont and is still the most common forest type in this part of Georgia. It is sometimes referred to as a matrix forest in which are included moister cove forests, wetland and bottomland forests, and nearly treeless prairies. The hickory species we see most often in the Botanical Garden uplands are Mockernut and Red Hickories. In an area between the White Trail and Green Trail that has higher pH soils there are a few Shagbark Hickories. Bitternut Hickory is found in a few wet areas. And the driest ridges at the Garden support Sand (or Pale) Hickory. Bartram reported seeing Native Americans collecting hickory nuts by the bushel and making hickory milk to mix with cornmeal.

Last year when Dan joined us on the ramble, Gary presented him with a mug of homemade hickory milk, inspired by Dan’s earlier description of making the milk. Dan was obviously disappointed that Gary had not made hickory milk this time around. For those who missed last year’s talk, Gary described his method: “After removing the thick husks, I didn’t finely crush the shells, but simply used vise-grips to crack open the nuts. No need to pick out the meats! Just boil shells and meat together for a long time to extract the milk and a marvelous room-filling aroma.” For a similar traditional Cherokee method for making hickory milk, watch this sweet video.

Mockernut Hickory has the most conspicuously “braided” bark of all our hickories. The ridges look more like diamonds or expanded metal than braids to some people. Mockernut leaves have five or seven leaflets, and the leaf stalk and the rachis that holds the leaflets is very hairy. Photo by Janie K. Marlow, Name That Plant.

Red Hickory bark (right) is more or less braided, but the braids are broken and looser than Mockernut; loose enough that this species has sometimes been called False Shagbark, but y’all know how we feel about those “false” names….so, no. Red Hickory leaves and leaf stalks are not hairy. The husk of Red Hickory nuts splits completely from top to bottom. Red Hickory is often lumped in with Pignut Hickory which has tighter bark that is not at all shaggy, and husks that open only about one-third the length of the fruit.

Farther along the White Trail Spur, we encountered several trees blown over in the recent storms. This downed Winged Elm gave us the chance to share with Dan the Rambler way to describe this species’ bark: the plates look like tongue depressors. Or like interlocking pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.

Winged Elm leaves are small, toothed, and oval with slightly uneven bases.

Aging a Tree

Finding a large tree in the woods almost always elicits the question: how old is this tree? Dan has a formula for aging trees based on their shade tolerance and their diameter at breast height (DBH, 4 feet above the ground). The following is taken from his book, Tree Facts and Folklore: Identification, Ecology, Uses Traditional and Modern, and Folklore of Southeastern Trees.

Shade tolerant trees can germinate, grow to seedling stage and on to maturity in nearly full shade, though it can also prosper in full sunlight. Examples: Hickories, Southern Magnolia, Basswood, American Beech, Redbud, Persimmon, Sugarberry, Hop Hornbeam, Musclewood, and Silverbell.

Shade intermediate trees can germinate and grow to seedling stage in moderate or even full shade, but must have moderate to full sunlight of an opening in the forest canopy in order mature. Examples: White Pine, White Oak, Red Maple, Southern Red Oak, Fraser Magnolia, Bigleaf Magnolia, Sourwood, Black Gum, Winged Elm, Hackberry, and Yellow, Black, and River Birch.

Shade intolerant, pioneer trees require full sunlight from seedling to maturity. It will die if shaded for extended periods. Examples: Tulip Tree, Sweet Gum, Loblolly Pine, Longleaf Pine, Shortleaf Pine, Eastern Red Cedar, and Black Cherry.

The Four-Five-Seven rule for aging trees:

4 – If it’s a shade intolerant, pioneer tree, multiply the DBH X 4

5 – If it’s a shade intermediate tree, multiply the DBH X 5

7 – If it’s a shade tolerant tree, multiply the DBH X 7

On our way down to the floodplain, Dan stopped to discuss Chalk Maple, a somewhat shrubby version of Sugar Maple. Chalk Maple leaves are smaller than Sugar Maple’s and are softly hairy and bright green on the lower surface (below). Chalk Maple usually has two or three trunks rising from a single crown. A similar southern tree not yet seen at the Garden is Florida Maple, a single-trunked tree whose leaves are chalky-white on the lower surface. It typically grows where the soil pH is circumneutral.

The Middle Oconee River floodplain slough is still holding rainwater
from Hurricane Helene.

Once we reached the floodplain, Dan stopped to talk about Box Elder, pointing out its bright green, opposite twigs, and the compound leaves that look a lot like Poison Ivy’s trifoliate leaves (photo, below). Box Elder is not a desirable tree for landscapes: it is short-lived and bears zillions of seeds that can create dense thickets. Cherokee Indians made tattoo ink from the ashes of burned Box Elder wood. Box Elder is actually a maple sometimes called Ash-leaved Maple.

Scattered patches of River Cane are found along the trail, prompting Dan to discuss the history of canebrakes that once stretched for miles along southern rivers. How did they originate? Dan speculates that the slash-and-burn practices of Native Americans contributed to their formation. When the cleared crop sites were abandoned, River Cane seeds, and possibly rhizome fragments, washed in and became established. Native Americans used cane for many purposes, including flutes, baskets, fish traps, shelter, arrow shafts, blowguns, and mats.

And where did all the canebrakes go? Rich, bottomlands were quickly occupied by European settlers who kept these sites in continual cultivation, destroying the cane. Also, erosion from hillside farms filled the bottomlands with silty sediments, burying the cane. Many such farms were abandoned by mid-20th century, and Chinese Privet and wetland trees such as Box Elder invaded, outcompeting whatever remnants of River Cane had survived.

Small patches of River Cane, photo left, are scattered along the Middle Oconee River levee and throughout the floodplain. River Cane has two kinds of leaves: a “topknot” of 6-8 large, evergreen leaves, conspicuous in the left photo; and, smaller, deciduous stem leaves shown in the photo on the right. Like all grass leaves, River Cane leaves consist of two parts: a sheath that wraps tightly around the stem and a blade that spreads from the top of the sheath. The sheath is softly hairy and topped by a ring of stiff bristles.

Don snapped this photo of a White-headed Prominent Moth caterpillar making its way along a Viburnum twig.

