Ramble Report July 28 2022
Leader for
today’s Ramble: Linda
Author of today’s
Ramble report: Linda
Fungus and insect identifications: Don
Hunter and Bill Sheehan
Link
to Don’s Facebook album for this Ramble. All
the photos that appear in this report, unless otherwise credited, were taken by
Don Hunter.
Number of
Ramblers today: 27
Today’s
emphasis: Searching for Pine Sap but finding lots of Tipularia, fungi, and floodplain wildflowers instead…mostly fungi.
Reading: From the July 22 entry in Donald Culross Peattie’s An Almanac for Moderns, first published in 1935.
“The summer world is the insect world. Like it or not, that is how it is. There are few insects that ever find the day too hot. The more relentlessly the sun beats down around my house, the faster whir the wings of the hovering wasp. Dragonflies are roused to a frenzy by the heat, dashing over the brown surface of the ponds with a metallic clicking of their wings that makes them seem like machines. The wasps grow ever more irritable with the heat, their bodies palpitating with alert life….Of all the rivals of [humanity] for dominance on this earth, no other creatures large enough to be seen with the naked eye have held out successfully save the insects. When we clear the forest, we rid ourselves of the forest insects, only to make way for the field insects. [Farmers] sow their crops–and what comes up? A host of long-faced, armor-plated locusts who eat [them] out of house and home. We strike at them, but it is like striking at the sea. Whatever way we turn we find the insects there before us, in water, in air, on the earth, and under it.”
LC note: After selecting this reading, I reflected with sadness that, in 1935, Peattie could not have anticipated what is now being recognized as an “insect apocalypse,” the disappearance of 75% of insects in the past 50 years. Although this figure has been contested, I think there’s little doubt that the number of insects in our lives has been reduced. The windshield doesn’t lie.
Show and
Tell: Susan brought
in a strand of Chinese Yam vine, each leaf axil bearing a small round “potato”called a bulbil, i.e. a branch
that is modified into a small aerial tuber. Also known as Cinnamon Yam (no relation to the spice!), this species is one of several Asian yams
that are native to China, all of which are serious invasives in the southeast. There are two native species of Dioscorea in Georgia,
both known as Wild Yam. Plants in this genus have long been used as medicinals;
a synthetic version of a compound found in the massive underground tubers of a Mexican species was the basis
for early birth control pills.
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|
Chinese Yam bulbil |
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| Chinese Yam leaf Photo by James H. Miller, USDA Forest Service, Bugwood.org |
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Chinese Yam spreads primarily by producing the aerial “potatoes” that fall to the ground Photo © Chris Evans, Bugwood.org https://www.invasive.org/browse/subinfo.cfm?sub=4527 |
Announcements: The
online store for new Nature Rambler shirts and hoodies will start on July 31 and will run for
2 weeks. Order early! Dale will send out an email soon with the link to place an
order between July 31- August 13. You will have the choice of paying for shipping OR picking
up your shirts at Satisfactory Printing; orders will NOT be delivered at a
ramble. The shirts will cost $20 and the sweatshirt $35. All proceeds go to the
Friends of the Garden. We must have at least 24 items ordered.
Today’s
Route:We left the Children’s
Garden arbor and headed down the White Trail Spur. We followed it down to the Orange Trail Spur
and took it over to the Orange Trail proper and headed down river until we came
to the Purple Trail, which we took back up to the Herb and Physic Gardens and the
Visitor Center.
OBSERVATIONS:
Two large-leaved species — one native, one exotic and invasive — caught our attention as we walked through the “fallen Chestnut” in the Forest Play Area of the Children’s Garden.
Chinese Parasol Tree
With
its huge, lobed, opposite leaves and smooth, gray-green bark, this
invasive species is unmistakable — and awaiting Gary’s attention!
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| Tall Pawpaw leaves are up to 12 inches long and host the caterpillars of the dramatically marked Zebra Swallowtail |
Ramblers spent a few minutes examining Tall Pawpaw leaves,
looking for eggs and larvae of Zebra Swallowtails, without success.
As we turned onto the White
Trail Spur, we hoped to find flowering Cranefly Orchids and to re-locate
the Pinesap plants that we discovered along here last July.
