Ramble Report July 7, 2022 

Leader for today’s Ramble: Linda Chafin

Authors of today’s report: Linda

Insect identifications: Don Hunter, Heather Larkin, Dale Hoyt

Linkto Don’s
Facebook album for this Ramble. All the photos that appear in this report,
unless otherwise credited, were taken by Don Hunter.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.6022574794425702&type=3

27 Ramblers today 

Announcements:  

Bob announced a new David Attenborough series, “The Green Planet,” showing on PBS. Filmed over a period of three years in 27 different countries, it consists of five episodes.

Today’s emphasis:  What’s blooming and who’s eating who in the right-of-way

Reading: Today we had two readings….

Kathy had a reading from a rabbinic midrash: 

“There is a wonderful Chasidic story about the child of a
rabbi who used to wander in the woods. At first his father let him wander, but
over time he became concerned. The woods were dangerous. He did not know what
lurked there. He decided to discuss the matter with his child. 

One day he took
him aside and said, ‘You know, I have noticed that each day you walk into
the woods. I wonder, why do you go there?’

The boy said to his father, ‘I go there to find
God.’

‘That is a very good thing,’ the father replied
gently. ‘I am glad you are searching for God. But, my child, don’t you
know that God is the same everywhere?’

‘Yes,’ the boy answered, ‘but I am not.'”

***********

Terry brought in our second reading, excerpted from an interview with Ed Yong, science writer, in Publisher’s Weekly (link to interview):

“There is one thing that I keep thinking about: if you look at all the colors of the flowers around you and consider what kind of eye would be best at telling them apart, what you end up with is an eye that’s basically exactly like what a bee has. You might think, then, that the bee has evolved an eye that’s really good at seeing flowers. And actually, you would be completely wrong. It’s the other way around. The bees came first and the flowers came after, which means that flower colors evolved to tickle the eyes of bees and other insects. And I think that’s just a truly magical thing to discover.”

Show and Tell: 

Heather brought in a branch from a White Oak tree; every leaf had been extensively damaged by Solitary Oak Leaf Miners, caterpillars so tiny they can actually feed between the upper and lower surfaces of the leaves, then go on to spin a cocoon and pupate there as well. The adult form is a very small, silvery moth with tan markings on its wings. For more information and suggestions for reducing leaf miner damage to your trees, check this link.

Tom brought two dead male Hercules beetles that he collected beneath an outdoor light at his house.

 Today’s Route: We left the Children’s Garden arbor and wove our way through the Shade Garden and over to the the Georgia Power right-of-way. We ventured briefly down the ROW but then turned north and walked up the ROW nearly to the top of the hill. From there we returned to the Visitor Center via the road.

Today’s Observations:

The small stand of Sweetshrub in the Lower Shade Garden blooms regularly but bears only a few fruits each year, relying more on vegetative spread than sexual reproduction. It may be that the sap beetles that pollinate Sweetshrub flowers are in short supply in this part of the Garden. Sweetshrub’s ancestors evolved early in the history of flowering plants, about 97 million years ago, and are pollinated mainly by sap beetles. Sap beetles (family Nitidulidae) are small dull-colored insects that mainly eat decaying vegetation, over-ripe fruit, and sap. They are drawn to Sweetshrub’s flowers by their fragrance which has been described as a mixture of melon, banana, pineapple, and strawberry. (Here’s a link to a great article about Sweetshrub pollination.) 

Sweetshrub ‘fruit’ is a bit of a misnomer – what appears to be a lumpy green fruit is actually a fleshy structure called a floral tube, formed when the lower part of petals, sepals, and stamens fuse together. If the flower is pollinated and ovules are fertilized, the floral tube expands and encloses the developing seeds. 

Sweetshrub fruit with mature seeds. Photo by Dan Tenaglia

Sweetshrub fruit opened by a rodent. Photo by Gary Knight.

Once the seeds mature, the sack-like tube dries and turns brown. It persists on the shrub through the winter; mice and other rodents tear open the sack and make off with the seeds. 

