Ramble Report – August 22, 2024

Leader of Today’s Ramble: Linda Chafin

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 9:00am, 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: Prepping for the Great Southeastern Pollinator Census this weekend

Announcements: Heather thanked ramblers for taking care of the logistics, mostly food and drink, at the Opening last Sunday for the “Tiny Worlds” exhibit in the Visitor’s Center. It was a very fun event and the photographs are spectacular. I hope everyone can view the photographs during the next two months.

Nice post about “Wasp Watching” on the Humane Gardener website. “Humans live and walk among an extraordinary number and diversity of wasps every day…” Thanks to Mary B for pointing me to this website!

Number of Ramblers Today: 36

Today’s Route: We went through the American South Section in the International Garden, then through the Spanish America, Mediterranean, and Middle East Sections. We visited then the Herb & Physic Garden and the Heritage Garden on the way to the Flower Garden.

Today’s Observations:

Japanese Beautyberry (above) is planted along the sidewalk on the north side of the Children’s Garden. It has fuschia-colored berries similar to those of our native American Beautyberry (below). Can you see the difference in the berries between the two species? American Beautyberry fruits are in whorls that encircle the stem while the Japanese species has berries in stalked clumps that arise from the base of leaf stalks; the berries are also smaller. While I found no reports on the internet of the Japanese species becoming invasive, Ramblers have seen it growing down by the beaver pond here at the Garden. Birds apparently find the berries of both species irresistible so it seems entirely possible that seedlings of the Japanese species would pop up far from the parent plant. I wonder, too, if the Japanese species serves as a host plant for the Spring Azure Butterfly and Snowberry Clearwing Moth as does American Beautyberry?

As we entered the American South Section of the International Garden, this low-growing blueberry caught my eye. It is Darrow’s Blueberry, a species I know from Coastal Plain pine flatwoods where it’s a low, ground-covering shrub with intensely sweet-tart blueberries. This cultivar, Rose’s Blush, is taller than the typical species and has pink new growth that fades to the typical blue-green leaf color. It’s a good ground cover for acidic soils and full to partial sun.

Cardinal Flower is a major botanical delight of late summer. Usually found along the edges of streams and in wetlands, it seems to thrive here in the American Section in well drained soil. We didn’t see any pollinators at these particular plants, but the flowers are frequently visited by Ruby-throated Hummingbirds and long-tongued bees and butterflies. The length of the flower tube and the placement of the nectar at the base of the tube is just right to bring a hummingbird’s or insect’s forehead into contact with the flower’s prominent anthers, where pollen is produced and presented. You can see the blue-gray anthers in this photo at the tips of red tubes. Lobelias (of which Cardinal Flower is one) are “protandrous,” literally “male first,” meaning that the stamens in a given flower mature and produce pollen before the pistil matures and presents a receptive stigma. This phased maturation process discourages self-pollination. A pollinator can visit a plant in its male phase and pick up pollen on its forehead, then visit a different plant, one where the flowers are in the female phase. Ideally, pollen is brushed from the forehead onto a mature stigma, effecting cross-pollination.

This small rain lily in the Spanish America Section is known as Brazilian Copperlily, Pink Fairy Lily, or Pink Rain Lily. It’s actually in the Amaryllis Family, based on the position of its ovary/fruit below the flower petals. Lily Family flowers have the ovary held above the petals.

This cultivar of a South American Salvia is named ‘Black and Blue Sage’ because of its nearly black calyx and blueish-purple corolla. Like most members of the Mint Family, Salvia species have tubular flowers with two flaring lips, opposite leaves, and stems square in cross-section.

Salvia flowers are very popular with bees. Small bees typically enter the flower tube in search of nectar produced inside the base of the tube. Large bees, which are too large to enter the front of the flower tube, chew a hole in the base of the flower to extract the nectar, a method called “nectar robbing” by humans. But there are always exceptions: in the photo to the right, Don captured a small Western Honeybee taking the backdoor route to the nectar…….

….and in the photo to the left, a large American Bumblebee is attempting entry through the front of the flower tube. Other bees seen on these plants were Common Eastern Bumblebees and Eastern Carpenter Bees.

Showy Evening-primrose has an open, cup-shaped flower whose pollen is available to a wide range of insect pollinators, include butterflies and bees during the day and moths at night. The dark pink nectar guides on each petal direct pollinators to the nectar source.

The small archway over the entry to the Herb and Physic Garden supports several Hop plants. Hop’s female flowers are held in cone-like clusters on the vines. Hop vines are dioecious (“die – ee – shus”), that is, female flower clusters (left) and male flower clusters (two pics below) are produced on separate plants.

Tiny, round glands are scattered like golden grains of sand at the base of the bracts in the female flower clusters. The glands release bitter resins and essential oils that discourage herbivory by animals. The resinous compounds produce the “hoppy” flavor in beer, and the oils provide other flavors and aromas. These compounds also act as preservatives and promote a good head on a glass of beer.

Male (pollen-producing) flower clusters of the Hop plant, left, look very different from the female (fruit-producing) flower clusters and also lack the glands found on female clusters. The flowers are wind-pollinated and must be cross-pollinated to set fruit. Photo by Peter M. Dziuk, Minnesota Wildflowers.

Carolina Anole resting in the sun near the Hops vines. The detail in Don’s photo is wonderful: the eyelids and nostril, the external opening of the ear (just behind the eye), and the dry, scaly skin are all clear. Not visible in this photo are the sticky pads on the undersides of its toes with which it can navigate narrow twigs and climb high into treetops.

This Common Ragweed plant escaped the notice of the Herb & Physic Garden weeding crew and has grown quite large. One of its leaves was supporting a small clutch of insect eggs, below, possibly those of a Lady Beetle.

A pair of Gold-marked Thread-waisted Wasps were using a Ragweed leaf as a dating platform.

A patch of Garlic Chives in the Herb & Physic Garden were hosting several Common Eastern Bumblebees. Native to southeastern Asia, Garlic Chives is also known as Chinese Leek. The flowers have a sweet scent and attract butterflies and bees in search of both nectar and pollen.

The Freedom Plaza flower beds were planted years ago with showy Aster and Mint family species along with several others and are always a sure bet for pollinators this time of year.

Joe-Pye Weed, in the Aster Family, is usually a butterfly magnet in Freedom Plaza but it flowered early and has already gone to seed, probably in response to the prolonged dry spell in June and July.

Hoary Mountain Mint’s tiny flowers attract small bees, wasps, and flies.

Butterfly Weed flowers attract bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. Pollination in this species can be tricky but, when successful, results in a nice crop of fruits, below, bursting with soon-to-be airborne seeds.

Swamp Black-eyed Susan, below, is a very tall, native member of the Aster Family planted in the main Freedom Plaza bed. In Georgia, it’s known only from a couple of riverine sites and is listed by the state as Endangered. It also occurs in Florida and Alabama and is rare in those states too, a victim of stream sedimentation and damming.

