Today’s Ramble was led by Linda Chafin.

Here’s
the link to Don’s Facebook album for today’s Ramble. (All the
photos in this post are compliments of Don.)

Today’s post was written by Linda Chafin (plants) & Dale
Hoyt (animals).

Today’s Focus:
Staying in the shade.

26 Ramblers met today.

Announcements:

·       
Cine get its building:  Athens local, non-profit cinema, Cine, announced
that it had reached its goal of purchasing the building it inhabits, due to
contributions by people like us. Gary explained that the Nature Ramblers
donated enough to “purchase” an entire row of seats in the theater. Each seat
will have a plaque attached bearing the contributor’s name and short message.
The entire row will have a plaque identifying it as “Rambler Row,” according to
Gary.

·       Upcoming
Lecture

Beyond 1492: The Columbian Exchange

Dr. Benjamin Ehlers, UGA Department of History

Tuesday, July 17, 1:30 pm, Gardenside
Room

The State Botanical Garden of Georgia

The historian Alfred Crosby used the term Neo-Europes to describe the regions
of the world flooded by European emigrants after 1492. North America,
Australia, Argentina: these areas shared Europe’s climate, but lacked the
natural competitors to check the expansion of Old World flora and fauna.
“Weeds” – a word Crosby applied to animals and microbes as well as noxious
plants – thrived in their new environment, as witnessed by the spread of peaches,
oranges, and rye, as well as feral pigs and horses. Beyond the navigational
skill of Columbus and the military acumen of Cortés, the European colonization
of new worlds depended upon the propagation of crops, livestock, and diseases
such as smallpox.

This presentation will begin with a discussion of Crosby’s model, with
reference to the voyages of Columbus and the Spanish conquest of Mexico. We
will then proceed to the Heritage Garden to reflect upon the lasting results of
the Columbian exchange in the American Southeast.

Today’s reading:
Linda read This is dragonfly season
by Laura Lee
Davidson (1870-1949), from A Winter of
Content (1922), about a year spent alone on Canada’s Lake of Many Islands

This
is dragonfly season

This is dragonfly season. Millions of them are
darting through the air–great green and brown ones with a wingspread of 3 to 4
inches; wee blue ones, like lances of sapphire light; little inch-long yellow
ones, and beautiful, rusty-red.

Today I spent three hours on the dock watching
one make that wonderful transition from the life amphibious to the life of the
air… I was tying the boat, when I saw what looked like a very large spider
crawling up from the water and out on a board. It moved with such an effort and
seemed so weak that I was tempted to put it out of its pain… Then I noticed a
slit in its humped back, and a head with great, dull beads of eyes pushing out
through the opening. Then I sat down to watch, for I realized that this was
birth – not death.

Very slowly the head emerged and the eyes began
to glow like lamps of emerald light. A shapeless, pulpy body came working out
and two feeble legs pushed forth and began groping for a firm hold… Then,
little by little, and ever so slowly, the whole insect struggled out, and lay
weak, almost inanimate, beside the empty case that held it prisoner so long.

Two crumpled lumps on either side began to
unfurl and show as wings. The long abdomen, curled round and under, like a
snail-shell, began to uncurl and change to brilliant green… The transparent
membrane of the wings, now held stiffly erect, began to show rainbow colors, as
they fanned slowly in the warm air, and, at last, nearly three hours after the
creature had crept out of the water, the great dragon-fly stood free, beside
its cast-off body lying on the dock.

There it stood, that living jewel, growing every
moment more strong, more exquisite, waiting perhaps for some trumpet call of
its life. Suddenly it stiffened, the great wings shot out horizontally, and
with one joyous, upward bound, away it flashed, an embodied triumph, out across
the shining water, straight up into the glory of the sun.

Show & Tell:

Tom discovered a few wings of a Regal Moth on the sidewalk coming down from the parking area.

This is what the intact moth looks like:

Regal Moth (AKA Royal Walnut Moth)(By Kadoka1 [CC BY-SA 3.0  (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], from Wikimedia Commons)

James reported seeing, on the way into the garden, an
Armadillo with four babies. Susie told us they always have four offspring and
Dale said that all four are genetically identical: identical quadruplets. Jeff
reminded us that armadillos were not native to our area and have come from two
sources: Florida and west of the Mississippi River.

Today’s Route:
From the Visitor Center we took the sidewalk toward the Flower Bridge and
International Garden, passing by the the American South section, crossing the
Flower Bridge, passing the China and Asia section and on through the Native
America/Southern Tribes section. We returned to the Visitor Center through the Herb
and Physic Garden.

LIST OF
OBSERVATIONS:

Plaza:

American Toad or, possibly, Fowler’s Toad

Several
American (or Fowler’s) Toads were seen on the Sphagnum Moss islands in the fountain.