We first thought this Mabel Orchard Orbweaver was our first sighting of a Joro spider of the year — that actually happened later in the ramble. So it begins….

Chinese Pistache Tree

A small Chinese Pistache Tree growing along the White
Trail Spur has so far escaped Gary’s eradication efforts. Pistache Trees
of both sexes were planted in several places in the Garden decades ago, guaranteeing its spread. Although not on the Georgia
Exotic Pest Plant Council’s list of invasive species, it is expected to become a widespread problem,
especially if both sexes are sold. Its leaves resemble those of several
native trees but the crushed vegetation has a distinctive– and very
unpleasant–odor.

Yaupon Holly in fruit. Yaupon is the only native North American plant containing caffeine and was a valuable trade item among Native Americans

Hop Hornbeam in fruit The fruits – small, seedlike nutlets – are contained in the slightly inflated sacs that make up the fruit clusters. There are 10-30 sacs per cluster and only one nutlet per sac. The clusters of sacs superficially resemble the flower clusters of the hop plants (no relation) that are used in beer-making.

Red-femured Orbweaver spiders are easily identifiable by their red leg segments and the “cat-face” pattern on their abdomens.

Heather found a tiny Meadow Katydid nymph

The single Red Buckeye tree in the ROW is loaded with fruit. Each of its flower clusters has many flowers but only the flowers at the base of the cluster will bear fruit; the rest of the flower cluster has been shed, leaving behind only a bit of the dried stalk seen in Don’s photo.

Cross-section of a Red Buckeye fruit. It is typical for each fruit to contain two or three developing seeds and one or more aborted seeds.

Unlike the Red Buckeye, which flowered in April, Bottlebrush Buckeye blooms in the summer. Its fruits will closely resemble those of Red Buckeye. All buckeye species have highly toxic seeds.

Holly found a Field Cricket which we containerized for viewing.

A leaf-footed bug was also captured for viewing. It appears to be a late instar nymph of Acanthocephala terminalis, no common name.

Post Oak leaves

A small Post Oak sapling has so far escaped the maintenance mowing in the right-of-way. These tough trees are denizens of dry, open ridges and upper slopes. It comes equipped for droughts and dry soils: its leaves have a thick, waxy coating above and a felt-like coating of hairs below. It is also adapted to the frequent fires that used to sweep across Piedmont prairies and creep through Piedmont woodlands–it sprouts prolifically after fire and also after browsing.

Carolina Desert Chicory

Carolina Desert Chicory flower heads are composed of delicate, almost translucent, ray flowers that are a distinctive pale lemon yellow, different from the golden yellow of late summer’s sunflowers. But what’s up with that unwieldy name? The Carolina part it comes by honestly: the species name is carolinianus, indicating that the plant specimen on which the name was based was collected in “the Carolinas.” But desert…in the Carolinas? Of the four or five species in its genus, all but this one occur in the desert southwest of the U.S. and this one was swept up in the naming frenzy. And chicory? A bit more complicated: this species belongs to a subgroup of Aster Family plants called the Chicory Tribe (Cichorieae). Their flower heads are made up entirely of rays, all of which are fertile and capable of forming seeds. Disk flowers are absent. Instead, in the center of the head, you can see the dark anthers and yellow style branches belonging to each ray flower. If you’ve ever seen the blue flower heads of Chicory, you may recall the resemblance – other than the color – to this flower head. 

Photo by D. Mott

Blue flower head of Chicory

Little Sensitive Briar is in the genus Mimosa. Its flower heads resemble those of a Mimosa Tree.

Virginia Buttonweed in the moist, grassy areas of the right-of-way.

Southern Mountain Mint

Southern Mountain-mint is one of the most common wildflowers in the right-of-way and will be a pollinator magnet once the flowers open. Most mountain-mints have whitened bracts and calyxes that draw bees and butterflies to its otherwise inconspicuous flowers. The powdery white coating is called “pulverescence,” which shares a root word with pulverize–to reduce to powderiness (Thanks, Avis!). 