Another common name for Swamp Black-eyed Susan is Eared Coneflower due to its (somewhat) ear-shaped leaf bases (above, left). We saw two pollinators nectaring on its dark brown disk flowers: a Fiery Skipper (above, center) and an Oblique Longhorn Bee (above, right).

It began to seem like every Zinnia flower head we looked at today was hosting a butterfly. Above, left, a Buckeye, and above right, a Gulf Fritillary. Below, left, a Long-tailed Skipper, and, below right, a dark form of a female Tiger Swallowtail. The dark form mimics the toxic, distasteful Pipevine Swallowtail and benefits from birds’ learned avoidance of that species. Here‘s a very helpful guide to the suite of four look-alike swallowtails that occur in our part of the state.

Other insects besides butterflies were also visiting the colorful Zinnia flower heads. Below, left, Green Lynx Spider, and below right, American Bumblebee.

Heather picked up an American Dagger Moth caterpillar from the side of the Flower Garden trail, careful to avoid its powerfully stinging hairs. An adult American Dagger Moth is shown below (photo by Andy Reago & Chrissy McClarren)

Large Blue Sage, a Georgia native, is thriving in one of the drier beds of the Flower Garden. This Eastern Carpenter Bee has punched a hole in the green calyx and through the corolla to reach the nectar produced deep within the flower. You can see black dots on other calyxes in this photo, evidence of past nectar robbing. After nectar is taken by an insect or bird, the plant quickly replaces it with sugary sap produced during photosynthesis. Once a flower has been fertilized, nectar production usually comes to a halt. It’s easy to forget how economically important nectar is: it is the source of honey.

Native to Eurasia and North Africa, Moth Mullein has become invasive in some parts of the U.S. and Canada, though not (yet) in Georgia. Its flowers are exquisite: delicate pale pink petals; feathery, dark pink stamens; orange anthers; and a green stigma, below.

Ramblers paused to exclaim over the number of pollinators actively working the flowers in the All-American Selections bed. We saw Fiery Skippers, Common Buckeyes, Common Eastern Bumblebees, American Bumblebees, Gulf Fritillaries, Katydid Wasps, Sphex flavovestitis, Long-tailed Skippers, Oblique Longhorn Bees, and Eastern Tiger Swallowtails, all flitting from plant to plant.

Above, left, a Common Eastern Bumblebee is preparing to light on a Lindheimer’s Bee-blossom flower (aka Gaura). Right, a large wasp is moving gracefully from one stalk of Flamingo Feather-flower to another. Don commented, “Each time I go out shooting in the late summer, I am reminded of how graceful and agile the large wasps are as they move about the plants.”

Cercospora Leaf Spot, caused by the fungus Cercospora zinniae, is a common disease of Zinnias. The reddish leaf spots with white centers on the leaves are the main symptom but the disease can spread throughout the plant from flowers to roots. Some commonsense suggestions for disease prevention and control for zinnias are available on this website as well as information on fungicides.

These colorful flowers, above, belong to Side-oats Grama, a native prairie grass planted in the Flower Garden by Jim Moneyhun, the Flower Garden curator. The orange structures are pollen-producing anthers; the white “feathers” are styles that comb pollen from the wind. This species is widespread throughout the eastern and central US and south into Central and South America, usually found only in circumneutral or basic soils over calcareous rocks such as limestone and serpentine. The species is rare in Georgia because of limited habitat. Fewer than 20 populations are known, growing over limestone in the limestone-rich Ridge & Valley ecoregion of northwestern Georgia.

Our last stop on the way out of the Flower Garden was at a shrub bearing strange and colorful “fruits.” The “fruits” are actually highly modified female cones found in the genus Podocarpus (literally, foot-fruit), a genus of evergreen conifers in the largely South American family Podocarpaceae. The oval, green seed is immature and will turn black when mature; attached to it is a swollen, red or yellow, stem. The seeds are toxic but the fleshy stem is eaten raw and cooked. Commonly called Kusamaki, it is the northernmost species in this genus, occurring in southern China, Taiwan, and Japan. English names include Yew Plum Pine, Buddhist Pine, and Japanese Yew.

SUMMARY OF OBSERVED AND DISCUSSED SPECIES
Japanese Beautyberry Callicarpa japonica
American Beautyberry Callicarpa americana
Darrow’s Blueberry Vaccinium darrowii ‘Rose’s Blush’
Cardinal Flower Lobelia cardinalis
Ruby-throated Hummingbird Archilochus colubris
Sweet Pepperbush Clethra alnifolia
Brazilian Copperlily, Pink Rain Lily Zephyranthes robusta
‘Black and Blue Sage’ cultivar of Salvia guaranitica
Western Honeybee Apis mellifera
American Bumblebee Bombus pensylvanica
Common Eastern Bumblebee Bombus impatiens
Eastern Carpenter Bee Xylocopa virginica
Showy Evening-primrose, Pink Ladies Oenothera speciosa
Jerusalem Sage Phlomis russeliana
Hops Humulus lupulus
Carolina Anole Anolis carolinensis
Common Ragweed Ambrosia artemisiifolia
Gold-marked Thread-waisted Wasp Eremnophila aureonotata
Garlic Chives Allium tuberosum
Tall Pawpaw Asimina triloba
Joe Pye Weed Eutrochium fistulosum
Hoary Mountainmint Pycnanthemum incanum
Butterfly Weed Asclepias tuberosum
Swamp Black-eyed Susan, Eared Coneflower Rudbeckia auriculata
Oblique Longhorn Bee Svastra obliqua
Late-flowering Boneset Eupatorium serotinum
Zinnia Zinnia elegans
Lantana Lantana camara
Common Buckeye butterfly Junonia coenia
Gulf Fritillary Dione vanillae
Long-tailed Skipper Urbanus proteus
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (black-form female) Papilio glaucus
Green Lynx Spider Peucetia viridans
American Bumblebee Bombus pensylvanica
Sorghum Sorghum bicolor
American Dagger Moth (caterpillar) Acronicta americana
Large Blue Sage Salvia azurea var. grandiflora
Moth Mullein Verbascum blattaria
Fiery Skipper Hylephila phyleus
Sphex flavovestitus (no common name) Sphex flavovestitus
Katydid Wasp Sphex nudus
Common Eastern Bumblebee Bombus impatiens
Lindheimer’s Bee-blossom Oenothera lindheimeri
Flamingo Feather-flower Deeringia spicata, synonym Celosia spicata
Cercospora Leaf Spot Cercospora zinniae
Sideoats Grama Bouteloua curtipendula
Kusamaki Podocarpus macrophyllus

Ramble Report – August 15, 2024

Leader for Today’s Ramble: Bill Sheehan

Authors of today’s report: Don Hunter, Linda Chafin, Bill Sheehan

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 9:00am, 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: Fungi along the White Trail Spur, Orange Trail Spur, and in the floodplain between the Orange Trail Spur and the Middle Oconee River

Number of Ramblers today: 22

Announcements:
The Great Southeast Pollinator Census is coming soon – August 23-24! Click here for information on how to participate (as little as 15 minutes! it’s up to you) and how to tell one kind of insect from another. It’s a lot of fun and a worthy piece of citizen science.