Both are species
that rely for their existence on a relationship with an underground fungus –
which seemed appropriate on this week’s ramble where fungus observations far
outnumbered plants and insects. In this type of symbiotic relationship, herbaceous
plants such as the Cranefly Orchid and Pinesap are connected to an underground
fungus that is, in turn, connected to the roots of a photosynthetic plant such as a tree;
the fungus extracts and uses 10-20% of the carbohydrates manufactured by the
tree but also passes some carbs to the herbaceous plant that is connected to it.
What
do the trees get out of this three-way relationship? Increasingly, science is discovering
the many ways that vast underground networks of mycorrhizal fungi – “the wood
wide web”– support the forest ecosystem. Mycorrhizae greatly improve a tree’s
uptake of water and nutrients by increasing the tree root’s absorptive surface
area up to 60 (!) times. In addition, the fungal partner provides some degree
of disease resistance, enriches the forest soil by promoting the health of
nitrogen-fixing plants and solubilizing phosphorus, and provides a sort of
communication system between and among tree species. Although mycorrhizal fungi
represent only 10% of known fungal species, about 90% of land plants rely on
them to some extent. A nice interview with Suzanne Simard, who has extensivly researched mycorrhizal partnerships, is here.
Cranefly Orchids are in
full bloom now, their half-inch flowers
as spectacularly showy as ever (just kidding).
Here is an excerpt from the
blog report that Dale wrote in July 2019 describing Cranefly Orchids:
“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 dark green on the top surface,
rich velvety purple on the lower surface, and pleated and dotted with black
warts. 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, nonphotosynthetic 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). The
flowers are pollinated by noctuid moths; another known pollinator is the
armyworm moth, Mythimna unipuncta, formerly known as Pseudaletia
unipuncta).
As with most
orchids, Tipularia pollen is packaged in a sack called a pollinium. Each
pollinium contains thousands of pollen grains. When a moth visits the flower
for nectar it bumps into the pollinium which sticks to the moth’s eye. The
pollinium will be transferred to the next blossom the moth visits, where it
gets scraped off and the contained pollen fertilizes thousands of tiny orchid ovules.”
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| Rambler looking for Cranefly Orchid pollinia |
Dale’s report continues: “Wild orchids are
famous for taking off a year or two or even ten between blooms, their corms or
rhizomes lying dormant in the soil. You may wonder, as do plant biologists,
what is the benefit of such long dormant periods, when the plant can’t
photosynthesize. It may have to do with the fact that orchids are
mycorrhizal–their roots are attached to an underground fungus. The fungus may
also be attached to another plant that is actively photosynthesizing and
passing the sugars to the orchid’s underground storage organ via the fungus. If
this is the case, the orchid is parasitizing the mycorrhizal fungus, as well as
the fungus’ other partner. Though not confirmed, this three-way relationship
between the orchid, the fungus, and the aboveground plant may provide enough
nutrients for the orchid to build its strength in preparation for the next
flowering period.”
Pinesap photo taken in 2021
But, where oh where are the Pinesaps this year? Not along this trail today, that’s for sure. Perhaps they were suppressed by the dry spell we had in late spring (a total of only 4 inches for the months of May and June, compared to 8 inches in those months last year). A study published in 2009 found that drought reduces “reproductive effort and output” of Pinesap and a closely related species; so, we are left hoping for a wetter spring next year. In the meantime, here is a photo from last summer and a link to last year’s ramble report on this fascinating species.
Once we made it to the Orange Trail Spur along the base of the slope, we began to encounter some summer-blooming wildflowers.
False Nettle is “false” only in the sense that it does not bear stinging hairs;
it is a member of the Nettle Family, Urticaceae.
Photo by R.A. Nonenmacher, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:
Boehmeria_cylindrica_SCA-6109-10.jpg
Lizard’s Tail, a wetland plant, is abundant
in the lowest, wettest part of the floodplain. It is past flower today but Don’s photo
from June, 2021 shows the curved flower cluster that inspires
the name.
These Hammock Spiderlily buds will probably open the next evening; the flowers last only one night and wither the next morning, but plenty of buds ensure a long flowering period. Not a “true” lily, spiderlilies are members of the Amaryllis family. They are pollinated by night-flying moths.