Redbud trees in the right-of-way are playing host to the caterpillars of Redbud Leaf-folder Moth. Dale wrote about this species in the July 10, 2014 Ramble Report: “Many insects and spiders fold or roll leaves to make a protective home that they can either retreat to or feed in. (Think of the fern leaf ball roller caterpillar we saw earlier this year.) So, it is was no surprise when someone noticed a folded leaf on a small Redbud. Carefully opening it, we discovered not one but two small caterpillars. They were light colored with numerous black rings encircling their bodies. This turned out to be the Redbud Leaf-folder caterpillar…Folded or rolled leaf shelters can provide protection from parasitic wasps and other predators, but some animals are capable of using the folded leaves as a sign of a tasty meal inside. An observer on buguide.net indicated that two birds, titmice and chickadees, were seen foraging on folded redbud leaves. When the leaves were examined after the birds left, no caterpillars were present.”

A folded Redbud leaf indicates that a Leaf-folder caterpillar is hiding (and eating) inside.

Black and white stripes mark the Redbud Leaf-folder Moth caterpillar, seen here with lots of frass

Delta Flower Scarab beetle

Heather took this photo of a Delta Flower Scarab beetle,
a first sighting for her and an old favorite of Don’s, who sees it each summer starting in late June or early July.

Thimbleweed flower is rare in the right-of-way but common and widespread throughout much of North America in areas with high-calcium soils.

Molted skin of a Praying Mantis

Short-horned Grasshopper on the leaves of White Crownbeard

Rustweed with its narrow, pointed leaves and tiny flowers. This plant forms circular mats on the ground, with the lower portions of the branches rusty-red at their bases.

Carolina Milkvine is still in flower.

We visited the right-of-way milkvine patch near the Sparkleberry tree on May 12
and found a large number of flowers. We returned today, expecting to see developing fruits. Instead, ever more
flower clusters were in full bloom or even still in bud. Milkvines are
close relatives of milkweeds and have the same risky
pollination system that depends on precise yet accidental leg
movements by pollinators. Details in last week’s blog!

Carolina Milkvine flower

Widow Skimmer dragonfly resting near the patch of Carolina Milkvine

A friendly Mischievous Bird Grasshopper hopped from one Rambler to the next. It was particularly fond of one of the flowers on Linda’s shirt.

Heal-all (aka Self-heal) living on this continent was long thought to be a European import. Recent molecular genetics work indicates that there is a native variety that differs in leaf shape; both are found in disturbed habitats such as the right-of-way.

Pencil Flower

Wild Petunias are abundant in the right-of-way.

Each Wild Petunia flower lasts only a day but the plants are prolific and continue blooming well into summer. The flowers provide nectar for butterflies, bees, wasps, and hummingbirds. It is a host plant for caterpillars of Common Buckeye butterflies.

SUMMARY OF OBSERVED SPECIES

Eastern White-tailed Deer     Odocoileus virginiana
Sweetshrub     Calycanthus floridus
Joro Spider     Trichonephila clavata
Chinese Pistache Tree      Pistacia chinensis
Clasping Heliotrope   Heliotropium amplexicaule
Yaupon Holly     Ilex vomitoria
American Hophornbeam     Ostrya virginiana
Meadow Katydid (nymph)     Conocephalus sp.
Red-femured Orbweaver spider     Neoscona domiciliorum
Red Buckeye     Aesculus pavia
Bottlebrush Buckeye   Aesculus parviflora
Field Cricket     Gryllus sp.
Leaf-footed Bug (no common name)     Acanthocephala terminalis
Post Oak     Quercus stellata
Carolina Desert Chicory     Pyrrhopappus carolinianus
Virginia Buttonweed     Diodia virginiana
Little Sensitive Briar     Mimosa microphylla
Southern Mountain-mint     Pycnanthemum pycnanthemoides
Foxtail grass     Setaria sp.
Elliott’s Milkpea     Galactia elliottii
Eastern Redbud tree     Cercis canadensis
Redbud Leaf-folder Moth (caterpillar)     Fascista cercerisella
Delta Flower Scarab beetle     Trigonopeltastes delta
White Crownbeard/Frostweed     Verbesina virginica
Short-horned Grasshopper  Melanoplus sp.
Thimbleweed     Anemone virginiana
Wild Bergamot     Monarda fistulosa
Daisy Fleabane     Erigeron sp.
Rustweed/Juniper Leaf     Polypremum procumbens
Praying Mantis (molted skin)     Family Mantidae
Carolina Milkvine     Matelea carolinensis
Widow Skimmer Dragonfly     Libellula luctuosa
Mischievous Bird Grasshopper     Schistocerca damnifica
Pencil Flower     Stylosanthes biflora
Starry Rosinweed     Silphium asteriscus
Versute Sharpshooter  Graphocephala versuta
Heal-all     Prunella vulgaris
Wild Petunia     Ruellia caroliniensis