Saving The Chattahoochee.” Screening of this film will take place on Tuesday, August 20th, at 5:30p.m. at UGA’s Special Collections Library. The film documents how one of the first female riverkeepers in the country, Sally Bethea, teamed up with Atlanta mayor Shirley Franklin, the first Black woman to be mayor of a major southern city, to change the course of the river’s future. The story of the Chattahoochee is part of a bigger picture about the efforts to protect our rivers and streams.

Interesting essay! “A Surprising Mutually Beneficial Relationship Between White-tailed Deer & Bats,” from the website Naturally Curious with Mary Holland.

Show-and-Tell: Roger Collins passed around his phone with a photograph of a Luna Moth caterpillar climbing up one of the White Oak trees on his land.

Luna Moth cocoon (above) and adult (below, Wikimedia Commons)

Today’s Reading: Bill read from Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our World, Change Our Minds, and Shape Our Futures, by Merlin Sheldrake (2020). Sheldrake is a British mycologist and writer known for his work on mycorrhiza.

“FUNGI ARE EVERYWHERE but they are easy to miss. They are inside you and around you. They sustain you and all that you depend on. … They are eating rock, making soil, digesting pollutants, nourishing and killing plants, surviving in space, inducing visions, producing food, making medicines, manipulating animal behavior, and influencing the composition of the Earth’s atmosphere.Many of the most dramatic events on Earth have been — and continue to be — a result of fungal activity. Plants only made it out of the water around five hundred million years ago because of their collaboration with fungi, which served as their root systems for tens of million years until plants could evolve their own. Today, more than ninety percent of plants depend on mycorrhizal fungi, which can link trees in shared networks sometimes referred to as the “wood wide web.” This ancient association gave rise to all recognizable life on land, the future of which depends on the continued ability of plants and fungi to form healthy relationships. Tens to hundreds of species can exist in the leaves and stems of a single plant. These fungi weave themselves through the gaps between plant cells in an intimate brocade and help to defend plants against disease. No plant grown under natural conditions has been found without these fungi; they are as much a part of planthood as leaves or roots. Fungi provide a key to understanding the planet on which we live, and the ways that we think, feel, and behave. Yet they live their lives largely hidden from view, and over ninety percent of their species remain undocumented. The more we learn about fungi, the less makes sense without them.”

Today’s Route: From the Children’s Garden arbor, we made our way through the “fallen chestnut” to the Forest Play Area, then down the White Trail Spur to the Orange Trail Spur. We took a left on the Orange Trail Spur and quickly spread out into the floodplain before returning.

Today’s Observations

Bill began by putting in a good word for the Mushroom Club of Georgia and describing the typical foray kit he uses when collecting for learning purposes, not for foraging for edibles. The kit includes a basket, a robust knife for collection, a hand lens, craft boxes of various sizes for protection of small, collected specimens, and wax-coated sandwich bags for collecting larger specimens. Since collection and observation involves getting close to the ground, insect repellents are also a part of his kit.

Bill presented two regionally important field guides for identifying fungi encountered in the field. He also mentioned the importance of making spore prints when you return home in making a final determination of some species. Spore prints are made by placing the cap, lower surface down, on a surface and covering with a bowl. Since many spores are white, Bill recommends using aluminum foil as a spore print sheet since both light and dark spores will show up. A higher level of identification that has developed in the last couple of decades is the use of DNA analysis, which has revolutionized the taxonomy of fungi. Bill started a national citizen science group, FunDIS (Fungal Diversity Survey) for getting samples analyzed and sequenced.

On our way out of the Children’s Garden, we stopped in amazement at the number of pollinators visiting the flowers in a bed of Hoary Mountain Mint. Top row: A narrow-waisted wasp (left) and Common Eastern Bumblebee (right). Bottom row: Double-banded Scoliid Wasp (left) and Great Black Digger Wasp (right).

In spite of minimal rain the last few weeks, the Forest Play Area was rich in fungi.

Ganooderma lobatum
(no common name) grows on decaying logs. Each year, it produces a new cap below the previous year’s, creating a stack of strikingly colored caps. Similar to another species in this genus, the white lower surface of this fungus (below) can be drawn on.

Two fleshy mushrooms in the genus Pluteus were growing on a partially buried log.

Several color variations of Turkey Tail fungi were seen in the Forest Play area, this beauty with gray, brown, and tan bands with a smooth creamy white edge. Turkey Tail is a bracket or shelf fungus that is globally common. They are called “polypores,” as the lower surface (below) is covered with tiny pores that are the external openings of tubes from which spores are released.

Another Turkey Tail, less colorful, but hairy!

Elizabeth spotted several tall, stacked fungal brackets high up in a Red Maple tree. Don was able to shoot several of these stacks with the short telephoto aspect of his macro lens, enabling him to get enough photos to identify these fungi. He’s tentatively calling them Marshmallow Polypores. There are such things as toothed mushrooms but this species is actually a poroid fungus – the “teeth” on the lower surface are the result of the pores breaking down.

No fungi ramble is complete without a look at Dog Vomit slime-mold, which isn’t any kind of mold at all – it’s not even a fungus! Although placed in the protista kingdom, slime-molds check a lot of fungi boxes, both scientific and non: they reproduce by spores; they make a living by digesting dead plant material; and they have multiple, non-binary “mating types” rather than the egg-sperm mating system of plants and animals. On a casual walk through the woods, we notice that they are colorful, and live in damp places on decaying plant material. Plus, they are called “molds”! Isn’t this enough to qualify as a fungus? Well, no. On a cellular level, they have an important difference: Slime Mold cell walls are made of cellulose while those of fungi are made of chitin (like insect exoskeletons). And, amazingly, Slime Molds have behavior, at least when they are in the streaming phase between the amoeba and and final fruiting body stage. They have pseudopods (“false feet”) that allow them to move across a surface and, utterly without a brain or a nervous system, they can navigate to a food source and remember how they got there. Even through mazes! Slime molds can separate then fuse back together then share knowledge between the formerly separated parts. No mere fungus can do this!

Bill discovered this bright yellow Slime Mold on Wednesday while scouting for today’s ramble and photographed it (left). Only a day later, the color had dulled and the outer layer appeared to be breaking down, exposing the black interior.

Bill dissected the Slime Mold on Thursday, further revealing its black interior where spores are produced.