Several recently toppled trees blocked further access to the trail and the floodplain, so we headed uphill, bushwhacking toward the Callaway Building. We paused in a ravine to admire some of the shapely leaves and tall, straight trunks of Tulip Trees, aka Tulip Poplars and Yellow Poplars. These are shade intolerant, pioneer trees that quickly occupy moist sites after disturbance or when a gap opens up in the canopy. But unlike some other pioneer trees, Tulip Trees don’t drop out as the forest matures but continue on their upward path, reaching up to 60 meters in height and 9 meters in circumference. The oldest Tulip Tree in North America is in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park; it is 424 years old, give or take 150 years. (Data from this website)

1959 National Park Service photo of a Tulip Tree in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park

A correction: An unusual evergreen shrub, clearly not a native, caught our eye on the way up the hill. I identified it as Chinese Fir at the time but discovered later it’s actually Japanese Plum-yew, a common landscape shrub planted elsewhere at the Garden. Photo by Fernando Lopez Anido.

This fungus, Trametes aesculi, has no common name. It lives on down and dead wood of hardwood trees.

Dan’s books on southeastern trees and geology are highly recommended and available from Amazon.

Dan D. Williams (2014), Tree Facts and Folklore: Identification, Ecology, Uses (Traditional and Modern), and Folklore of Southeastern Trees.

Dan D. Williams (2011),Tree ID Made Easier: A full color photo guide, plus helpful hints for identifying major trees of the Southern U.S.

Dan D. Williams (2010), The Forests of Great Smoky Mountains National Park: A Naturalist’s Guide to Understanding and Identifying Southern Appalachian Forest Types.

Dan D. Williams (2012),The Rocks of Georgia: A full-color photo guide to Georgia’s rocks, including what they look like, how they formed, and where to find them.

Dan D. Williams (2012), The Rocks of Great Smoky Mountains National Park: A full color guide to the rocks of the Park, including how they formed, what they look like and where to
find them.

Also check out (and subscribe to) Dan’s geology videos on Youtube.

There are also lots of Dan’s “van & tiny house living” videos on Youtube. Subscribe and make Dan happy!

SUMMARY OF OBSERVED AND DISCUSSED SPECIES
Asian Tiger Mosquito Aedes albopictus
Rattlesnake Master Eryngium yuccifolium
Magnolia Green Jumping Spider Lyssomanes viridis
Fraser Magnolia Magnolia fraseri
Cucumber Magnolia Magnolia acuminata
Black Oak Quercus velutina
Northern Red Oak Quercus rubra
White Oak Quercus alba
Red Hickory Carya ovalis
Mockernut Hickory Carya tomentosa
Shagbark Hickory Carya ovata
Winged Elm Ulmus alata
Chalk Maple Acer leucoderme
Hop Hornbeam Ostrya virginiana
Box Elder Acer negundo
River Cane Arundinaria gigantea
Linden Viburnum Viburnum dilitatum
White-headed Prominent Moth Symmerista albifrons
Tulip Tree Liriodendron tulipifera
Japanese Plum-yew Cephalotaxus harringtonia
Trametes aesculi, no common name

Trail Safety, Renaming, and Color: Recommendations as of 10/10/2024
Overview: The goal of the proposed changes is to improve trail wayfinding by our users and improve emergency response of UGA police and Garden staff.
History: The trail safety proposal of 2017 laid the groundwork for the current plan. Trail posts were labeled with hang tags containing a map and unique trail identifier. The plan also included an access plan for trails using an ATV. This plan removes trails from garden paths, improves UGA Police Department response to 911 calls for trail emergencies, and clarifies wayfinding for trail users.
Proposed Updates:
Provide each trail with a unique name/ color (or name only for connectors)
New Trail posts-
o Plastic colored trail markers on posts will allow multiple trail directions on each face to help with direction confirmation.
o Mileage markers to each trail post to allow location identification by trail users
▪ Mileage will move clockwise around loop trails
▪ Towards the Visitors center on linear trails
▪ On Photo metal plates for long term durability
o QR codes will be fixed to all trail posts that will link to a map with trail mileage
▪ Mileage will help provide reference for location of user on trail
▪ On Photo metal plates for long term durability
▪ Identify emergency extraction points best suited for known sections of trail
o Ex. White loop from 1.0M to 1.95M use emergency entrance #3
o Emergency extraction locations will be signed and mapped in cooperation with UGA PD
Please share any feedback or concerns with Jason Young: jason.young@uga.edu
or (706) 369-6089

Ramble Report – October 3, 2024

Posted on October 13, 2024 by Linda Chafin

Leader of Today’s Ramble: Linda

Authors of Today’s Report: Linda Chafin, Don Hunter

Sher passed around a laminated, ten-fold Guide to Common Lawn and Garden Weeds of the Southeast, by Michael Homoya. It includes illustrations and descriptions for 60 species of both native and introduced weeds commonly found throughout the southeastern U.S. Sher purchased it in the Bot Garden’s gift shop. It is also available online here.

Gary announced that we are in the middle of the fall bird migration, an annual event that is so massive that the migrating birds can be seen on weather radar. Hawks and water fowl migrate during the day but most songbirds migrate at night to avoid predators and take advantage of better flying conditions. He reported that last night 4.8 million birds passed over Athens/Clarke County. On an average September night, 60 million songbirds fly across the southeast U.S. and 594 million fly across the United States. He quoted from an article, “Night Moves,” on the Audubon Society web page that describes this amazing phenomenon and the new technologies that allow us to virtually witness it.

We talked a bit about the severity of Helene, whose center of circulation – the “eye” – passed directly over Athens/Clarke County, apparently preventing us from receiving the kind of damage experienced in Augusta.

Number of Ramblers Today: 32

Today’s Route: We walked down the entrance road to the White Trail spur trail and out into the right-of-way prairie, then turned right/north into the Nash Prairie. After a while we took a U-turn downhill and walked through the newly created prairie.

Don’s Pre-Ramble Observations:

Japanese Anemone in flower near the Children’s Garden arbor.

Versute Sharpshooter resting on the pink, hairy leaves of a Strap Flower shrub (aka Chinese Fringe Flower and Loropetalum).

Observations:
Before beginning our annual rambler “grass class,” Linda reminded us of some “grass class” basics. Grasses are wind-pollinated, therefore have no need for showy flowers to attract pollinators. Instead, they have flowers that are so small and so reduced that they are called “florets.” One to many florets are held in clusters called spikelets. All the essential parts are there as in typical flowers but they are much reduced in size and complexity and require a strange new vocabulary: glume, lemma, palea, and awn.