Ramble Report June 30, 2022 

Leader for today’s Ramble: Heather Larkin

Authors of today’s report: Heather Larkin, Linda Chafin 

Insect identifications: Heather Larkin, Don Hunter

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.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.6022574794425702&type=3

27 Ramblers today 

Announcements:  

Linda announced that several folks responded to her request for Ramble co-leaders. Among those responding are Heather Larkin (insect specialist, naturalist, photographer, computer whiz), Bill Sheehan (fungi, galls, and insects expert), Holly Haworth (certified Appalachian naturalist, environmental journalist, UGA Ph.D. student, and more), Catherine Chastain (naturalist, veteran rambler), and Gary Crider (veteran rambler, invasive plant specialist). We are so happy to have this talented group of leaders! We met after today’s ramble and sorted out a leader calendar till the end of 2022, but new leaders are welcomed to step forward at any time!

Welcome to Heather on her first ramble as an official leader!

Today’s emphasis: Pollinators in the Front Plaza, Museum Pollinator Beds, Herb and Physic Gardens, and Heritage Garden

Reading:

Bob presented his recent poem, “To Be In England”
http://bobambrosejr-poetry.blogspot.com/2022/06/to-be-in-england.html

To Be in England
for Sarah and Alan, Maggie and Willa

May in the South is a mellow affair –
how I fling open windows and breathe in the night,
how scented air soothes my skin, 

how my house exhales. I let go my grip
and sleep with whispers that drift on the breeze.
I wake to the calls of cardinals and wrens. 

The back deck beckons.
I take my mornings outside
where titmice and phoebes sing through the trees. 

I crumple up my do-list,
place my age on pause, and waste
whole days dreaming. A gentle rhythm 

settles in as new life quickens.
These are the weeks when springtime matures
and I would not leave them lightly. 

But I would fly four thousand miles and more –

To be in England when elderberry blooms,
and dog rose decorates embankments. 

The England of greenswards, copses and hedgerows,
of white lace flowering the shoulders of roads 

that carry me back to my daughter’s home
to slip on the role of grandpa again. 

To bask in a baby’s toothless smile
and feel the strength as she squirms for her mum.

To match wits with a cheeky toddler wielding
a mischievous grin. To watch her tussle 

then cuddle with dad. To embed in the bustle,
the banter, the tears, the staccato exuberance 

of playgrounds and parks. To be the old ‘grampa’
rolling a buggy down paths by the willows 

to a bend in the river where cygnets hatch
and hew to the wake of an elegant swan. 

As nights chase days, my weeks slip by – 

One morning I rise, home to gardenia
beginning to brown in the blaze of a summer
come too soon where I find myself just
another elder again wandering the aisles
of Kroger foraging for what I forgot.
 

*******

Show and Tell: 

Gary brought several specimens of the Class 1 invasive, Chinese Tallow Tree (AKA Popcorn Plant or Florida Aspen) from the Greenway. Native to tropical and subtropical Asia, it has been designated by The Nature Conservancy as “one of the ten worst alien plant invaders in the U.S.” Its destructive spread has been largely confined to lowland areas along the Gulf coast as far west as Texas and to barriers islands of Georgia and South Carolina. It is dismaying to find it as far inland as Athens; Kathy said it is present in great numbers at Heritage Park in Oconee County. It has undoubtedly spread from nearby planted trees; a quick search for this species on the internet finds that it is still for sale from a number of vendors.