Wingstems, genus Verbesina, are fairly ordinary plants that don’t get a lot of attention from ramblers, but were today the star of the Orange Trail Spur: to the right, Alternate-leaved Wingstem, and below, the similar Yellow Crownbeard, with opposite leaves. Both have winged stems and both are larval host plants for the Silvery Checkerspot butterfly’s larvae.
Leaf miner trails etch the surface of many of the wingstem leaves. The narrowest end of the trail is the point where the leaf miner female laid her egg. Once the egg hatches, the ever-enlarging larva carves an ever-widening trail as it travels the leaf, eating everything in its path. What is most amazing is that this is all taking place inside the leaf, between the upper and lower leaf surfaces — a safe hideout from predators. At some point, the larva is ready to metamorphose into an adult, which then exits the leaf through a tiny hole it chews on the underside of the leaf, below.
The real show-stopper in the wingstem patch today were leaves that were covered with hundreds of tiny, black caterpillars of the Silvery Checkerspot butterfly. Sandy shared that her go-to butterfly source, Butterflies of the East Coast: An Observer’s Guide by Rick Cech and Guy Tudor, says that a female Silvery Checkerspot may lay more than 100 eggs on the underside of a host leaf, and that caterpillars in the early stages will “skeletonize leaves in communal forays,” before moving on to the next leaf. Yes, indeed.
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| Dozens of Silvery Checkerspot caterpillars – in a “communal foray” – have skeletonized this wingstem leaf. Photo by Toni Senory |
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| Silvery Checkerspot caterpillars clinging to the remains of a wingstem leaf. |
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| Daddy Longlegs resting on a wingstem leaf. Leaf miners have come and gone from this leaf. |
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| More excitement in the wingstem patch — a Sydney Opera House imitator! Actually it’s the pupa of a parastic moth, Fulgoraecia exigua, that attacks leaf hoppers. Photo, identification, and comment by Bill Sheehan. |
St. Andrew’s Cross is in
the same genus as St. John’s-wort. It is a low but erect, evergreen
shrub that occupies moist to dry slopes and blooms from late spring to fall. The flowers are bright yellow with four narrow petals that form an “X” – the species is named for St. Andrew, the
patron saint of Scotland, who was reportedly martyred on an X-shaped cross. Beneath
the petals are two large, oval sepals and two small, narrow, pointed sepals.
The pair of large sepals enclose the fruit and persist on the plant into the winter, making
this an easy-to-identify target for winter botanizing. Like most of the woody
members of this genus, the branches are stiff with reddish, shredding bark and,
like all members of the St. John’s-wort family, its leaves and branches are opposite.
Several species of slime mold adorn rotten logs, plant stems, and leaf litter along the trails today. There’s a nice intro to slime molds at this link.
Ceratiomyxa poroides slime mold.
The bright white color and honey-comb structure is a
pleasure to see.
An unidentified species of slime mold, possibly Physarum, says Don.
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| Ceratiomyxa fruticulosa slime mold |
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| Dog Vomit slime mold on a muscadine leaf |
| Wolf’s Milk Slime Mold is an amoeba that resembles a fungus. The orange fruiting bodies occur on damp, rotting wood. Photo by Toni Senory |
Recent afternoon thunderstorms have brought out a diverse array of
fungi along the Orange Trail Spur and the Orange and Purple Trails. Below are photos of some of today’s amazing bounty.
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| Crown-tipped Coral Fungus grows on the decaying wood of downed hardwoods. It is always white or cream-colored, and each erect branch is tipped with a “crown” of 3-6 points. |
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| Troop Mushrooms, possibly Cross-veined Troops. Photo by Toni Senory |
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| Peppery Milkcap is white throughout except for its cream-colored gills. Break the cap or gills and white latex oozes from the wound (below). |
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| Peppery Milkcap mushroom oozing “milk” from the gills. |
Violet-gray Bolete has a large, pancake-like cap with pinkish pores
(not gills) on the lower surface.