False Turkey Tail fungi resemble Turkey Tail fungi when viewed from above; they can be distinguished based on their color and the texture of their lower surfaces. False Turkey Tail has a smooth, leathery or plastic-y lower surface that is gray or yellow. Turkey Tail has a white lower surface that feels rough due to the many pores that open onto the surface. This False Turkey Tail is probably a Silky Parchment fungus.

This unidentified crust fungus (above and left) was growing on a rotting log. Its entire surface is covered with pores.

Jan found this small white Amanita mushroom, with a thin veil ring or collar near the top of the stem just below the gills and with the typical Amanita bulbous base. It had begun to desiccate and the cap was drawn up, exposing the gills.

Fungi grow on almost every conceivable substrate, including the living bodies of insects. 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 Beech 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.

Bill collected a small, yellow Bolete fungus and pointed out that Boletes have flat, solid but spongy surfaces on the underside of the cap with tiny tubes or pores from which spores are released. Compare this spore surface with the gilled spore surface found on many mushrooms, such as the Amanita above.

After turning onto the Orange Trail Spur, we spotted some Gilled Polypore fungi growing on a downed limb. The upper surface (left) looks a lot like a Turkey Tail fungus, but the lower surface (right) has gills. This is unusual for a polypore fungus, illustrating, as Don said, that “it just goes to show that there are few ‘rules’ without exceptions in mycology.”

A Veiled Oyster mushroom, growing out of a crevice in a decaying log, was teeming with small flies. Unlike its choice edible cousin, the Oyster Mushroom, this species is not edible.

Every summer I think (hope) there are fewer Joro Spiders than the year before, but then comes August and they are everywhere once again. Don captured this one sitting on one of the strong, gold-colored anchor silks (left) of its web and then again on the twig the anchor silk was attached to (right).

We came across a large mushroom growing on a dead log with gills that have distinctively saw-toothed edges suggesting that it’s Lentinellus micheneri, a species lacking a common name.

Myrna spotted this Thin-walled Maze Polypore, its lower surface a maze of long, narrow pores. Common in eastern North America, Europe, and Asia, this species infects injured hardwood trees, especially willows.

An Inchworm, a caterpillar of the geometrid moth family, hanging from an almost invisible silk thread – it is probably a Dot-lined Angle Moth caterpillar.

Dale wrote about inch worms in the July 8, 2021 Ramble Report:
“Inchworms are almost never seen on their host plants because their shape and coloration make them look like part of the leaves they are eating or just another twig on a branch. They get their name, inchworm, from the way they walk: the rear end is brought up to the head end, making an inverted “U” shape. The claspers on the hind end then grasp the surface, and the head end releases its attachment and extends forward in a straight line. It looks like the caterpillar is measuring the surface its crawling on, hence the “inchworm” common name…

…In addition to resembling twigs and leaves, inchworms have another defense against being eaten: they drop off the tree they are dining on when danger threatens. Put yourself in the place of a tasty inchworm when a bird lands on your branch. If you jump you can fall out of danger. But when you hit the ground, you’ll be faced with another problem – where is your food? How will you find your way back to that tasty leaf you were munching? You could wander for hours and never even find your tree trunk. A safety line is the solution. Like most caterpillars, inchworms can produce silk from silk glands in their head. When danger threatens, they start releasing a silken safety line from these glands. The inchworm glues one end of the silk to the leaf or twig and then jumps off. The weight of the caterpillar pulls the silk out of the gland as the caterpillar falls. It happens fast enough to fool a bird! Not only has the caterpillar escaped its predator, it has a way to return home – climb up the silken thread. I have watched inchworms climbing their safety lines and can tell you that it involves winding the thread up into a wad held by their thoracic legs, but I can’t provide any more details. Perhaps Ramblers with more acute vision can find the answer.”

Fresh and older Split Gill Mushrooms (left) growing with Carbon Ball fungus and (right) its beautiful lower surface showing the divided gills radiating from the stalk.

As we were walking around in the floodplain, Don spotted a mossy log with several flushes of thin-stalked, white mushrooms called Bladder Stalks. Gill-like folds radiating from the stalk and across the pore surface (right) are quite beautiful. There were examples of all stages of growth and, based on the number of broken stalks, they appear to be somewhat fragile.

Carbon Balls, aka Cramp Balls and Coal Fungus, grow on dead and dying hardwood trees. The fruiting body (the “balls”) is built up in concentric layers that are laid down annually, seen below on a specimen Bill dissected. A number of insects and small animals may live inside the fruiting body. The black variety of Carbon Balls has been used as tinder and burns slowly. The brown variety shown here is too heavy and dense to burn well.

Crowded Parchment fungus upper surface (left) and lower pore surface (right)

An orange crust fungus, Ceriporia spissa, is covered with tiny pores (right).

Sheet-weaver Spider on the orange crust fungus

SUMMARY OF OBSERVED SPECIES
Luna Moth Actias luna
Hoary Mountainmint Pycnanthemum incanum
Narrow-waisted wasp (no common name) Sphex flavovestitus
Common Eastern Bumble Bee Bombus impatiens
Double-banded Scoliid Wasp Scolia bicincta
Great Black Digger Wasp Sphex pensylcanicus
Ganoderma fungi (no common name) Ganoderma lobatum
Pluteus (no species ID) Pluteus sp.
Turkey Tails Trametes c.f. versicolor
Marshmallow Polypore (tentative) Irpiciporus mollis, synonym Spongipellis pachyodon
Dog Vomit Slime Fuligo septica
False Turkey Tail fungus Stereum lobatum
Silky Parchment Fungus Stereum striatum
Unidentified white poroid crust (no species ID) Family Polyporaceae
Amanita (no species ID) Amanita sp.
Zombie ant fungus Ophiocordyceps kimflemingiae
Carpenter Ant Camponotus sp.
American Beech Fagus grandifolia
Unidentified bolete Boletaceae family
Gilled Polypore Trametes betulina
Veiled Oyster Pleurotus levis
Joro Spider Trichonephila clavata
Lentinellus micheneri (no common name) Lentinellus micheneri
Thin-walled Maze Polypore Daedaleopsis confragosa
Dot-lined Angle Moth (caterpillar/inchworm) Psamatodes abydata
Common Splitgill fungi Schizophyllum commune
Bladder Stalks fungi Physalacria inflata
Carbon Balls Daldinia childiae
Crowded Parchment Fungus Stereum complicatum
Orange Poroid Crust (no common name) Ceriporia spissa
Sheet-weaver spider (no common name) Bathyphantes sp.

Ramble Report – August 8, 2024

Leader for today’s Ramble: Linda Chafin

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 9:00am, 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: Seeking late summer wildflowers and fruits in the Nash Prairie

Number of Ramblers today: 31

Announcements:
Emily is recruiting volunteers to supply refreshments for the opening of the “Tiny Worlds” exhibit on Sunday, August 18. Please email Emily at egenecarr@me.com if you can bring any of these items: fruit, nuts, cookies, crackers, cheese, dessert bars, and tiny sandwiches.