River Oats spikelet in flower in May, with 10 florets

Grasses also have distinctive leaves that are divided into two parts, the leaf blade and the leaf sheath. The blade is what we usually refer to when we talk about grass leaves. The
sheath is the lower part of the leaf and it tightly clasps the grass stem, often covering the stem entirely for an inch or more.

At the inner angle where the blade and the sheath meet is a tiny, easily overlooked structure called a ligule. It may be a delicate membrane, or a line of hairs, or a papery fringe, among other types, but it is always present in some form or another and is an important diagnostic feature for many grasses. The function of the ligule is unknown but it may prevent rain and debris from getting down into the leaf sheath.

Grasses come in two growth forms: bunch grasses (all of Georgia’s native grasses) and turf grasses (all of Georgia’s lawn grasses). All of Georgia’s turf grasses are exotic (think: Zoysia, Bermuda, St. Augustine, etc.). Bunch grasses typically have deep roots – in midwestern prairies with deep topsoil, native grass roots may reach six feet deep. In the Piedmont, topsoil was washed into the rivers and down to the coasts two centuries ago. How deeply grass roots can penetrate the clay subsoil we now have varies from site to site and depends on the type of clay and the species of grass. Turf grasses have shallow roots that penetrate only a few inches in any type of soil and contribute little organic matter to the soil.

Bunch grasses grow in bunches, aka tussocks or clumps. The spaces between the clumps are important to small wildlife, providing fallen seeds, travel corridors, and safe nesting sites for many birds, small mammals, and reptiles. Photo credit.

Grasses also have two different flowering times. Grasses that bloom in the spring are known as cool-season grasses; grasses that flower in late summer/fall are called warm-season grasses. Warm-season grasses conduct photosynthesis using a special method (called C4) that minimizes water loss and allows them to be very productive in high temperatures; after flowering, the aboveground parts wither (in our climate). Cool season grasses more or less shut down their growth during the summer and resume growing in the fall when temperatures drop, often remaining green and photosynthetic during our mild winters.

Now widely used in landscaping, Muhly Grass, with its long, flexible leaves, has long been used by Gullah-Geechee basket weavers on the Georgia and South Carolina coast to form the tight knot at the center of each basket. Muhly Grass is sometimes called Sweet Grass, but should not be confused with the northern Sweetgrass (Hierochloe odorata) that is the subject of Robin Wall Kimmerer’s book, Braiding Sweetgrass.

Seed heads of a white-flowered cultivar of the typically pink-flowered Muhly Grass. Both the pink- and white-flowered versions are planted in the Children’s Garden.

Little Bluestem is another native grass planted in the Children’s Garden. Its stems seem to be striped maroon and blue-green. In fact, the stems are maroon and the leaf sheaths that wrap around the stems are blue-green. Though closely related to Big Bluestem and Broomsedge, Little Blue is a much more delicate grass.

Little Bluestem has sparsely flowered but very hairy spikelets. Photo by Steven Severinghaus.

Patches of River Oats are scattered along the White Trail Spur trail we took to the right-of-way. River Oats is actually a cool-season grass that flowers in late May or June, but its spikelets persist well into late fall. The spikelets are large and contain 6-17 florets that have largely turned brown by now. If fertilized, those florets will each produce a single seed. Some people call this species “fish-on-a-pole.”

Unfortunately, patches of Purple Fountain Grass, an invasive ornamental, have persisted in the right-of-way prairie, dating from the perennial beds that were established here decades ago.

Two species of love-grass – Purple Love Grass (above) and Big-top Love Grass (below) – are among my favorite native grasses. Both have large, open, and airy seed heads that catch the dew and glow in the early morning sunlight, below left. In the case of Purple Love Grass, the seed heads are up to 18 inches long and 14 inches wide, with tiny pink-purple spikelets, each packed with 5-15 tightly stacked florets, above. Bigtop has a much larger seed head, up to 34 inches long and 16 inches wide, below, with greenish-white spikelets only slightly tinged with pink; there are only 2-6 tightly stacked florets per Bigtop spikelet. Both of these lovegrass species are “tumbleweeds”: when the seeds are mature, the stem dries and breaks off at ground level, and the seed head tumbles across the landscape, spreading its seeds.

Purple Top or Greasy Grass is named for the dark purple spikelets which are coated with wax that prevents them from drying out. The spikelets matured early this year due to the drought and are brown and not very “greasy.” Purple Top can be recognized at
55 mph – its seed head is triangular in outline and composed of delicate, gracefully drooping or arching branches.

Broomsedge may be the most common native grass in Georgia, blanketing abandoned fields and pastures and turning a beautiful coppery color in the winter.

A large bract – called a spathe – encloses Broomsedge spikelets till they are ready to shed their seeds. As the tufted seeds emerge from the spathe, they are caught and carried by the wind. Ramblers asked why Broomsedge is so ubiquitous in the Piedmont: a partial answer is that each plant produces up to 200 seeds per year.

Broomsedge often grows with Split-beard Bluestem, below, a similar grass in the same genus, Andropogon (literally, man beard). From a distance, they look much the same and both turn copper-colored in the winter.

Up close, you can see important differences between Broomsedge and Splitbeard. Splitbeard spikelets are not enclosed in a spathe but are instead on a pair of short branches at the top of a relatively slender, leafless stalk – the branches start out as a single unit (left), then split in two as they mature (center), and finally look like worn-out paintbrushes after the seeds are dispersed.

Smutgrass is a common but inconspicuous grass, especially when it lacks the fungal smut (Bipolaris sp.) that usually blackens the seed head (below) and upper leaves.

Beaked Panic Grass spikelets abruptly taper to a tiny bird’s beak. Until recently, this species was in the genus Panicum and, despite being moved to the genus Coleataenia, keeps the “panic” in its common name. The “panic” in panic grass derives not from the anxiety provoked in botanists when confronted with plants in this genus but from the Latin root “pānis,” meaning bread, suggesting that the seeds of some panic grasses were dried and ground into a flour.