Blue Dasher dragonfly Wings are held horizontally and at right angles to the body.

Blue Dasher dragonflies perch on taller vegetation to give them a clear view of
the pond. Notice how they hold their wings horizontally and at right angles to
their body.

Dragonflies and Damselflies belong to the insect order Odonata, which is from the Greek and
means “tooth.” It refers to the teeth on the mandibles of the adult. A more
familiar word that has the same Greek root is the dental specialist called an
orthodontist. The “odont” part of that word refers to teeth.

A Damselfly (from Japan) showing the wings held over the back.(By LaitcheLink to My Website. [Public domain], from Wikimedia Commons)

Compare the way the wings are held by this damselfly with the dragonfly above.

Damselflies are more delicate and smaller
than dragonflies but share many of the same habits. They have an aquatic larval
stage that is predacious, like the dragonfly larvae. The adult damselfly
captures flying insects, as do the dragonflies, and eats them. When at rest
they hold their wings together over their back.

Cicada
Killer wasps were still active around the steps leading down from the main
plaza.

Female Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly on the banana plants.

Sweet Bay Magnolia

Sweet Bay Magnolia Closeup showing leaves and developing fruits in the “cone.”

Sweet
Bay Magnolia is one of seven species of Magnolia that are native to Georgia.
The name comes from its fragrant leaves (spicy) and flowers (lemony-sweet).
It’s abundant in acidic Coastal Plain wetlands as one component of a plant
community called a “bay head” or “bay swamp,” where it usually is accompanied
by two other evergreen trees:  Swamp Red
Bay Persea palustris in the Laurel Family and Loblolly Bay Gordonia lasianthus in
the Tea Family (no kin to Loblolly Pine!). 
Sweet Bay also turns up in a few wetlands in the Piedmont. Its flowers
and fruits closely resemble those of the Southern Magnolia but on a much
smaller scale.

Ambrosia Beetle activity on Japanese Maple

Don
talked about recent Ambrosia Beetle activity on one of the Japanese Maples and
the University’s attempts to contain the damage using a systemic
insecticide/fungicide combination introduced into the tree’s vascular system
with spikes.  Several of the “toothpicks”
produced by the beetles as they burrow were still present on the tree trunks.  One of the major sub-branches of the tree
appeared to be dead or dying.  This could
be unrelated to the beetle as the limb had several places where there was
evidence of old damage or disease.

American
South:  

Purple Coneflower, with its dark pink ray flowers and spiny, central cone of disk flowers, is attracting some honey bees.

Cut-leaf Coneflower is also known as Green-eyed Susan because the central cone of disk flowers is green

Blazing Star; not the split styles.

Blazing
Star is a member of the composite family, as is the Purple Coneflower, but its
flower heads lack the showy whorl of ray flowers. Instead, its flower heads
hold only disk flowers, each with showy style branches that call in
pollinators.

Immature Broadhead Skink on Willow Oak

There are three species of skinks that live in our area.
The young of all of them have bright blue tails, dark bodies with bright yellow
stripes that run from head to the base of the tail. They can be told apart by
details of the scalation, but you have to have the skink in hand to determine
which species it is.

As the skinks age they change color. They lose the
blueness of the tail and the stripes vanish. The body becomes gray with shades
of brown.

One of the three, the Broadhead Skink, is actually arboreal,
meaning that it is often found in trees. The other two species are found under
rocks and logs and never climb trees. As its name implies, adult males of the
Broadhead Skink have very large, muscular heads. During the mating season the
heads of the males turn a reddish color. James and I tried to corner the skink and it ran UP the tree trunk, confirming that it was the arboreal Broadhead Skink.

Garden Phlox

Garden
Phlox is native but uncommon in north Georgia where it’s found on streambanks
and in moist forests and woodlands. It is widely available in the horticultural
trade as several different cultivars with flowers ranging from white to deep
pink.

The
right red flowers of Scarlet Bee-balm attract lots of bees and ruby-throated
hummingbirds. Its square stem; opposite, strongly scented leaves; and tubular,
two-lipped flowers indicate membership in the Mint Family.

Appalachian Bergamot with a nectar robbing Bumblebee.

Appalachian
Bergamot is a close relative to Scarlet Bee-balm and has flowers of the same
shape but they are white to pale pink in color. Despite the name, it occurs in
the Piedmont as well as the mountains.

Yellowwood seed pods.

Yellowwood
is a rare tree in Georgia, found only in our high elevation, rich mountain
coves with high pH soils. It has clusters of white flowers (like Black Locust),
small bean pods for fruit (like Redbud), smooth gray bark (like Beech), and
alternate leaves with alternate leaflets (like nothing else in our area). The
remnant bean pods we saw today testify to its membership in the Legume Family.