Gary is teaching a 2-hour class on invasive plant identification and control at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI), on August 16th at 10:00 a.m. The class will be held in UGA’s River Crossing facility at 850 College Station Road in Athens. OLLI members can sign up online, and Gary has three guest passes available for non-members. See Gary at Thursday’s Ramble if you want a guest pass.

Saving The Chattahoochee.” Screening of this film will take place on Tuesday, August 20th, at 5:30p.m. at UGA’s Special Collections Library. The film documents how one of the first female riverkeepers in the country, Sally Bethea, teamed up with Atlanta mayor Shirley Franklin, the first Black woman to be mayor of a major southern city, to change the course of the river’s future. The story of the Chattahoochee is part of a bigger picture about the efforts to protect our rivers and streams.

The Great Southeast Pollinator Census is coming soon – August 23-24! Click here for information on how to participate (as little as 15 minutes! it’s up to you) and how to tell one kind of insect from another. It’s a lot of fun and a worthy piece of citizen science.

The community UGarden (next door to the Botanical Garden) needs your help! Kubota Tractors awarded them a $10,000 grant and now there is an opportunity to turn it into a $50,000 grant. They already produce a yearly average of 15,000 pounds of organically managed produce that is distributed by partner organizations to Athens families facing food insecurity. These extra would expand their ability to serve more people. Voting instructions are at this link. Click on Georgia on the map. Scroll down and select UGARDEN. Enter your email address when prompted and they will send a verification code to your email. Enter code on the webpage and then use the pull down menu to register your vote! (They actually encourage voting every day.)

Interesting article: “The Soul of Soil,” a NY Times essay by the author of Becoming Earth: How Our Planet Came to Life.

Today’s Reading: Don provided a short reading, from Walt Whitman: “I have learned that to be with those I like is enough.”

Today’s Route: We took the entrance road down to the ROW, turning right onto the White Trail spur connecting the Dunson Garden to the ROW. After arriving at the ROW, we headed north into the Nash Prairie, then turned left on the ridgeline service road. We walked a short distance and turned left onto the White Trail and followed it back out into the ROW. A few of us headed down the ROW to the Passionflower vines on the Dunson Garden deer fence, before calling an end to the Ramble.

Today’s Observations:

Late summer is the kickoff time for wildflowers in three important plant families: Bean, Mint, and Aster. Today we saw a good representation from each.

On our way to the prairie we passed a few small patches of the native Creeping Lespedeza forming low mats along the trail (vegetative here, left) and later in the prairie in flower (right). Lespedeza is a large genus of about 40 species with 13 of those occurring in Georgia. Species of Lespedeza sport two of the most common characteristics of Bean family plants: trifoliate leaves (each leaf has three leaflets) and flowers with a showy, erect banner petal to attract pollinators. The stamens and pistil are hidden within the middle of the three lower petals, called a keel petal, you can see on the rightmost photo. It takes a hefty pollinator such as a bumblebee to force that keel petal open to reach the pollen and nectar.

Two of the Lespedeza species in Georgia are exotic and one, Sericea Lespedeza, is a major invasive still being planted by transportation departments for erosion control. Once established, it is very hard to eradicate and spreads aggressively by rhizomes and by seeds which remain viable for as much as 20 years. It is a threat to native ecosystems in several ways: its deep tap root diverts water and minerals from surrounding natives; the tannin-rich leaves are unpalatable to animals, causing nearby native plants to be overbrowsed; and, it is allelopathic, meaning that it releases chemicals into the soil that stunt the growth of other plants.

We were surprised by the amount of spraying in the Nash Prairie, where natives and non-natives alike were top-killed. This Post Oak may likely sprout back next spring. It’s easy to forget that the Nash Prairie is first and foremost a Georgia Power right-of-way and that tree species have to be kept small. Post Oak is a typical species found in southeastern grasslands where it would be kept short by occasional natural fire.

Bitterweed is a common native species found in disturbed areas like the old road that runs through the prairie. Its leaves are so bitter that neither livestock nor deer will eat them. A common site in poor rural areas are overgrazed pastures dominated by Bitterweed. A member of the Aster family, Bitterweed has “composite” flower heads typical of that family. The heads are composed of a central half-dome of 100 or more disk flowers and a whorl of 8-10 ray flowers with scalloped tips.

I never think about including members of the Nightshade family in the late summer wildflower lineup, probably because our natives are not very numerous. But a trip to the farmer’s market reminds me of the bounty of that family in late summer: eggplants, tomatoes, peppers, and potatoes overflow the bins. This species, Carolina Horse-nettle, is abundant in the Nash Prairie. It has small, tomato-like fruits and banana-shaped anthers that can only release their pollen if buzz-pollinated by native bees (honey bees do not buzz-pollinate).

Don’s close-up of the Horse-nettle’s flowers highlight the poricidal anthers – anthers with small pores on their tips from which the pollen emerges. The intense vibration produced by bees as they clasp the anthers while vibrating their flight muscles shakes pollen from the pores. Here’s a nice three-minute video showing bees “buzzing” the anthers of a nightshade family flower at 1:10 minutes.

Carolina Desert Chicory is a member of the Aster family. As Dale liked to point out, it’s not a chicory, it’s not from the desert, and it grows many places outside of the Carolinas. Its lemon yellow flower heads are composed entirely of ray flowers – there are no disk flowers. Those dark cylinders forming a ring in mid-flower are the anthers of the innermost ray flowers; they form a hollow cylinder around a pistil. Carolina Desert Chicory starts blooming in late spring and carries on till late summer when many other Aster family plants, with their golden-yellow flower heads, steal the scene.

Hoary Mountain Mint is in the genus Pycnanthemum. Bob looked up the meaning of that genus name and learned that pycno– is Latin for clustered or clumped and -anth is Latin for flower. Many tiny, white, pink-flecked flowers are clustered into compact heads that are held above whitened leaves. The flowers produce copious amounts of nectar that draw dozens of species of pollinators.

Beaked Panicgrass is one of the earliest of warm-season grasses to flower.

A much-nibbled flower of Butterfly Pea, a member of the Bean family. Butterfly Pea flowers range in color from pink to nearly blue and have a large showy banner petal marked with conspicuous nectar guides. It is a delicate sprawling and climbing vine with trifoliate leaves.

Wild Petunia begins to flower in late May and carries on well into September. Typically only one flower opens per plant each day and lasts only one day. The flowers are pollinated by bees. Bees have trichromatic vision – they have photoreceptors for blue, green, and ultraviolet wavelengths – and studies have shown that they have a strong preference for blue flowers.