Chinese Tallow Tree

Today’s Route:   We left the Children’s Garden arbor and headed to the flower beds in the plaza in front of the Visitor Center and around the Porcelain and Decorative Arts Museum. We then made our way to the Herb and Physic Garden and the Heritage Garden before returning to the Visitor Center’s Garden Room for the social hour.

Mexican Sunflowers are often planted in the beds outside the Visitor Center. It’s native to Mexico and Central America, and its flower heads are always busy with pollinators. In addition to the insects photographed below, we have seen butterflies, hummingbirds, and carpenter bees visit their flowers. This tall annual plant has velvety stems and more of less triangular leaves with winged leaf stalks.

Virginia Giant Hoverfly visiting the disk flowers in a Mexican Sunflower head Hoverflies are bee mimics, but you can always tell them apart from bees by the antennae. Bee antennae come out of the top of their heads, fly antennae come out of their foreheads right between their big giant eyes. There seem to be quite a lot of fly “wannabees” and this link will tell you more.

Fiery Skipper

Common Eastern Bumble Bee

North American Tarnished Plant Bug

Red Salvia is a bee magnet — today we saw both Eastern Carpenter Bees and Western Honey Bees visiting its flowers. Both species were “nectar robbing,” a term that describes how larger bees get nectar from smaller tubular flowers like those of Salvia. Smaller bees and butterflies insert their heads into the natural opening at the front of the flower to reach the nectar; in the process, pollen is rubbed onto their heads that is (hopefully) deposited in the next flower they visit. Large bees, like Carpenter Bees, whose heads will not fit into the natural flower opening, have learned to access nectar by chewing a hole in the base of the flower and extracting nectar through that opening. Bypassing the regular pollination route means the “nectar robbers” are not pollinating the plant.

Eastern Carpenter Bee nectar robbing from a Red Salvia flower

Honeybee tongues are too short to access nectar through the front of the flower and they also lack the mouth parts to chew into the flower, but they have learned to find and use the openings made by Carpenter Bees, demonstrating that bees can learn to access a nectar source that would not otherwise be available to them.

Common Eastern Bumble Bee on ‘Little Joe’ flower heads.

Georgia is home to three species of Joe-Pye-Weed (Eutrochium spp.) including Three-nerved Joe-Pye-Weed, a plant of Coastal Plain wetlands; our other two species are largely mountain plants. ‘Little Joe’ is a cultivar of Three-nerved Joe-Pye-Weed, and is a big hit with gardeners and pollinators. Today we saw Common Eastern Bumble Bees and Large Milkweed Bugs visiting its flower heads.

Swamp Milkweed flowers

An abundance of Swamp Milkweed was planted in the new beds behind the Porcelain and Decorative Arts Museum. Like other milkweeds, this species is a host plant for Monarch butterflies (though we did not see any caterpillars or adults today). It is also visited
by Milkweed Bugs (which are true bugs) that feed on milkweeds by
piercing the stems, leaves, and fruits and sucking the toxic sap. The
toxins are incorporated into their tissues, and their orange and black
coloration, being similar to Monarchs, are warning colors that let
predators know they taste terrible. The bugs are not usually detrimental
to the milkweed plant; efforts to eradicate them may also have a
negative impact on Monarchs.

Milkweed Bug adults with nymphs in several different instar stages

Milkweed Bug adult

Oleander Aphid infestation on Swamp Milkweed

Blackberry Lilies are actually an Iris!

The Herb and Physic Garden and Heritage Garden were buzzing with bees….and wasps and hornets and a Fiery Skipper or two.

Common Eastern Bumblebee on Purple Coneflower. Bumblebees are easy to distinguish from Carpenter Bees: Bumbles are smaller, and they have fuzzy butts. Carpenters are larger, and they have shiny, smooth butts.

