Leader for today’s Ramble: Linda Chafin
Authors of today’s Ramble report: Linda Chafin, Don Hunter
Insect and gall identifications: Heather Larkin, Don Hunter, Bill Sheehan
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.
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 a break in the rain opens up, we’ll go outside and do a little rambling.
Number of Ramblers today: 32
Today’s Emphasis: Seeking what we found on the White Trail along the Middle Oconee River
Announcements and other interesting things:
No announcements today, but I’d like to recommend this essay by Robert McFarlane, Geography as Generosity: An Afternoon with Barry Lopez – Reflections on the life and work of one of environmentalism’s most prolific writers. Thanks to Jan Coyne for bringing it to my attention.
Today’s Reading: Kathy Stege read a prose poem by Mary Oliver, Foolishness? No, it’s not.
Foolishness? No, it’s not.
Sometimes I spend all day trying to count the leaves on a single tree. To do this I have to climb branch by branch and write down the numbers in a little book. So, I suppose, from their point of view, it’s reasonable that my friends say what foolishness! She’s got her head in the clouds again.
But it’s not. Of course I have to give up, but by then I’m half crazy with the wonder of it – the abundance of the leaves, the quietness of the branches, the hopelessness of my effort. And I am in that delicious and important place, roaring with laughter, full of earth praise.
Show and Tell:
Bill brought a Fraternal Potter’s Wasp nest that he collected on the May 23 Ramble and watched at home for three weeks. Ramblers could see the clay nest and recently emerged adult wasp in a small plastic vial that Bill passed around. Later, he released the wasp in the area of the right-of-way where he’d originally found the nest.
The clay “pot” was created by a female Fraternal Potter Wasp as a nest for one of her young. Each nest takes 1-2 hours to build. After mating, the female wasp builds the nest out of clay and begins hunting for soft-bodied insects, which she paralyzes with venom and suspends inside the pot. She then lays an egg inside the pot, seals it up with more clay, and departs to repeat the process again with another nest. After the egg hatches, the resulting larva eats the paralyzed prey, and eventually develops into an adult (above) and chews its way out of the nest.
Bill showed us this image of a Turkey Vulture chick that he and Terry found in a nesting cavity between two huge Tulip Trees while out walking the Tallassee Highlands last Sunday. He and Roger Collins had seen an adult with the eggs while walking the same route recently. There was much speculation about the adaptive value of having all white feathers on chicks.
Pre-Ramble Observations: As usual, Heather and Don explored the Upper Shade Garden and Children’s Garden plants in search of interesting insects.
Daddy Longlegs on a Florida Anise leaf
Bumblebee approaching a Smooth Spiderwort flower cluster
Leaf Beetle breakfasting on a Hop Hornbeam leaf
Genista Broom Moth caterpillar enjoying the leaves of a yellow-flowered Baptisia called Rattleweed or Honestyweed
Today’s Route: We headed downslope on the White Trail, taking the mown right-of-way path to the ADA Trail, which we followed to the river. We then walked upstream (west) along the White Trail. We returned by way of the Mimsie Lanier Center for Native Plants, and visited some of the rare species plantings at the Center, then made our way along the service road back to the Visitor Center.
Today’s Observations
The population of Jack- and Jill-in-the-pulpit along the downhill section of the White Trail, just below the Children’s Garden, is having a good year, with numerous seedlings and even small plants producing fruit clusters. I continue to be mystified why this wetland species flourishes on a dry, southwest-facing slope.
Four-wing Silverbell fruits
This understory tree thrives in the Middle Oconee River floodplain. Georgia has three species of Silverbell: Four-wing, which is common through the mountains and Piedmont; Two-wing, which has been found throughout Georgia, but is uncommon; and, Little (or Carolina) Silverbell, which is primarily found in the Coastal Plain.
Carolina Wild Petunia growing in the unmown portion of the floodplain right-of-way
Maryland Senna is abundant in the lower section of the right-of-way, and, even though it won’t flower for another month or two, ramblers are always happy to see this plant thriving. It’s the host plant for several species of sulphur butterflies, including Clouded Sulphur, Cloudless Sulphur, Sleepy Orange, and Large Orange Sulphur. Senna flowers provide protein- and fat-rich pollen to bees, and Senna seeds are eaten by birds, making this species an excellent resource for several types of wildlife.
Senna plants have extra-floral nectaries, i.e. nectar-producing glands found on parts of a plant other than the flower. In the case of Senna, the glands are on the stalks of their compound leaves and look like a dark wart with a dent in the top (above). From that dent, ants and other insects can lap up sweet nectar. While searching for the nectar glands, ants will travel all over the plant, eating caterpillars or any other small insect they come across. Senna is essentially paying the ants with nectar for protection from herbivores such as caterpillars.