With its eight-foot tall stalks, Silver Plume Grass is the most conspicuous grass in the Nash Prairie. The seed head goes through several stages on its way to seed dispersal, beginning as a flattened, fan-shaped silvery-pink plume in September that narrows and turns tan as the florets mature, then explodes into a large silvery-tan plume loaded with hundreds of seeds, below, left. Each seed is tipped with hairs and a long, twisted bristle that give the plume a woolly look, right.

Two other large grass species are conspicuous in the right-of-way prairie:
Big Bluestem and Yellow Indian Grass.

Yellow Indian Grass seed heads are
a beautiful golden yellow. Each seed is tipped with a bristle that is bent ninety
degrees and “corkscrews” the seed into the ground as the bristle twists in
response to changes in humidity. The blueish-greeb leaves have an unusual ligule (below) at the junction of
sheath and blade that resembles a pair of upright terrier ears.

A type of smut fungus, Sporisorium ellisii is a parasitic fungus that infects members of the Broomsedge/Bluestem genus of grasses. It infects the reproductive parts of the plant, rendering them sterile.

Big Bluestem stems often reach 10 feet in height and are topped with a large branched seed head sometimes called a “turkey foot,” below (photo credit).

Don’s close-up photo of one of the Big Blue branches spotlights the yellow, dangling anthers and brushy, pink styles.

Perennial Foxtail Grass (aka Knotroot Bristle-grass) is a relatively small and delicate native grass (photo, left). Its spikelike seed heads consist of tightly packed spikelets each of which is surrounded by white bristles, creating the foxtail effect. Yellow Foxtail Grass (right) has recently shown up on roadsides in Clarke County – it’s a European species that is clearly becoming invasive. Its stems are taller and coarser than our native Foxtail and its seed heads are larger too, with yellow or tan bristles.

The early fall wildflowers – boneset, ironweed, sunflowers, and beans – are past or nearly so at the Garden. The last of the fall wildflowers are still in bloom, though, including Calico Aster. With its white ray flowers and yellow disk flowers, this species resembles three other bushy fall-flowering asters. All four have stiff, almost woody stems and many tiny leaves interspersed with a few larger leaves. The disk flowers turn red after they are pollinated; bees lack a photoreceptor for the color red and do not see these red flowers. Both the plant and the bee benefit when bees focus their efforts on yellow, unpollinated flowers that are still producing nectar.

Blue Curls flowers along the White Trail spur

The “curls” refer to the four stamens and single style that emerge from the top of the flower, perfectly placed to receive and deposit pollen on the backs of visiting bees.

Coastal Dog-fennel (aka Yankeeweed), below, is close kin to the common Dog-fennel that grows throughout the right-of-way. This is our first sighting of this species at the Garden; perhaps it was brought in on the tire treads of Georgia Power equipment from a work site in the Coastal Plain. Dog-fennel leaves are divided into thread-like segments about 1 mm wide; Coastal Dog-fennel leaves are divided into somewhat wider segments 2-5 mm wide.

Red-root Flatsedge – a sedge not a grass – is typically found in wetlands but is thriving in a low spot at the base of the slope of the powerline prairie. Each of the slender, pointed structures is a spikelet that contains 6-30 seeds.

The large Loblolly Pines on the western edge of the powerline prairie support several large vines of Trumpet Creeper, Poison Ivy, and Virginia Creeper. Bill spotted the caterpillar (below, left) of a Poison Ivy Leaf-miner Moth on a Poison Ivy leaflet and a Trumpet Vine Moth caterpillar (center) in one of the fruit pods hanging on the Trumpet Creeper. A Trumpet Vine Moth adult (right) coincidentally showed up later at Bill’s porch light. (All three photos by Bill Sheehan)

SUMMARY OF OBSERVED SPECIES
Daddy Longlegs Family Opiliones
Japanese Anemone Anemone hupehensis var. japonica
Versute Sharpshooter Graphocephala versuta
Red Strap Flower Loropetalum chinense var. rubrum
Muhly Grass Muhlenbergia capillaris
Little Bluestem Schizachyrium scoparium
River Oats Chasmanthium latifolium
Gulf Fritillary butterfly Agraulis vanillae
Purple Fountain Grass Pennisetum setaceum ‘Rubrum’
Blue Curls Trichostema dichotomum
Purple Lovegrass Eragrostis spectabilis
Bigtop Lovegrass Eragrostis hirsuta
Purpletop Grease/Greasy Grass Tridens flavus
Broomsedge Andropogon virginicus
Splitbeard Bluestem Andropogon ternarius
Smutgrass Sporobolus indicus
Beaked Panicgrass Panicum anceps (synonym Coleataenia anceps)
Silver Plume Grass Erianthus alopecuroides
Yellow Indian Grass Sorghastrum nutans
A smut fungus (Yellow Indian Grass) Sporisorium ellisii
Big Bluestem Andropogon gerardii
Perennial Foxtail Grass Setaria parviflora (synonym Setaria geniculata)
Yellow Foxtail Grass Setaria pumila
Calico Aster Symphyotrichum lateriflorum
Coastal Dog Fennel Eupatorium compositifolium
Dogfennel Eupatorium capillifolium
Vasey Grass Paspalum urvillei
Red-root Flatsedge Cyperus erythrorhizos
Trumpet Creeper Campsis radicans
Poison Ivy Toxicodendron radicans
Virginia Creeper Parthenocissus quinquefolia
Trumpet Vine Moth (larva) Clydonopteron sacculana
Poison Ivy Leaf-miner Moth (larva) Cameraria guttifinitella
Ailanthus Webworm Moth Atteva aurea

Ramble Report – September 26, 2024

Posted on October 2, 2024 by Linda Chafin

Leader of Today’s Ramble: Catherine

Author of Today’s Report: Linda

Nature Ramble Rainy Day Policy: We show up at 9:00am, rain or shine. If it’s raining, we will meet and socialize in the conservatory (bring your own coffee); if there is a break in the rain, we’ll go outside and do a little rambling.

Today’s Emphasis: Because of the rain and UGA’s closure, today’s ramble was an indoors art ramble, inspired by Margot Guralnick’s Urban Botanical Art which you can see here.

Number of Ramblers This Rainy day: 12

Catherine welcomed us into her home for an art ramble on this rainy day when the university and the Garden are closed in anticipation of Hurricane Helene. Meanwhile, many ramblers didn’t receive the announcement of the revised ramble location due to a glitch in Linda’s email program. So sorry, y’all!