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| Smooth Chanterelle has a smooth or shallowly wrinkled lower surface. It forms mycorrhizal partnerships with oak trees. |
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| Old Man of the Woods’s scientific name translates descriptively as “woolly mushroom that resembles a pine cone.” |
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| Cluster of Oak-loving Gymnopus |
| Fleecy Milkcap Mushroom’s white cap has a soft, velvety feel; the latex that oozes from the gills or cap is cream-colored (below). |
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| Fleecy Milkcap Mushroom’s with drops of “milk” |
Lower suface of the
cap of Ornate Stalked Bolete dislaying the pores that distinguish
mushrooms in the bolete family. Instead of gills, boletes have tubes
where spores are produced; the tubes are open at the outer end from
which spores are released. Most boletes are in mycorrhizal partnerships
with trees.
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| Yellow American Blusher Mushroom cap has yellow, warty remnants of the volva that enclosed the emerging mushroom. |
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| Yellow American Blusher stalk and cap bruise a reddish color if damaged. |
Unknown fungus spreading from the base of a Northern Red Oak (close-up photo below). Both photos by Toni Senory.
| Shaggy Stalked Bolete This 9-inch tall beauty was growing at the edge of the woods. The close-up photo of the stem (below) captures the characteristic shagginess. |
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| The aptly named Collared Parachute mushrooms grow on dead wood or decaying leaf litter. They have ribbed caps that are less than half an inch wide and a delicate stem less than 1 mm wide. The widely spaced gills are not attached to the stem. |
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| Enveloping Crust Fungus
amorphous masses on the ground, engulfing leaves, twigs, plant stems, and so on Source: https://ultimate-mushroom.com/poisonous/709-sebacina-incrustans.html engulfs leaf litter, living plants, or anything else Mycorrhizal with hardwoods; growing in amorphous masses on the ground, engulfing leaves, twigs, plant stems, Source: https://ultimate-mushroom.com/poisonous/709-sebacina-incrustans.html amorphous masses on the ground, engulfing leaves, twigs, plant stems, and so on Source: https://ultimate-mushroom.com/poisonous/709-sebacina-incrustans.html |
And thanks to Emily for sharing this link to a fascinating article about fungi: “Unearthing the Secret Superpowers of Fungus: In the fight against warming, a formidable ally hides just beneath our feet.”
SUMMARY OF OBSERVED SPECIES
Chinese Parasol Tree Firmiana simplex
Tall Pawpaw Asimina triloba
Cranefly Orchid Tipularia discolor
Jack-in-the-Pulpit Arisaema triphyllum
Muscadine Muscadinia rotundifolia
Common Wingstem Verbesina alternifolia
Yellow Crownbeard Verbesina occidentalis
Daddy Longlegs Family Opiliones
False Nettle Boehmeria cylindrica
Silvery Checkerspot butterfly (caterpillars) Chlosyne nycteis
Lizard’s Tail Saururus cernuus
Hammock Spiderlily Hymenocallis occidentalis
Wood Thrush (sound) Hylocichla mustelina
Spotted Jewelweed Impatiens capensis
Eastern Wild-rye Elymus virginicus
Mariana Island Maiden Fern Thelypteris torresiana
Leafhopper Parasite Moth pupa Fulgoraecia exigua
St. Andrew’s Cross Hypericum hypericoides
Coral Slime Mold Ceratiomyxa fruticulosa
Coral Slime Mold (Second form) Ceratiomyxa poroides
Physarum slime mold (No common name) Physarum viride (tentative)
Dog Vomit slime mold Fuligo septica
Wolf’s Milk Slime Mold Lycogala epidendrum
Crown-tipped Coral mushroom Artomyces pyxidatus
Ornate Stalked Bolete Retiboletus ornatipes
Yellow American Blusher Amanita flavorubens
Russula sp. Russula sp.
Shaggy Stalked Bolete Aureoboletus betula
Violet Gray Bolete Tylopilus plumbeoviolaceus
Smooth Chanterelle Cantharellus lateritius
Old
Man of the Woods Strobilomyces
floccopus
Oak-loving
Gymnopus Gymnopus dryophius
Milkcap
mushroom Lactifluus subvellereus
Hypholoma Hypholoma subviride (tentative)
Peppery Milkcap Lactifluus piperatus
Collared Parachute mushrooms Marasmius rotula
Enveloping Crust fungus Sebacina incrustans