While angling for a good shot of the Wild Petunia, Don spotted this tiny Ghost Spider near its web.

Nine-banded Armadillos have built a condo with at least five entrances in a muddy stretch of the road that passes through the Nash Prairie. Armadillo toes spread out when they walk, leaving paw prints that resemble possums’ and raccoons’, and their tails leave distinctive drag marks.

Our search for fruit in the Carolina Milkvine patch at the north end of the Nash Prairie yielded only one pod. Like other members of the genus Matelea, its fruits are covered with pointed, warty projections.

Two lichens in the genus Cladonia are growing on the road bank: Pixie Cups (left) and Dixie Reindeer Lichen (right). The goblet-shaped structures on the Pixie Cups contain the “fruiting” body of the lichen. Reindeer Lichen’s minute fruiting structures are held on the tips of the delicate branches of this lichen and are very hard to see.

Some dry exposed areas of soil along the road bank are inhabited by a complex mix of lichens, mosses, algae, and cyanobacteria, interacting with each other and with the soil, called a biotic crust or biocrust. Biocrusts are common and critical components of western desert soils. They also occur in the eastern U.S. where they play important ecological roles in preventing erosion, enhancing plant productivity, supporting rare plant species, and promoting soil fertility. Here’s more info on this fascinating community of unrelated organisms.

Pinweeds, so called because their flower buds and fruits resemble pinheads, are seriously inconspicuous wildflowers. This species, Narrow-leaf Pinweed, with its millimeter-wide leaves, is especially so. The tiny flowers have three maroon petals spreading or curved downward with several stamens and a white pompom of branched styles above. The flowers open for only a few hours in the morning so we were lucky to catch them.

Pencil-flower, so called because of its long, straight pods, grows in the sunny road.

The large upright banner petal and trifoliate leaves of this low, sprawling plant easily place it in the Bean family.

Another easily overlooked wildflower of dry, sunny sites, Rustweed has low, spreading stems, narrow leaves, and small white flowers with a dense ring of white hairs in the center.

St. Andrew’s Cross is a low shrub in the St. John’s-wort genus. It was named for the diagonal arrangement of its four petals that resembles the St. Andrew’s Cross seen on the Scottish flag. Underlying the petals are two large sepals and two much smaller sepals not visible in this photo.

As the sun rose over the treeline we bore left across the right-of-way and escaped into the shady woods. This area of the Garden is noted for its bedrock of amphibolite which raises the soil pH and creates conditions that support calciphiles like Shagbark Hickory.

Amphibolite rock is black with white speckles. Because of its high iron content, there is often a rusty outer crust.

Hated Caesar Mushroom is one of the toxic Amanitas.

Cranefly Orchids are still thriving in spite of the dry weather. For a detailed look at this species’ life history, see the Ramble Report from August 1.

Our return to the Visitor Center took us along the fence that supports Passionflower vines, now in fruit. Many of the leaves are riddled with holes chewed by Gulf Fritillary caterpillars. The fruits will be edible when they wrinkle and turn pale yellow in a few weeks.

Eastern Anglepod vines also use the Passionflower fence for support. Although a close relative of the milkvines, Anglepod’s fruits are angled and smooth, not covered with warty bumps like the fruit of the Carolina Milkvine we saw in the prairie. Both Anglepod and the milkvines are related to milkweeds and have milky latex but are not known to support Monarch or Queen butterfly larvae.

This small tree cricket was hiding on the underside of an Anglepod leaf. Tree cricket songs form the soundtrack of our summer nights, replacing the strident, rhythmic daytime sounds of cicadas. Tree cricket songs consist of “chirps” created by males rubbing their wings together. Females, whose eardrums are located on their legs just below the knee, respond to the song unique to males of their own species, then choose a male whose song is strong and consistent.

SUMMARY OF OBSERVED SPECIES

Creeping Lespedeza Lespedeza repens
Sericea Lespedeza Lespedeza cuneata
Post Oak Quercus stellata
Bitterweed Helenium amarum
Carolina Horsenettle Solanum carolinense
Carolina Desert Chicory Pyrrhopappus carolinianus
Hoary Mountain Mint Pycnanthemum incanum
Velvet Witchgrass Dichanthelium scoparium
Late-flowering Thoroughwort Eupatorium serotinum
Butterfly Pea Clitoria mariana
Ghost spider Wulfila albens
Carolina Wild Petunia Ruellia carolinensis
Nine-banded Armadillo (nest/burrow and tracks) Dasypus novemcinctus
Beaked Panicgrass Coleataenia anceps
Carolina Milkweed Matelea carolinensis
Bracken Fern Pteridium aquilinum
Common Wingstem Verbesina alternifolia
Yellow Crownbeard Verbesina occidentalis
Grass-leaved Goldenaster Pityopsis graminifolia
Pixie Cup lichen Cladonia sp.
Dixie Reindeer Lichen Cladonia subtenuis
Biotic crust Cladonia sp., moss, etc.
Pencil Flower Stylosanthes biflora
Narrowleaf Pinweed Lechea tenuifolia
Rustweed Polypremum procumbens
Hated Caesar mushroom Amanita spreta
Cranefly Orchid Tipularia discolor
Shagbark Hickory Carya ovata
St. Andrew’s Cross Hypericum crux-andreae
American Burnweed Erechtites hieracifolius
Sicklepod Senna obtusifolia
Purple Passionflower Passiflora incarnata
Eastern Anglepod Gonolobus suberosus
Tree Cricket Oecanthus sp.

Ramble Report – August 1, 2024

Leader for today’s Ramble: Linda Chafin

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 9:00am, 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: Seeking what we find along the White and Orange Trails

Number of Ramblers today: 28

Announcements:
Emily is recruiting volunteers to supply refreshments for the opening of the “Tiny Worlds” exhibit on Sunday, August 18. Please email Emily at egenecarr@me.com if you can bring any of these items: fruit, nuts, cookies, crackers, cheese, dessert bars, and tiny sandwiches.

Linda introduced Emily James, newly named Horticulture and Plant Records Manager, who will be supervising the curators in the Upper and Lower Shade Gardens, the Dunson Native Flora Garden, and the Heritage Garden. Emily hopes to have a new, full-time curator for Dunson by the end of August. She has lots of good ideas for putting a new face on Dunson, including removing much of the out-of-control Leatherwood, making the trails safer for disabled visitors, installing new signage, and replacing species that have disappeared over the years. Volunteers are needed to accomplish much of what needs to be done. Please email her at eejames@uga.edu if you’d like to help. She asked that no one start pulling weeds or invasives without first signing up with her.