In addition to coffee, Catherine also provided us with trays of found art materials she’d gathered on her walks. The results of coffee + natural collections + congenial company are below.

Myrna didn’t receive the directions to Catherine’s house but made art from plant materials from her garden and sent in her photos, below.

Meanwhile, Bill and Roger, above, were prowling Catherine’s back forty and Bill took a photo of a fly parasitized by a fungus, left. You can see fungal threads binding the fly and the abdomen swollen with fungi. The next day, Bill took the photo in his lab, right, and you can see that the fly is partially covered with the spreading fungus.

Postscript: I’ve only recently learned that Oriental Bittersweet vines are an emerging and very serious invasive species in Athens. Learn how to distinguish American Bittersweet from Oriental Bittersweet here.

SPECIES APPEARING IN TODAY’S ART WORK – CAN YOU MATCH THE NAME TO THE ITEM IN THE ARTWORK?
American Beautybush Callicarpa americana
Black Gum Nyssa biflora
Butterfly Weed Asclepias tuberosus
Camellia Camellia sinensis
Fig Tree Ficus sp.
Fragrant Rabbit Tobacco Pseudognaphalium obtusifolium
Japanese Maple Acer palmatum
Loblolly Pine Pinus taeda
Luna Moth Actias luna
Northern Red Oak Quercus rubra
Overcup Oak Quercus lyrata
Painted Buckeye Aesculus sylvatica
Pignut Hickory Carya glabra
Red Turk’s Cap Malvaviscus arboreus var. drummondii
Reindeer Lichen Cladonia sp.
River Birch Betula nigra
River Oats Chasmanthium latifolium
Shortleaf Pine Pinus virginiana
Sweet Gum Liquidambar styraciflua
Sycamore Platanus occidentalis
Tall goldenrod Solidago altissima
Tulip Tree Liriodendron tulipifera
Water Oak Quercus nigra
White Oak Quercus alba
Winged sumac Rhus copallina

Ramble Report – September 19, 2024

Posted on September 23, 2024 by Linda Chafin

Leader of Today’s Ramble: Heather Lickliter Larkin

Authors of Today’s Report: Heather Lickliter Larkin, Linda Chafin, Don Hunter

Nature Ramble Rainy Day Policy: We show up at 9:00am, rain or shine. If it’s raining, we will meet and socialize in the conservatory (bring your own coffee); if there is a break in the rain, we’ll go outside and do a little rambling.

Today’s Emphasis: Bugs We Find!

Photo of White-banded Crab Spider by Heather Lickliter Larkin

Announcements and other news:
The Garden’s 13th Annual Native Plant Sale will be held at the Mimsie Lanier Center for Native Plant Studies, on Thursday, Oct. 10, 2-6 p.m.; Friday, Oct. 11, 2-6 p.m.; and Saturday, Oct. 12, 9 a.m.-2p.m.

Catherine reminded us that the next art ramble, which she will lead on September 26, is inspired by Margot Guralnick’s Urban Botanical Art which you can see here. Below is an example that Catherine created last week in the Children’s Garden Arbor.

How Garden Design Affects Bee Visitors: local floral display drives bee abundance in gardens more than the surrounding landscape.

Do native insects pollinate the exotic plants in our gardens? Find out the answer here.

Reading: Heather read the poem “Bug Hunt,” by A. Harris
When out finding bugs
you don’t need a lot
just a tree and some bushes –
whatever you’ve got.

A path by the car park,
a dusty old lane.
If you’re out finding bugs,
don’t gripe or complain.

That sunset’s excessive.
A sunrise? For mugs.
You don’t need the world
when you’re out finding bugs.

Number of Ramblers Today: 25

Today’s Route: We left the Children’s Garden, heading down the entrance road to the White Trail spur to the powerline prairie and the floodplain. We stopped just short of the river and returned to the Visitor Center by the road, enjoying the Dunson fence as always this time of year.

Pre-Ramble Observations:

Don went in search of the two Daddy Long Legs that he photographed during the last two Rambles on these Rattlesnake Master flower heads. Sure enough, they were still there with a third joining the party. He photographed this single lacewing egg on the same flower head.

Observations:

Funnel spider web

Heather spotted this barely visible funnel web near the base of a tree beside the White Trail Spur. The resident spider was partially visible at the bottom of the funnel, and a strong anchor silk led up to nearby shrub. Normally, funnel spider webs, constructed at ground level, don’t have or need these anchor silks. No one could recall ever seeing this type of construction for a funnel spider web.

Dale wrote this about Funnel web spiders for the 30 August 2018 Ramble Report: “Funnel web spiders weave a non-sticky platform of silken threads with a short, cylindrical tube at one edge. The tube serves as a refuge for the spider. When a wandering insect walks across the web the spider detects the vibrations from its footfalls and rushes out from its refuge to grab and bite its victim. The bite injects a venom that paralyzes the insect and begins to digest its internal organs. The spider carries it back to the refuge where it consumes it.”

White-marked Tussock Moth caterpillars are spectacularly arrayed and defended: their heads are red, and the body is adorned with white stripes, tufts of long white hairs, two long black tufts for and aft, four clumps of short hairs that mimic cocoons of parasitic wasps, and two bright red defensive glands on their rear end. The caterpillar is not venomous, but touching the hairs can trigger an allergic reaction in many people and also can cause severe damage if they become embedded in skin and mucous membranes. The caterpillars are common during the late summer and fall in eastern North America, where they consume the leaves of a wide range of hardwood trees, here a Hop Hornbeam.

Blue Curls is a member of the Mint Family and has the typical two-lipped mint flowers; the upper lip is divided into four sections and the lower lip is marked with a scattering of dark purple dots on a white background. The “curls” are actually four long stamens protruding from the top of the flower. Large bees visiting the flowers bump up against the pollen-laden stamens as well as the stigma which is tucked in among the stamens.

The sun had not yet reached the eastern edge of the powerline prairie and large clumps of Bigtop Love Grass were glowing with dew.

Once we entered the powerline prairie, we began to see many insects and spiders.

Lined Orbweaver

Banded Garden Spider

Note the zigzag stabilimentum, one thing that sets this species’ webs apart from those of Joro Spiders.

Bristle Fly resting on unopened Late Boneset buds.