Mountain Silverbell with four-winged fruits

Mountain
Silverbell is one of three species of Silverbell in Georgia. It is most
abundant in the mountains but occurs throughout Georgia. Its specific epithet
is tetraptera which refers to its
four-winged fruit (tetra = four,  ptera
= wing).

Hibiscus sp. flower

This
plate-sized flower of a non-native Hibiscus in the International Garden has
many of the same features as the flowers of Georgia’s six species of native
Hibiscus.

Epicalyx of Hibiscus flower

The whorl of narrow green bracts beneath the calyx (which cups the
base of the flower) is called an epicalyx and is a good indicator of the Hibiscus genus.

Fused stamens surround the ovary and style.

Another characteristic
trait of Hibiscus is the conspicuous tube of fused stamens that extends from
the center of the flower. The tube surrounds the ovary and style, and a
five-branched stigma emerges from the top of the tube.

The five-branched stigma of the Hibiscus flower.

Hibiscus flowers are
open for only one day. To prevent self-pollination, the stigma and the
pollen-bearing anthers in a given flower will “ripen” at different times of the
day. However, if the flowers are not visited by pollinators and
cross-pollination does not occur by the end of the day, the styles will curl
downwards, bringing the stigmas into contact with the anthers and effecting
self-pollination. Even though self-pollination usually results in offspring
with less genetic diversity (called inbreeding depression) than the offspring
of cross-pollination, evolution has apparently “decided” that depressed
offspring are better than no offspring at all.

Flower
Bridge:

Spotting a Green
Frog (Rana (Lithobates) clamitans)
in the pool below the Flower Bridge stimulated a discussion about the
difference between Bullfrogs and Green frogs. Both species live in permanent
lakes, ponds or pools. Bullfrogs are larger, up to 8 inches in length; Green frogs
up to 5 inches. The breeding calls are very different. The Bullfrog’s call a
deep, bass “aroom,” and the Green frog’s call a “plunk” or “gulp.” It’s better
to listen to a recording than to depend on written descriptions: here’s
a Bullfrog call and here’s
a Greenfrog call.

Fragile Forktail damselfly resting on the bottom of a vial. The inside diameter of the vial is 3/4 inch, so the damselfly is shorter than that.

We managed to catch a tiny Fragile Forktail damselfly, less than 3/4 inch in length, that had
landed on the flowers on the bridge. The small size of this delicate creature prompted some people to ask if it
would get any larger.

The short answer is no! This answer applies not just to
damselflies but to all adult insects. After hatching from the egg the immature
stages of insects will feed and grow to a size limited by their exoskeleton. To
grow further they must shed the old exoskeleton, a process called molting. A
typical insect undergoes five molts before it becomes an adult (i.e., mature;
capable of reproduction). Each time it molts it can grow in size but it remains
immature until after the last molt. How much it grows during the intermolts
depends on how much food it finds or is fed. After the final molt it can grow
no further. It’s final exoskeleton lasts for the duration of its life. There is
no further growth of an adult insect, although they may, and do, eat, the food
they consume goes into supporting their activity and the production of eggs and
sperm. Small butterflies won’t grow into larger butterflies. All they get to do
is mate, lay eggs and die. An adult female Preying Mantis doesn’t grow anymore
but it will, like a human female, gain weight. That weight gain goes to the
development of its eggs.

Bald Cypress seed cones.

Bald Cypress seed cones are almost round; they will
mature and shatter later this year, dispersing the seed.

James was interested in collecting seed but didn’t know
how to do it. This is from Wikipedia:

“The seed cones are green and
mature to grayish brown, globular, and 2.0–3.5 cm (³⁄₄–1 ³⁄₈ in)
in diameter. They have from 20 to 30 spirally arranged, four-sided scales, each
bearing one, two, or rarely three triangular seeds. Around 20-40 seeds are in
each cone. The cones disintegrate at maturity to release the large seeds.”

Fruits of the Bottlebrush Buckeye, held at the tips of
the long flower stalks, are just beginning to mature. Most of the flowers in
the elongated clusters are male, pollen-producing flowers; only the flowers
near the tip of the cluster are female and capable of producing fruits.

Silvery Checkerspot

Asia and China
Section:

Camellias are a common sight in gardens throughout the
south but only rarely do you see the most famous Camellia of all, the Tea
Plant, from which all types of true teas are made, whether white, green, or
black. (When we talk about herbal teas, we should really put the word “tea” in
quotation marks.) Native to southeast China, the Tea Plant is now cultivated in
many parts of the world, though the best quality teas are thought to come from
northern India.

