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