Asian Lady Beetle without spots, but with patches of fungus near the back edges of its elytra (wing covers). The fungus is Hesperomyces harmoniae, a newly named species.

Common Eastern Bumble Bee on Yellow Crownbeard

Female Chinese Mantis in the top of a Yellow Crownbeard plant, poised in its typical, head-downward posture. We can tell it is a Chinese mantis instead of our native Carolina mantis because the wings are longer than the abdomen. Chinese mantis will eat anything they can get their face on, including hummingbirds if given the opportunity.

Western Honey Bee foraging on Yellow Crownbeard flower heads

American Bird Grasshopper

We caught two species of katydids, Red-headed Katydid (left) and Fork-tailed Bush Katydid (right) and viewed them in plastic vials. Note how long the katydid antennae are compared with those of the grasshopper in the photo above.

Ocola Skipper nectaring on Yellow Crownbeard flowers

Ailanthus Webworm Moth is a native of tropical south Florida and Central America, where its larvae feed on tropical plants in the genus Simarouba. It now thrives throughout North America on the invasive species, Tree-of-Heaven (aka Ailanthus Tree), which is in the same family as Simarouba.

A Tumbling Flower Beetle is searching for pollen, its preferred food, among the flowering spikelets of Yellow Indian Grass. As beetles go, they are fairly effective pollinators. When disturbed, they use the enlarged femurs on their hind legs to propel themselves away from potential predators, jumping and tumbling as they go.

Green Stink Bug on the back of a Yellow Crownbeard leaf

Gold-marked Thread-waisted Wasp was also seen on Yellow Crownbeard.

This late in the year, Passionflower vines are nearly defoliated by Gulf Fritillary caterpillars, left, who will then turn to eating the ripening fruit. An adult Gulf Fritillary was found nectaring on the nearby flowers of Yellow Crownbeard.

The large, shiny, hairless abdomens of Eastern Carpenter Bees make them easy to distinguish from the hairy-all-over Bumblebees, below.

American Bumblebee nectaring on a Mexican Sunflower

The find of the day was this White-Banded Crab Spider, spotted by Heather on the flower heads atop a Tall Ironweed. Crab spiders are ambush predators, sitting and waiting in the center of a flower for something to land at which point that something will receive a free hug. The funny thing is that research has shown that in UV light the spider glows and is nearly irresistible to other insects, making them twice as likely to land on that flower as others without spiders in them.

Gray Hairstreak butterfly

Hairstreak butterflies exhibit a behavior not found in any other butterfly: they rub their hind wings together while at rest. Extensive research went into finding out why, and the answer is that Hairstreaks have antenna-like protrusions on their hind wings; rubbing them together makes the protrusions wiggle like antenna do. Since Hairstreaks are normally preyed upon by jumping spiders. Rubbing the hind wings together and making the false antenna wiggle makes jumping spiders think that the hindwings are the head. They will jump at the wing and the butterfly will be able to escape. Photo by Heather Larkin

Scentless Plant Bug resting on a Late Boneset flower head

Dusky Stink Bug feeding on a Yellow Crownbeard. Their piercing-sucking mouthparts include a straw-like proboscis through which they suck plant juices.

Bill sliced open and photographed a gall on the stem of a Late Boneset (below), exposing the Boneset Stem Midges within.

SUMMARY OF DISCUSSED AND OBSERVED SPECIES
White-banded Crab Spider Misumenoides formosipes
Green Lacewing (egg) Family Chrysopidae
Rattlesnake Master Eryngium yuccifolium
Funnel Web Weaver spider Agelenopsis sp.
White-marked Tussock Moth (caterpillar) Orgyia leucostigma
Hop Hornbeam tree Ostrya virginiana
Blue Curls Trichostema dichotomum
Bigtop Lovegrass Eragrostis hirsuta
Lined Orbweaver spider Mangora gibberosa
Banded Garden Spider Argiope trifasciata
Bristle Fly Family Tachinidae
Late Boneset Eupatorium serotinum
Asian Lady Beetle Harmonia axyridis
Fungus on Asian Lady Beetle elytra Hesperomyces harmoniae
Common Eastern Bumble Bee Bombus impatiens
Chinese Praying Mantis, female Tenodera sinensis
Western Honey Bee Apis mellifera
Yellow Crownbeard Verbesina occidentalis
Wingstem Verbesina alternifolia
Frostweed Verbesina virginica
Maryland Senna Senna marilandica
American Bird Grasshopper Schistocerca americana
Red-headed Meadow Katydid Orchelimum erythrocephalum
Fork-tailed Bush Katydid Scudderia furcata
Ocola Skipper Panoquina ocola
Ailanthus Webworm Moth Atteva aurea
Tumbling Flower Beetle Mordella sp.
Green Stink Bug Chinavia hilaris
Gold-marked Thread-waisted Wasp Eremnophila aureonotata
Purple Passionflower Passiflora incarnata
Gulf Fritillary (adult and caterpillar) Agraulis vanillae
Eastern Carpenter Bee Xylocopa virginica
American Bumble Bee Bombus persylvanicus
Mexican Sunflower Tithonia rotundifolia
Treehopper Acutalis tartarea
White-banded Crab Spider Misumenoides formosipes
Tall Ironweed Vernonia gigantea
Gray Hairstreak Strymon melinus
Scentless Plant Bug Harmostes fraterculus
Dusky Stinkbug Euschistus tristigmus
Late Boneset Eupatorium serotinum
Boneset Stem Midge (gall) Neolasioptera perfoliate

Ramble Report – September 12, 2024

Posted on September 17, 2024 by Linda Chafin

Leader of Today’s Ramble: Linda Chafin

Authors of Today’s Report: Linda Chafin, Don Hunter

Today’s Emphasis: Seeking what we found on the Orange Trail

Announcements:
Catherine let us know that the next art ramble, which she will lead on September 26, is inspired by Margot Guralnick’s Urban Botanical Art which you can see here. Below is an example that Catherine created in the Arbor before Ramblers arrived.

Rare firefly identified in UGA’s State Botanical Garden. “The Loopy Five, named for its looping flight pattern, has been spotted in high concentration in the wetlands boardwalk area on the Garden’s Orange Trail. The firefly [has been] petitioned to be on the Endangered Species List.”

