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.