Common Eastern Bumblebee on Clasping Heliotrope

European Hornet attacking and capturing a Western Honey Bee. European Hornets don’t collect nectar at all. They prey on other insects, honey bees being a primary target. They will follow honey bees back to the nest and invade, sometimes killing the whole colony. They also attack and eat other insects such as  grasshoppers, flies, and yellow jackets.

Fraternal Potter Wasp on Fennel flowers. Potter wasps sting and paralyze caterpillars and cart them off to small mud ‘pots,’ laying eggs on them. The eggs hatch out and the larvae eat the live, paralyzed  caterpillars before becoming adult wasps.

Tiny Black Swallowtail caterpillars feeding on Fennel stalks. Black Swallowtail caterpillars have a unique defense mechanism. If picked up, they extend yellow appendages from their heads, bend over backwards, and rub these all over the predator. It totally stinks (and will last through several hand washings). If that’s not enough, the caterpillar will barf its last meal all over the predator! Video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sA2Y-jNqI4&ab_channel=BugoftheWeek

Western Honeybee nectaring on Oregano flowers

Yellow Bedstraw or Lady’s Bedstraw. Yellow Bedstraw was used in the Middle Ages to stuff mattresses because its odor repels fleas. It was also used to curdle milk to make cheese; the Bedstraw genus name “Galium” has the same root word as “galaxy” — both refer to milk.

Spiny Soldier Bug eggs on a leaf of Yellow Bedstraw. These are a type of stink bug. The nymphs hatch out bright red and then turn brown as they progress to adult stages.

Common European Greenbottle Fly

Asian Long-legged Fly Long-legged flies are predators, eating tiny insects like leaf hoppers, thrips, and mites.

SUMMARY OF OBSERVATIONS:
Mexican Sunflower     Tithonia rotundifolia
Virginia Giant Hoverfly     Milesia virginiensis
Common Eastern Bumble Bee     Bombus impatiens
North American Tarnished Plant Bug     Lygus lineolaris
Fiery Skipper     Hylephila phyleus
Red Salvia     Salvia coccinea
Eastern Carpenter Bee     Xylocopa virginica
Three-nerved Joe-Pye-Weed ‘Little Joe’ cultivar     Eutrochium dubium
Large Milkweed Bug     Oncopeltus fasciatus
Swamp Milkweed     Asclepias incarnata
Scarlet Beebalm     Monarda didyma
Purple Coneflower     Echinacea purpurea
Oleander aphids     Aphis nerii
Lemon Beebalm     Monarda citriodora
Clasping Heliotrope     Heliotropium amplexicaule
Oregano      Origanum vulgare  
Brazilian Vervain     Verbena brasiliensis
Western Honey Bee     Apis mellifera
Silvery Checkerspot     Chlosyne nycteis
European Hornet     Vespa crabro
Blackberry Lily     Iris domestica
Red-shouldered Hawk     Buteo lineatus
Fennel    Foeniculum vulgare
Fraternal Potter Wasp     Eumenes fraternus
Eastern Black Swallowtail (caterpillar)     Papilio polyxenes
Spiny Soldier Bug (eggs)     Podisus maculiventris
Yellow Bedstraw, Ladies’ Bedstraw     Galium verum
Common European Greenbottle Fly     Lucilia sericata
Asian Long-legged Fly     Condylostylus sp.
Green Lacewing (larvae)     Chrysoperla sp.
Fall Webworm Moth (caterpillar)     Hyphantria cunea

Leader for today’s Ramble, Linda Chafin
Today’s emphasis:  Seeking what we find in the Lower Shade Garden and the Dunson Garden.

Don’s Facebook Album contains all the photos he took on today’s ramble. Unless otherwise credited, all the photos that appear here are courtesy of Don Hunter.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.6000650206618161&type=3

21 Ramblers today
Show-and-Tell:

Musclewood fruit

Richard brought the infructescence from a Musclewood tree, resembling that of a Hophornbeam, but more leaflike.

American Basswood fruits

Richard drops in with American Basswood fruits. Gary looks on in amazement.

Richard also brought a number of fruits of an American Basswood. Each cluster of small fruits was suspended by a stalk attached to a leaf-like bract. The bract is shed from the tree and can, in a wind, carry the fruits a considerable distance away from the parent tree.