Black Snakeroot is one of 19 southeastern plants named “snakeroot” (see the ramble report for May 23 for more snakey plant names). In this case, the name refers to the deep, long-lived taproots that characterize species in this genus. Neither the leaves or flower clusters suggest that Black Snakeroot belongs in the Carrot family, famous for its highly dissected leaves and large, umbrella-shaped inflorescences (think Queen Anne’s Lace). The hooks shown here attach the fruits to the fur and feathers of passing animals.
A small, black, spiny caterpillar of a Silvery Checkerspot butterfly was spotted on its host plant, one of the Wingstems, in the right-of-way. The black “blob” to the left is a recently shed skin. Silvery Checkerspot larvae go through four or five “instars” – growth stages during which they shed their outgrown skins – after they emerge from hibernation in May and before spinning a chrysalis. It’s unusual to see a solitary caterpillar of this species; they usually feed in large groups.
Sculpted Resin Bee resting on a Wingstem leaf stalk. Photo by Heather Larkin.
Anglepod Milkvine is cousin to the maroon-flowered Carolina Milkvine we saw in abundance a few weeks ago in the upper Nash Prairie. Both have the milky latex that characterizes other species, notably the milkweeds, in their family. Even so, milkvines have not been documented as larval hosts for Monarch caterpillars, though there are anecdotal reports.
Shriveled remains of a caterpillar lying on top of a row of cocooned parasitic wasps. The wasps were laid as eggs on the back of the caterpillar and then fed on the caterpillar during their larval phase. The wasps are either Ichneumonid or Braconid wasps; they will soon emerge from their cocoons as winged adults. Photo by Bill Sheehan.
Bill spotted a midge gall on the petiole of a Common Wingstem leaf (left, above). The chambers in the gall (dissected, right) were empty but likely created by the midge Neolasioptera verbesinae. A black coating on the walls of several empty chambers suggest that a fungus co-exists with the insect in the gall, something often seen in galls.
Susie pointed out a plant that none of us could remember ever seeing in the right-of-way, a Buttonbush. Its sputnik-like flowers are fading, and are being replaced by the namesake fruiting clusters shown here.
Lurid Sedge fruiting clusters consist of many small pointed sacs, each containing a single, three-sided seed. Luridus means yellow or pale in Latin.
Red-headed Bush Cricket resting on the leaf of a Tall Goldenrod
Dusky Stink Bug exploring the immature fruits of Elderberry
Southern Dewberry is a sprawling member of the Blackberry genus, Rubus. It flowers earlier than the shrub blackberries.
False Nettle, a common wetland species, is a non-stinging member of the Nettle Family, Urticaceae. Like the Stinging Wood Nettle (below), it is a larval host for Red Admiral butterflies.
Stinging Wood Nettle is very much a stinging member of the Nettle Family – its flower clusters, leaves, and stems are covered with long, glassy, brittle hairs. It’s not the hairs that sting, but the liquid held inside the hairs that does the damage. When brushed, the tips of the hairs break off and release a fluid that contains a witch’s brew of irritating compounds, including histamine, acetylcholine, serotonin, and formic acid, the same chemical that makes ant bites sting. Stinging Wood Nettles have alternate leaves, which separates them from a number of other nettle species. Invertebrates aren’t harmed by the compounds and, though we may not love the stinging, we have to love the beautiful Red Admiral, Eastern Comma, and Question Mark butterflies that use nettles as a larval host plant. Some people love Stinging Wood Nettle as a food and medicine. Boiling and sautéing breaks down the hairs and releases and dilutes the stinging fluid. Native Americans used Stinging Wood Nettle to counteract poison, to facilitate childbirth, and to treat incontinence and tuberculosis.
Sugarberry/Southern Hackberry with galls created by the Hackberry Petiole Gall Psyllid. Psyllids are a family of small, sap-sucking insects sometimes called plant lice.
Prize for the most exciting find of the day goes to Catherine who spotted a Garter Snake along the edge of the trail. Heather gets the snake-handling award.
Unfortunately, Heather also had a painful encounter with an Asian Needle Ant, whose name tells us something about its sting. Native from Africa to southern Asia and Australia, this species was imported (hopefully by accident) to the southeastern United States in the 1930s. They are not aggressive like fire ants but will attack if threatened; their venom is equivalent to four bee stings. Yikes!
Unfortunately, Asian Needle Ants also pose a threat to native ants by competing for food and nest sites. Native ants are a key part of our forest ecosystems; their loss could have dire consequences. For more info on identifying and understanding this ant, see this website.
The most striking find of the day was a large number of Derbid Planthoppers resting on large, grass leaves, a species seen in this same area during a previous year’s ramble about this time of year. They are known to use maple trees and Saw Palmetto as larval hosts. Since we’re about 150 miles from the nearest Saw Palmetto, they must use the Red Maple and maybe Box Elder in this floodplain as hosts. Planthoppers are “true bugs,” with piercing and sucking mouth parts.