The community UGArden (next door to the Botanical Garden) needs your help! Kubota Tractors awarded them a $10,000 grant and now there is an opportunity to turn it into a $50,000 grant. They already produce a yearly average of 15,000 pounds of organically managed produce that is distributed by partner organizations to Athens families facing food insecurity. This grant would expand their ability to serve more people. Voting instructions are at this link. Click on Georgia on the map. Scroll down and select UGARDEN. Enter your email address when prompted and they will send a verification code to your email. Enter code on the webpage and then use the pull down menu to register your vote! (They actually encourage voting every day.)

Bob Ambrose announced he will have a multimedia presentation “Wondrous Forms –
A Trek through Deep Time with Gaia,” in the Garden’s Visitor Center, Gardenside Room (down the ramp from the conservatory), on August 11, 2-3 pm. From the web page: “Wondrous Forms is an uplifting presentation that describes and celebrates the history of life on Earth with poetry and images. To develop a perspective on Earth’s antiquity, it uses the framework of a journey across the Earth scaled to geologic time. Poems and visuals grounded in the natural sciences bring the different ages of Gaia back to life. Key events in Earth’s four eons are featured, from the early emergence of life through the evolution of complex life forms and landscapes into the present age. The goal is to nurture a sense of wonder and connection to the immense journey of life.”

The Great Southeast Pollinator Census is coming soon! Click here for information on how to participate (as little as 15 minutes! it’s up to you) and tell one kind of insect from another. It’s a lot of fun and a worthy piece of citizen science.

Today’s Reading: We skipped a reading this Thursday in order to get out on the trail ahead of the heat, but Bob’s announcement inspires me to post this well known, but always moving, final sentence from Charles Darwin’s The Origin of Species. “There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms, or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.”

Show-and-Tell:

Carla brought a dead Eastern Cicada Killer Wasp, which is by far the biggest and scariest wasp in our area, up to 1.5 inches long. Its large size, clear amber-colored wings, and vivid yellow markings make this an easy wasp to identify. Females sting and paralyze Annual Cicadas which they then stuff into the cells of their nests for the larvae to eat. Both females and males are very active, cruising around looking for cicadas and nesting sites (females) and defending nest sites (males). Females sting humans only when handled. Males have a false stinger and are incapable of stinging. Adults live on nectar and other sweet plant juices.

Myrna brought a cluster of Flowering Spurge flowers. While the flowers look superficially like a typical five-petaled flower, the story is more complicated than that. What appears to be a single flower is actually a cluster of tiny green male and female flowers surrounded by five green nectar glands, each with a showy white flange that attracts pollinators. Inside the cluster there are a dozen or more male flowers, each with only one stamen, and a single female flower consisting of just one pistil. This odd flower arrangement is peculiar to plants in the genus Euphorbia, and is called a cyathium (sigh – aith – ee – um)….”endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful…”

Today’s Route: From the Children’s Garden Arbor, we passed through the Forest Play area and took the White Trail Spur downhill to the Orange Trail Spur and followed it to the river, where we took a left on the Orange Trail, following it downriver to the intersection with the Purple Trail. We made a brief diversion out into the beaver pond on the boardwalk, before returning to the Purple Trail, and heading back to the Visitor Center and some very welcome air conditioning. Heat index: 99 degrees.

Today’s Observations:

Don spotted a Versute Sharpshooter leafhopper in the plantings near the Arbor. Sharp-shooters have piercing-sucking mouthparts that they use to suck fluid from plant leaves. The nutrients are removed from the fluids in their digestive tracts and the remaining liquid is forcibly expelled from their bodies, earning the name of Sharpshooter.

After two months of drought, it was a pleasure to see the fungi that recent rains have brought out along the White Trail Spur Trail. This is a species of Amanita called Blusher.

Ochre Bracket fungi, upper surface (left) and lower pore surface (right)

A trio of Golden-gilled Gerronema mushroom grows in clusters on downed and dead branches of hardwood trees.

We were surprised to find Black Nightshade, a member of the Solanaceae Family, along the shady White Trail Spur. This family, sometimes called the Nightshade Family, includes a host of crop plants (including tomato, potato, pepper, eggplant, and tomatillo) as well as toxic or psychotropic plants such as Deadly Nightshade, Jimson Weed, Tobacco, and Belladonna. Black Nightshade is native to eastern North America. Its ripe black berries are eaten by birds but the green, unripe berries are toxic.

Turning left onto the Orange Trail Spur, we walked across the lower slope and upper floodplain, finding a mix of upland and wetland plant species in flower or fruit or being eaten by insects.

The ubiquitous Verbesinas: Yellow Crownbeard (left) with opposite leaves and Common Wingstem (right) with alternate leaves and relatively narrower leaves. Both have narrow wings of tissue on their mid- and upper stems and both are host plants for the caterpillars (below) of Silvery Checkerspot butterflies.

Photo by Heather Lickliter Larkin

False Nettle is false only in the sense that it doesn’t have stinging hairs like the “true” nettles. Both this species and the stinging nettles are in the Nettle Family (Urticaceae). Like the Stinging Wood Nettle which occurs elsewhere in the Garden’s floodplain, False Nettle is a larval host plant for Eastern Comma (left) and Red Admiral (right) butterflies, below.

Lizard’s Tail is a common wetland species throughout most of eastern North America. It forms a dense mat of rhizomes and out-competes even invasive plants, making it an excellent native choice for wetland restoration projects. Gracefully drooping spikes of tiny white flowers bloom in the spring and early summer.

Less than a quarter inch long, this middle instar of a Saddleback Caterpillar can still pack a mighty punch when it stings. Not at all picky about its host, Saddlebacks have been seen eating plants in more than 41 plant families. It is the larva of a small brown moth native to eastern North America.

This shot of an Arrow-shaped Micrathena orbweaver spider reminds me of Lakshmi, one of the many-armed Hindu goddesses.

Shrubby Yellowcrest is a member of the Loosestrife Family native to Texas, Mexico, and Central America south to Argentina, where it has been used for shamanic purposes as a “sun opener.” It is planted in the International Garden and has spread to this lower slope. More info on its psychoactivity is available here.

Suddenly, Autumn Fern is everywhere – or so it seems. I’ve been hearing Atlanta plant folks complain about this species for years as a major invasive in city parks. Now I get it! We’ve begun to see it on every ramble in all different parts of the Garden. Its many, many spores are released from a great many sori (right) on the undersides of the fronds and carried far and wide by the wind. If it is sprayed or dug up wherever it is growing as soon as possible by Garden staff, we just might be able to get out ahead of this invasion.

Dodder, also known as Strangleweed and Devil’s Guts, is a group of about 100 species of parasitic flowering plants found throughout the temperate, subtropical, and tropical regions of the world. Dodder plants lack chlorophyll and roots and are therefore completely dependent on their host plants for water and nutrients. A Dodder plant starts life as a seed that germinates on the soil surface and sends out leafless stems and a few short roots. The stem quickly begins searching for a host plant, following chemical sensory cues. Once it selects and attaches to a host, the roots wither away, the stems begin to twine around the host, and tiny pegs (right), called haustoria, sink into the vascular system of the host plant, diverting water and nutrients away from the host. Dodder is a much feared agricultural weed in many areas of the globe; fortunately the nine species that occur in Georgia are natives not known to prey on crop plants.

