Ramble Report April 18, 2024 | Nature Ramblers: Seeking What We Find

Leader for today’s Ramble: Catherine

Authors
of today’s Ramble report: Linda,
Catherine, and Don.
Comments, edits, and suggestions for the report can be sent to Linda at Lchafin
(at) uga.edu.

Insect identifications: Don Hunter

Gall identifications: Bill

All the photos that appear in this report, unless otherwise credited,
were taken by Don Hunter. 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.

Number of Ramblers today: 23

Today’s emphasis: Using watercolors to capture shapes and surface details
of leaves and flowers.

Fringe Tree, aka Grancy
Graybeard, is in full flower in the Children’s Garden

Each flower is divided into four, thread-like segments. The oval, blue-black
fruits that appear on female plants in late summer and fall betray this
species’ membership in the Olive Family. In the wild, it occurs in habitats as
diverse as rock outcrops, pine-hardwood forests, and shrub bogs.

Reading: Cathy read a poem by MK Creel, “Give yourself permission,
let go of worry.”

It could be the rain

that gives permission

to let go of worry, forgive

the body, its pain, shift

awareness outside

this cracking vessel.

Maybe it’s the rum cherry,

its pendulous fortress

of branches, scaling bark

& wands of white flowers,

the shock of lemon-yellow

goldfinches, suck of mud

beneath your bare feet,

stepping with purpose

to keep from bruising

wild violets & tiger moths.

If skin was toxic bark

& the heart, pith & xylem

would we be any stronger?

If brain synapses were as

fibrous as mycorrhizae

tunneling through dark earth,

if we lived above & below,

flowering & fruiting after

every winter, could we better

accept what comes next?

Show and Tell:

Karen couldn’t join the ramble
today but sent in photos of “fuzzy white things” she found on her sidewalk.
Photos by Karen Porter.

Bill identified the fuzzy things
as shredded Wool Sower galls and took this photo of one of the galls attached
to a White Oak twig. Bill suspects that squirrels took the galls apart in
search of a larval meal; birds are also known to feed on the inhabitants of Wool
Sower galls. These galls are created by tiny (1/8 inch) gall wasps in the
family Cynipidae. The female wasp lays her eggs only on White Oak trees early in
the spring. The tree responds by forming a fuzzy gall of plant tissue around
the eggs. The gall contains hardened, seed-like structures that enclose the
eggs and, later, the larvae. After the eggs hatch, the larvae eat the gall
material as they mature into adults. Bill says, “Each spherical wooly cluster
contains 15 or 20 little seed-like capsules, inside of which a juicy wasp larva
develops. So, somebody had a good meal….” More information on Wool Sower galls
is here. Photo by Bill Sheehan.

Roger provided an update on his
investigation into diabase (bluestone) dikes in the Athens area (learn about
his ongoing geology research here).
While at a job site in Madison County last week, he discovered that the owner
had a huge collection of bluestone boulders including one that was more than five
feet tall, in the photo above. Diabase is a mafic rock, high in magnesium,
calcium, and iron. It often weathers to form a soil with a circumneutral pH
that supports plant species rarely seen in the Piedmont’s typically acidic
soils.

Announcements and other
interesting things to note:
The Athens/East Piedmont chapter
of the Georgia Native Plant Society will be holding its annual native plant
sale on May 4, 10am – 2pm, at the Sunrise Nursery, 550 Athens Road, in Winterville.
More than 160 native species will be for sale, including 100+ herbaceous
perennials, six grass species, ten fern species, 26 shrub species, six vine
species, and eight tree species. Many of these were grown or rescued by GNPS
members. More than 1300 plants will be available–bring a wagon!

Sandy Creek Nature Center’s next
work day is Saturday, May 4, 10am – noon (you can go to the plant sale afterwards!). Volunteers will help with removing invasive plant
species and maintaining the Nature Playscape. Participants should bring
water and wear comfortable, weather appropriate clothes and closed toe
shoes. All tools, including gloves, will be provided. Sign up here.

You already knew this! A Little Bit of Dirt Is Good for
You!

Earth Day was April 22. Test your knowledge of
the ways our choices and actions impact the earth.

Today’s Route: We remained in and around the Children’s Garden arbor as
we gathered leaves and settled in to paint.

OBSERVATIONS:

Between taking shots of ramblers’ artwork,
Don looked for pollinators in the Children’s Garden.


An Eastern Carpenter Bee searching for nectar in a mustard flower (above). Mustard family flowers (below) are often yellow, but may be pink, white, purple, or orange.

Members of the Mustard
family (Brassicaceae) have similar flowers, each divided into four petals that
form a cross – plants in this family are often called crucifers, meaning
cross-bearing. Hugely important economically, the Mustard family includes not
only mustard, but also turnip, broccoli, collards, cabbage, brussels sprouts,
rapeseed, radish, horseradish, kale, cauliflower, and more. Most of the plants
in this family have strong smelling sulfur compounds in their leaves, well
known to anyone who has ever over-cooked a batch of collards.

A Honeybee explores a
flower of ‘Extrakta’ Garden Sage, a cultivar of Common Sage, a European native
long used for medicine and cooking. The species name, Salvia offinalis,
refers to the storeroom, the officina, in monasteries where herbs and
medicines were stored.

Catherine and helpful ramblers prepping our outdoor studio.

Today was an Art Ramble led
by Catherine, who introduced us last year to printing and weaving. Catherine
said about today’s art, “Our activity was essentially printing leaves with
watercolor paint. We used simple watercolor palettes and painted our leaves,
then pressed them onto copy paper or watercolor paper. The idea was to
play with the paint and see what could happen. Pretty soon, everyone got
creative by layering prints, adding painted details, or just painting nature on
their own. I loved seeing everyone’s creativity and unique approach to
produce such lovely results. My resource for printing activities is a wonderful
book, Hand Printing from Nature by Laura Bethmann, which is
available at the Athens library. Tips for good results: pat leaves dry
before painting, some leaves take paint better than others, use a sheet for
practice prints, keep one water container for washing brushes and another for
clean water. Play around with your materials and keep trying!

Catherine brought with her
several beautifully illustrated children’s books from the Athens public library
to inspire our artistic efforts this morning.