A group of Datana sp. caterpillars on Chinese Witch Hazel.

A single Datana sp. caterpillar in defense posture. Head is to left, tail to right.

A Chinese Witch Hazel gave us a surprise – a tightly
packed colony of moth caterpillars. (We embarrassed ourselves by first
identifying them as sawfly larvae.) These may be caterpillars of the Yellow-necked
Caterpillar Moth, Datana ministra, but
it would be safer to just list it as Datana
sp. because the other species look very much alike as caterpillars. They feed
together in a tight cluster and, when disturbed, all simultaneously raise their
head end and abdominal end. Whether this works to prevent them from being eaten
is unknown, but it is entertaining.

Paperbark Maple, with backlit peeling orange paper-thin bark

Virginia Jumpseed is a great choice for a shady native
garden with moist soil. Native plants have small white flowers, but there are
cultivars available in the trade with red flowers. The leaves are often marked
with a brown chevron.

We keep finding newly metamorphosed toads. Some are
American Toads and others are Eastern Spadefoots (often called Spadefoot
Toads). Here’s a summary of the differences:

American Toad:

Warty skin

**Large, elongated parotoid
gland behind the eye

Pupil is horizontally
elliptical

Hind feet lack a “spade.”

Male breeding call a high
pitched trill 5 or more seconds in duration.

Listen
to recording of the American Toad call. (This video has a photo of the
American Toad with a very prominent parotoid gland.)

Eastern Spadefoot:

Skin smoother, with tiny, fine
warts.

**Parotoid gland is small,
inconspicuous and circular; on shoulder.

Pupil is vertically elliptical.

Hind feet with a black “spade.”
This
website has a photograph of the spade on an Eastern Spadefoot’s feet.

Back sometimes with a lighter
mark like a pair of reversed parentheses: “)(“

Male
breeding call a coarse, low pitched “eww.” A dense chorus sounds like
machinery operated in the distance.

Many of these characteristics are difficult to see in a
newly metamorphosed individuals.

**A parotoid gland is generally located behind the eye of
true toads, although a few other kinds also have them. It secretes a milky
fluid that contains substances that affect the heart and nervous system. The
secretion is produced only after the animal has been grossly mishandled, as
when grabbed by a dog or when the gland is forcibly squeezed to expel the
fluid.

Native
America/Southeast Tribes Section:

Plumleaf Azalea is native to a small area along the Georgia-Alabama border, where it occurs in moist ravines along the Chattahoochee and Flint rivers, mostly south of the Fall Line.

Splash-cups of the Striate Bird’s Nest Fungus. Raindrops striking the inside of the cup help disperse the spores.

By the way, many Ramblers think they can’t pronounce the
scientific names of the plants we see in the Garden. However, I noticed that
most folks had no problem today talking about Phlox, Magnolia, Hibiscus, or
Camellia. See–not so hard!

SUMMARY
OF OBSERVED SPECIES:

American Toad	Bufo (Anaxyrus) americanus
Blue Dasher dragonfly	Pachydiplax longipennis
Cicada Killer wasp	Sphecius speciosus
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail	Papilio glaucus
Sweet Bay Magnolia	Magnolia virginiana
Japanese Maple	Acer palmatum
Ambrosia Beetle	Xylosandrus crassiusculus (?)
Purple Coneflower	Echinacea purpurea
Cut-leaf Coneflower /Green-eyed Susan	Rudbeckia laciniata
Broad-headed Skink	Plestiodon laticeps
Willow Oak	Quercus phellos
Garden Phlox	Phlox paniculata
Scarlet Bee-balm	Monarda didyma
Appalachian Bergamot	Monarda fistulosa
Bumblebee	Bombus sp.
Blazing Star	Liatris spicata
Yellowwood tree	Cladrastis kentukea
Mountain Silverbell	Halesia tetraptera
Hibiscus	Hibiscus sp.
Flower Beetle	Family Scarabaeidae
Fragile Forktail	Ischnura posita
Bald Cypress	Taxodium distichum
Bottlebrush Buckeye	Aesculus parviflora
Silvery Checkerspot	Chlosyne nycteis
Tea Plant	Camellia sinensis
Chinese Witch Hazel	Hamamelis mollis
Datana moth caterpillars	Datana sp.
Voodoo Lily	Dracunculus vulgaris
Paperbark Maple	Acer griseum
Virginia Jumpseed	Persicaria virginiana
Eastern Spadefoot	Scaphiopus holbrookii
Plumleaf Azalea	Rhododendron prunifolium
Striate Bird’s Nest Fungus	Cyathus striatus

SUMMARY OF OBSERVED SPECIES

<insert table here>