While photographing the Bur Cucumber vine (left), Don noticed a group of tiny, coppery insect eggs on the underside of a leaf. Bill has taken them home to rear them in his lab and will report back on what emerges.

One of these days I’ll count the number of vine species growing in the Garden’s floodplain – it will be a long list. Jackson-briar, a high-climbing vine in the genus Smilax, is in flower now, an unusual sight at eye-level since these vines typically flower in high the tops of trees. Unless they are growing on porches, a common practice in Athens’s older neighborhoods where the evergreen leaves provide shade in the summer and decoration at Christmastime.

While zooming in on the Jackson-briar, Don spotted this caterpillar, possibly a cutworm or Dart moth caterpillar.

A Virginian Tiger Moth caterpillar munching its way to the tip of a Yaupon twig.

At last, Cranefly Orchids! There is a lot to say about these wonderful little orchids and Dale summed it up best in a ramble report from July 25, 2019 (lightly edited): “Ramblers are most familiar with the Cranefly Orchid in fall and winter, when each plant is visible as a single, oval leaf (2-4 inches long) rising directly from an underground corm. The leaf is pleated, dark green, and dotted with black warts on the top surface, and a rich velvety purple on the lower surface. The leaf appears in the fall and overwinters, photosynthesizing via the sunlight that shines through the bare canopy. After the canopy trees leaf out in the spring, the orchid leaf withers and disappears. Then in late July or early August, one leafless flowering stem appears, bearing up to 40 tan to brownish-purple flowers. The spike-like flower cluster is really hard to spot amongst the brown leaf litter from which it emerges. The delicate flower, with its thread-like stalk and narrow spreading petals and sepals, must have reminded an imaginative someone of a cranefly (the genus name, Tipularia, is also the genus name of the Cranefly, an insect). As with most orchids, Cranefly Orchid pollen is packaged in a sack called a pollinium, each containing thousands of pollen grains. Every Cranefly flower has 4 pollinia. The flowers are pollinated by noctuid moths, and when a noctuid moth visits the flower for nectar it bumps into the pollinia, gluing them to its eye. The pollinia will be transferred to the next flower the moth visits, where it gets scraped off and the contained pollen fertilizes thousands of tiny orchid seeds.”

If the idea of pollination-by-eyeball seems a bit far-fetched, check out these photos taken last week by Bill Sheehan.

Cranefly Orchid pollinia stuck to the eyes of a noctuid moth


As the moth probes the spur petal for nectar, the pollinia are stuck to its compound eyes. Ideally, the pollinia are then rubbed off on the stigma of a flower on another Cranefly Orchid plant, effecting cross-pollination.

For more on Cranefly Orchids, Mary Anne Borg’s The Natural Web has some great photos and life history info.

We made a short detour onto the beaver marsh boardwalk to catch the Water Hemlock, above, in flower. Its domed inflorescence, called an umbel, is a good indicator that it belongs to the Carrot Family, along with many other culinary species including Parsley, Parsnip, Cumin, Coriander/Cilantro, Fennel, Dill, Anise, Asafoetida, Caraway, Celery, Chervil, and Celeriac. Many lovely wildflowers belong to this family as well, such as Meadow Parsnip, Angelica, Lovage, Golden Alexander, Queen Anne’s Lace, Rattlesnake Master, and Sweet Cicely. Water Hemlock has been called the most toxic plant in North America. For livestock who browse this plant, death is nearly instantaneous. For humans, convulsions and vomiting are followed by death – or life with a permanently damaged central nervous system. The toxic ingredient is called cicutoxin and is present in all parts of the plant at all seasons of the year, but is concentrated in the root. There is no antidote for cicutoxin poisoning, only palliative care. This plant ain’t fooling around! Water Hemlock, a native of North America, looks almost identical to Poison Hemlock, a native of Eurasia. Poison Hemlock is equally poisonous to both humans and livestock, and is probably the plant used to execute Socrates in 399 BC. Both Water Hemlock and Poison Hemlock occur in wetlands throughout Georgia. Black Swallowtail butterflies use the North American species in this family as host plants for their caterpillars, even the toxic species. The caterpillars sequester the toxic chemicals they ingest from the host plant and pass the toxins along to the adults who also become distasteful to the birds that would otherwise eat them.

We spotted lots of mushrooms on our way back to the Visitor’s Center along the Purple Trail and hoped for more rain to bring the Chantarelles along.

Above, left to right: American Slender Caesar, an unidentified species of Amanita, and Smooth Chanterelle.

Three views of Golden-gilled Bolete

Three views of Salmon Milkcap

SUMMARY OF OBSERVED AND DISCUSSED SPECIES

Eastern Cicada Killer wasp Sphecius speciosus
Flowering Spurge Euphorbia corollata
Versute Sharpshooter leafhopper Graphocephala versuta
Blusher Amanita Amanita rubescens
Ochre Bracket fungi Trametes ochracea
Golden-gilled Gerronema Gerronema strombodes
Eastern Black Nightshade Solanum ptycanthum, synonym Solanum emulans
Jack-in-the-Pulpit Arisaema triphyllum
Common Wingstem Verbesina alternifolia
Yellow Crownbeard Verbesina occidentalis
Silvery Checkerspot butterfly Chlosyne nycteis
False Nettle Boehmeria cylindrica
Eastern Comma butterfly Polygonia comma
Red Admiral butterfly Vanessa atalanta
Lizard’s Tail Saururus cernuus
Saddleback Caterpillar Moth Acharia stimulea
Arrow-shaped Micrathena Orbweaver Micrathena sagitata
Shrubby Yellowcrest Heimia salicifolia
Autumn Fern Dryopteris erythrosora
Dodder Cuscuta sp.
Bur Cucumber Sicyos angulatus
Jackson-briar Smilax smallii
Cutworm or Dart Moth caterpillar Family Noctuinae
Virginian Tiger Moth Spilosoma virginica
Yaupon Holly Ilex vomittoria
Cranefly Orchid Tipularia discolor
Wrinkled Cap Psathyrella Psathyrella rugocephala
Joro Spider Trichonephila clavata
Geometer moth caterpillar Family Geometridae
Water Hemlock Cicuta maculata
Poison Hemlock Conium maculata
Black Swallowtail butterfly Papilio polyxenes
American Slender Caesar amanita Amanita jacksonii
Unidentified white amanita mushroom Amanita sp.
Smooth Chanterelle Cantharellus lateritius
Golden-gilled Bolete Phylloporus pelletieri
Salmon Milkcap Lactarius salmoneus