Box Elder fruits confirm that they are indeed maples. The fruits are samaras, a name given to fruits that have papery wings developed from ovary tissue. Some of us fourth graders call them “helicopters.”
We emerged from the woods at the Mimsie Lanier Center for Native Plant Studies and marveled at the enormous masses of samaras hanging from the branches of a large Chinese Wingnut Tree, planted when the Horticulture Department had its original offices here. It is not classified as an invasive but it does sucker readily and has no known pests on this continent.
One of the missions of the Mimsie Lanier Center is to safeguard some of Georgia’s rare plants. A good example is a large patch of Dwarf Sumac, currently hosting many Western Honey Bees (left, below). Dwarf Sumac is listed as Endangered at both the state and federal levels and is one of the rarest plants in Georgia. Its rarity is largely due to habitat conversion to pine plantations and commercial and residential development. The fact that Dwarf Sumac is dioecious – meaning its female flowers (right, below) are held on different plants from the male flowers (left) – contributes to its rarity. Plants in the few remaining populations are often of only one sex and may be many miles from plants of the other sex, making it impossible for the plants to reproduce sexually and preserve genetic diversity. One of the best populations in Georgia was enhanced by botanists who transplanted plants from a male-only site to a site with female-only plants about 75 miles away. Within a couple of years, the plants began to set seed and new genetically diverse plants soon began to appear.
Grey-headed Coneflower planted at the Mimsie Lanier Center. Its natural habitats are prairies, glades, and oak savannas over calcareous soils.
Little-leaf Sensitive Briar flowering along the road to the Mimsie Lanier Center. It is in the same Bean subfamily as the Mimosa Tree. Its sprawling stems are up to 3 feet long and are armed with hooked prickles. Each leaf consists of 4-8 pairs of tiny leaflets which fold up when touched, presumably to discourage browsers. It is common in sunny, dry habitats such as roadsides and rights-of-way.
Pink-striped Oakworm Moth caterpillars enjoying the leaves of a Water Oak growing beside the entrance road to the Center. Photo by Heather Larkin.
Bill discovered and identified this bizarrely beautiful gall on the leaves of Black Walnut sprouts growing in the thicket alongside the entrance road. According to the literature, the galls don’t damage their host.
SUMMARY OF OBSERVED SPECIES:
Fraternal Potter's Wasp Eumenes fraternus
Turkey Vulture Cathartes aura
Daddy Longlegs Order Opiliones
Florida Anise Illicium floridanum
Common Eastern Bumblebee Bombus impatiens
Smooth Spiderwort Tradescantia ohiensis
Hop Hornbeam Ostrya virginiana
Leaf beetle Family Chrysomelidae
Rattleweed, Honestyweed Baptisia tinctoria
Genista Broom Moth Uresiphita reversalis
Jack- or Jill-in-the-Pulpit Arisaema triphyllum
Four-wing Silverbell Halesia tetraptera
Carolina Wild Petunia Ruellia caroliniensis
Maryland Senna Senna marilandica
Ants (on extra-floral nectaries of Maryland Senna) Family Formicidae
Black Snakeroot Sanicula canadensis
Click beetle Melanactes piceus
Silvery Checkerspot (caterpillar) Chlosyne nycteis
Wingstem Verbesina sp.
Sculpted Resin Bee Megachile sculpturalis
Anglepod Milkvine Gonolobus suberosus
Common Wingstem Verbesina alternifolia
Parasitoid wasp Superfamily Ichneumonidea
Midge Gall midge Neolasioptera verbesinae
Buttonbush Cephalanthus occidentalis
Lurid Sedge Carex lurida
Epazote Dysphania ambrosioides
River Oats Chasmanthium latifolium
Virgin’s Bower Clematis virginiana
Red-headed Bush Cricket Phyllopalpus pulchellus
Tall Goldenrod Solidago altissima
Dusky Stink Bug Euschistus tristigmus
Common Elderberry Sambucus nigra
Dewberry Rubus trivialis
False Nettle Boehmeria cylindrica
Stinging Wood Nettle Laportea canadensis
Sugarberry, Southern Hackberry Celtis laevigata
Garter Snake Thamnophis sirtalis
Asian Needle Ant Brachyponera chinensis
Derbid Planthopper Paramysidia mississippiensis
Box Elder Acer negundo
Common Eastern Firefly Photinus pyralis
White-eyed Vireo Vireo griseus
Mock Orange Philadelphus inodorus
Catbrier Smilax sp.
Chinese Wingnut Pterocarya stenoptera
Dwarf Sumac Rhus michauxii
Grey-headed Coneflower Ratibida pinnata
Little-leaf Sensitive Briar Mimosa microphylla
Rattlesnake Master Eryngium yuccifolium
Pink-striped Oakworm Moth (caterpillar) Anisota virginiensis
Water Oak Quercus nigra
Crossvine Bignonia capreolata
Black Walnut Juglans nigra
Black Walnut Petiole Gall Mite Aceria caulis