Karen shared that a butterfly walk is scheduled for Saturday, September 21, at the Tallassee Forest Preserve. The walk will be led by Jim Porter, lifetime butterfly aficianado and retired UGA ecologist. You must register by calling or emailing the Oconee River Land Trust: (706) 552-3138 -OR- info@oconeeriverlandtrust.org

Show and Tell:

Karen passed around her phone with a photo, above, that she took of a Hickory Horn Devil, the caterpillar of a Regal Moth. It’s consuming a Sweet Gum leaf, one of several species including pecan, hickory, black walnut, sycamore, and ash, that they eat. The caterpillar can reach a hefty 5.5 inches in length. The adult, below, with a wingspan up to 6 inches, is just as spectacular. Photo of adult by Andy Reago and Chrissy McClarren.

Reading: Linda read from an interview with Terry Tempest Williams, environmental activist and writer from the American Southwest, in The Politics of Place: An Interview with Terry Tempest Williams, by Scott London. You can read the entire interview here.

London: In “An Unspoken Hunger” you say, "Perhaps the most radical act we can commit is to stay home." What do you mean by that?

Williams: I really believe that to stay home, to learn the names of things, to realize who we live among... The notion that we can extend our sense of community, our idea of community, to include all life forms — plants, animals, rocks, rivers and human beings — then I believe a politics of place emerges where we are deeply accountable to our communities, to our neighborhoods, to our home. Otherwise, who is there to chart the changes? If we are not home, if we are not rooted deeply in place, making that commitment to dig in and stay put, if we don't know the names of things, if we don't know pronghorn antelope, if we don't know blacktail jackrabbit, if we don't know sage, pinyon, juniper, then I think we are living a life without specificity, and then our lives become abstractions. Then we enter a place of true desolation. I remember a phone call from a friend of mine who lives along the MacKenzie River. She said, "This is the first year in twenty that the chinook salmon have not returned." This woman knows the names of things. This woman is committed to a place. And she sounded the alarm.

London: What do you think happens when we lose a sense of intimacy with the natural world around us?

Williams: I think our lack of intimacy with the land has initiated a lack of intimacy with each other. What we perceive as outside of us, is actually in direct relationship with us.

Number of Ramblers Today: 27

Today’s Route: We left the Children’s Garden and headed across parking bay 1 to the Orange Trail trailhead. We took the trail downhill through the Oak/Pine forest and across the beaver marsh, and returned on the Purple Trail.

Pre-Ramble Observations: Before Ramblers arrived at the arbor, Don spotted two Daddy Longlegs on Rattlesnake Master seedheads (below, left) and the interesting patterns of dried fruit clusters of Hoary Mountain Mint (below, right).

Today’s Observations:

Myrna set the pace for today’s Ramble.

We set off across parking bay 1 where some Virginia Pines, planted in the 1980s when these parking lots were put in, were being taken down (below). These are fast growing, short-lived, densely branched pines, planted when a quick vegetation buffer is needed. Their natural range is largely the lower elevations of the Southern Appalachian mountains and foothills. They are not native to Clarke County, but start to appear as you travel north into Hall and Habersham counties. With their short twisted needles, flaky reddish bark, and crowns loaded with small cones, they are easy to spot, even from a distance. Virginia Pine is a pioneer species whose seeds require bare mineral soil to germinate. Historically, fire was the agent that created these seed beds, usually killing the trees but creating the conditions necessary to replace the population.

Roger counted the rings on a recently felled Virginia Pine in the parking lot,
deciding that the tree was between 30 and 40 years old. Photo by Gary Crider

Once on the Orange Trail, we noticed the abundance of Shortleaf Pines in this area, including this old stump with a portion of its heartwood intact. Prized for its ability to kindle fires, heartwood is also known as fatwood, fat lightered, and lighter wood. You can actually buy a 25 pound box of fatwood sticks from L.L. Bean for $50 (plus shipping, of course). Pine heartwood is loaded with resins that contain the highly inflammable compound terpene that repels insects and slows rot.

Shortleaf Pine bark is pocked with crater-like resin pits, also called pitch pockets. These extend inwards into the trunk through the sapwood.

Roger related the abundance of Shortleaf Pine in this part of the Garden to its history of cotton (and other) agriculture in the 1800s and early 1900s and to logging as recently as the 1960s. Pines and Red Cedars are the first tree species to establish following disturbance in the Piedmont, followed by hardwoods such as oaks, hickories, Black Gum, and Sourwood.

We spotted several down and decayed tree trunks in the woods, including this hardwood trunk that had been partially excavated by Pileated Woodpeckers, which chip out rectangular holes in their search for insects.

This decaying Shortleaf Pine trunk is well on its way to becoming humus, thanks to White Rot, a wood-decaying fungus, and the efforts of Pileated Woodpeckers.

The trunk and branches of an Eastern Red Cedar are also scattered across the ground here and are much better preserved than are either pines or hardwoods. Oils in its wood confer resistance to both rot and insect attack and makes the wood an excellent choice for fence posts and blanket chests.

Although White Oak bark typically has long, loose scales, this tree’s bark was notably shaggy. The trunk also bears an atypical number of leafy twigs sprouting along the trunk. Such sprouts arise from dormant buds under the bark and are called epicormic branches. They are thought to be a response to a sudden increase in light created by an opening in the canopy. The extent to which a tree responds to more light with epicormic branching depends on the vigor and genetic makeup of the individual tree.

A rambler spotted Eastern Jack O’Lantern mushrooms in the creek bank and Bill climbed down for a closer view (Photo by Gary Crider). This bioluminescent fungus commonly grows on buried roots. Its gills glow faintly green when fresh which is thought to attract insects that spread its spores. Because of its color, this species is sometimes confused with edible Chanterelles, which is unfortunate since Jack O’Lanterns are highly toxic.

Photos of Eastern Jack O’Lantern below are by Bill Sheehan.

A Strawberry Bush, aka Hearts-a-Burstin’, is tucked back into some blackberry shrubs on the steep creekbank, its pink fruits opened to expose the bright orange seeds. This is one of the few individuals of this species to reach reproductive age at the Garden. Most are browsed nearly to the ground by the hordes of ravening deer that browse here. Walt Cook calls this shrub “deer ice cream” for a reason.

