Leader of Today’s Ramble: Gary Grossman

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

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

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

Today’s Emphasis: Ecology of Piedmont rivers and streams

Announcements and other interesting things:

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

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

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

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

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

Don’s Pre-Ramble Observations:

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

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

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

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

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

American Sycamore

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SUMMARY OF OBSERVED AND DISCUSSED SPECIES

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

Leader of Today’s Ramble: Dan Williams

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

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

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

Today’s Emphasis: Piedmont forests and trees

Announcements and other interesting things:
Jason Young, the Garden’s Director of Horticulture and Grounds, met with us to introduce current plans for renaming the trails in the Garden’s trail system, with the goal of improving user access and safety, and facilitating access by emergency response personnel to all sections of the trail system. Please scroll to the bottom of this report to see the trail map and read the recommendations for trail safety and trail naming changes. Please share any feedback or concerns with Jason: jason.young@uga.edu or (706) 369-6089.

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

Number of Ramblers Today: 32

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

Don’s Pre-Ramble Observations:

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

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

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

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

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

Aging a Tree

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

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

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

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

The Four-Five-Seven rule for aging trees:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Leader of Today’s Ramble: Linda

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: Warm season grasses

Announcements and other news:
Gary announced a Rivers Alive invasive plant cleanup on October 19th behind Oglethorpe Elementary School where there is a massive infestation of Oriental Bittersweet. Google the Athens River Alive website for details on how to sign up. Spaces are limited.

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

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

Number of Ramblers Today: 32

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

Don’s Pre-Ramble Observations:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Leader of Today’s Ramble: Catherine

Author of Today’s Report: Linda

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

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

Number of Ramblers This Rainy day: 12

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

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

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

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

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

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