This small creek was once known as Humphrey’s Spring Branch, named for the early 1800s owner of this tract of land. Thanks to Roger C. for uncovering this piece of the Garden’s history. There is still a small spring at the head of the creek, slowly eroding the slope in an upstream direction, a process called headward erosion.

Rocks piled around the base of this oak tree (photo, left) testify to the agricultural history of this area, where clearing rock from a future field was the first order of business for a farmer. The rocks are a mélange of dark minerals, mostly amphibole and biotite, as well as other lighter colored minerals, such as quartz and feldspar (photo, right). Roger’s research indicates this area was in cultivation beginning in the early 1800s.

Wood Oats are one of a handful of native grass species that grow in shady Piedmont forests. Its small seed heads are borne on long, arching stems (below).

Bill and Don spotted a nice flush of Turkey Tail fungi on a downed tree branch (photo, left). The photo of the lower surface (right) shows the many tiny pores that release spores.

The large patch of Broad Beech Ferns along the Orange Trail is a favorite stop for ramblers, who renamed the species Fox Face Fern. The large, lowermost pair of pinnae that angle backwards are the “ears.”

Layered metamorphic rock along Humphrey’s Spring Branch.

Bluehead Chub are often seen in the deeper sections of the branch.

As the branch approaches the beaver marsh, we began to see lots of Virginia Jumpseed (photos, below), along the trail. It is a species of moist to wet habitats that is closely related to the smartweeds. Virginia Jumpseed’s white (sometimes pink), four-parted flowers are held on tall, usually solitary stems. As the fruit matures, tension builds at the base of the fruit’s stalk. If disturbed, the ripe fruit are ejected as much as 12 feet from the plant, hence the common name. Fruits may also be carried when the hooked, persistent styles (seen in the central photo) catch on the fur of passing animals.

Dotted Smartweed (left) and Water Pepper (below) are in the same genus, Persicaria, as Virginia Jumpseed. Both have mildly spicy leaves that “smart” your tongue.

Leafy Elephant’s Foot is another common creekside and floodplain species.

Green-eyed Susan (aka Cutleaf Coneflower) is growing and flowering among Virginia Jumpseed near the beaver marsh. The Cherokee call this species Sochan and value its nutritious leafy greens.

Don spotted this American Dagger Moth caterpillar perched in a pile of dead limbs and crashed through to get this photo. The caterpillars eat the leaves of a wide variety of hardwood trees and shrubs. The adults (below) have a wingspan of 2 to 2.5 inches. Photo of adult moth by Andy Reago and Chrissy McClarren.

Sensitive Fern sterile frond, right, and fertile frond, below.

We identified these spectacular clusters of fruit as belonging to Jack-in-the-Pulpit (or, actually, Jill), but a comment on Don’s Facebook page suggested that these are Green Dragons instead. Jacks have trifoliate leaves, while Dragon’s leaves have 5-13 leaflets. Since we didn’t look closely at the withered leaves lying around the base of the plant, we will return soon to check. The height of the fruit stalk also suggests that it’s a Green Dragon.

Ramblers exploring a patch of Duck Potato in the wooded edge of the beaver marsh. Duck Potato forms large patches throughout the marsh.

Duck Potato flowers and fruits
Duck Potato, known to the Cherokee as Wapato, also reproduces by the spread of underwater stems. The “potatoes” are corms, swollen storage organs buried in mud at the base of the stems. These are edible both raw and cooked, and were known to the Cherokee as Wapato, an important part of their diet before European colonization. Wildlife (muskrats, beavers, wading birds and ducks) eat both the corms and seeds of the plant.

Short-winged Katydid resting on a Duck Potato leaf

We were sorry to find that Marsh Dayflower, one of the most invasive of aquatic plants, is spreading in the marsh. It forms dense mats that outcompete native wetland plants.

Ebony Jewelwing damselfly posed on a Marsh Dayflower leaf

A heavily skeletonized Green Ash leaf found on the boardwalk across the lower end of the marsh

No Ramble is complete without a sighting of a Carolina Anole, this one yellow rather than the bright green or dull brown that we are familiar with. Color phases, including a blue phase, are rare and are due to the lack of one of the pigment genes that control anole coloration. Photo by Bill Sheehan

Roger came prepared for all eventualities with his grandson’s dinosaur umbrella.

SUMMARY OF OBSERVED SPECIES
Daddy Longlegs Order Opiliones
Rattlesnake Master Eryngium yuccifolium
Mountainmint Pycnanthemum sp.
Virginia Pine Pinus virginiana
Shortleaf Pine Pinus echinata
Sourwood Oxydendrum arboreum
Pileated Wood Pecker (evidence and call) Dryocopus pileatus
Eastern Red Cedar Juniperus virginiana
Northern Red Oak Quercus rubra
White Oak Quercus alba
Eastern Jack-o-Lantern mushroom Omphalotus illudens
Strawberry Bush, Heart’s-a-burstin’ Euonymus americanus
Musclewood Carpinus caroliniana
Turkey Tail fungi Trametes versicolor
Wood Oats Chasmanthium sessiliflorum
Broad Beech Ferns Phegopteris hexagonoptera
Bluehead Chub Nocomis leptocephalus
Virginia Jumpseed Persicaria virginiana
Leafy Elephant’s Foot Elephantopus carolinianus
Beggar-lice Desmodium sp.
Green-eyed Susan Rudbeckia laciniata
Sensitive Fern Onoclea sensibilis
Cherokee Sedge Carex cherokeensis
Dotted Smartweed Persicaria punctata
Mild Water Pepper Persicaria hydropiperoides
American Dagger Moth (caterpillar) Acronicta americana
Mariana Island Fern Macrothelypteris torresiana
Jack(Jill)-in-the-Pulpit Arisaema triphyllum or Green Dragon, A. dracontium
Duck Potato, Wapato Sagittaria latifolia
Short-winged Meadow Katydid Conocephalus dorsalis
Ebony Jewelwing damselfly Calopteryx maculata
Hop Hornbeam Ostrya virginiana
Marsh Dayflower Murdannia keisak
Water Hemlock Cicuta douglasii, synonym Cicuta maculata
Green Ash Fraxinus pennsylvanica
Carolina Anole Anolis carolinensis

Nature Ramblers: Seeking What We Find

Nature Ramblers at the State Botanical Garden of Georgia

Yearly Archives: 2024

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