Spider attacked by Cordydeps fungus

Bill brought a dead spider that had been infected with a Cordycep fungus. The fungus grows throughout the body of the spider, killing it. The fungus then sends out spore producing structures. The fungus causes the infected host to climb to a location like an exposed leaf before it dies. Such places are optimal for the dispersal of spores.
 

Announcements:

• Emily announced a new run on the old style Nature Rambler’s t-shirt (dragonfly design).  She will provide details later.

• Dale announced that he has decided to step down as a Nature Ramble co-leader, handing the reins over to Linda.  She has asked that other Ramblers volunteer to take every other Ramble, including being prepared with a reading.  No requirements other than lead to a favorite area at the Garden, with the understanding that we will have no trouble finding things to look at and talk about.  We will also hopefully have guest leaders pop in from time to time.  There will be a party at a future date to honor Dale and celebrate his contributions to the Nature Ramble group.

Reading:  Sue brought an interesting reading, a completely fortuitous composition created by cutting out a piece of note paper from a page of “printed on one side” text, intending to use the blank side for a grocery list.  She calls it “ng again”

 .

Ng up in the Southern woods right now
How thoroughly invasive plants import
er the surrounding fields and forests.
sing in the branches of Bradford pear
on ivy vines that coil around them, too.
nness.  I can hardly help greeting them
to understand what invasive species
ness.  It’s entirely possible to understa
n this moment of dread and grief and
peeking out from the dead leaves o
icker of happiness that somehow leaps
e very saddest funerals, we can hear
a stagger out of an appointment.

Today’s Route:   We left the Children’s Garden pergola and headed directly down the right-side path into the Lower Shade Garden.  We wound our way through the Shade Garden and eventually entered the Dunson Native Flora Garden on the mulched path beginning at the old commemorative Dunson Native Flora Garden sign.  We walked all of the mulched paths containing ferns before heading4 back up to the Children’s Garden, entering at the comfort station. 

LIST OF OBSERVATIONS:
 

American South Section:

Beebalm, Monarda didyma

Bald Cypress cones

Bald Cypress knees

 
Flower Bridge:

Long-legged Fly, killer of mites

Bottlebrush Buckeye in full bloom

Bottlebrush Buckeye inflorescence closeup

Bottlebrush Buckeye is in full bloom.  The flowers were visited by many insects, including bumble bees and butterflies.  

 
China and Asia Section:

Witch Hazel Spiny Gall

Witch Hazel Spiny Gall opened to show the aphids inside.

The Witch Hazel Spiny Gall aphid has a complex life cycle that involves two alternate host plants and numerous rounds of asexual reproduction on both hosts. Thrown in among this is the asexual production of winged forms that fly to the alternate hosts and reproduce sexually. If you are interested in the details you can find more information at this source.

 https://influentialpoints.com/Gallery/Hamamelistes_spinosus_spiny_witchhazel_gall_aphid.htm

Purple Trail:
 

Female (pistillate) Deciduous Holly showing the short shoots.

Deciduous Holly AKA Possumhaw Holly.  All the hollies in the southease are dioecious (male and female flowers are on separate plants).  Hollies also bear leaves on “short shoots.” These are shoots that have extremely short internodes, resulting in clusters of leaves all jammed together.  

Leaf mine on Deciduous Holly

Many insect leaf miners produce a snake-like path as they feed between the upper and lower epidermis of a leaf. This leaf mine lacks a roof and the brown edges suggest that its occupant has departed, leaving the :roof to fall away. The dark mass at the bottom is the accumulated bundle of frass (fecal material).

American Carrion Beetle

Tom found an American Carrion Beetle on the upper surface of a bracket fungus. Carrion beetles are usually flound in the later stages of decay in vertebrates. They feed on the dried skin and flesh of road-killed mammals. This resource suggests that they may be attracted to mushrooms. 

Two Witch’s Brooms at the base of an American Hophornbeam

We normally see Witch’s Broom in the upper reaches of a tree. But maybe we don’t always look for it down low. It’s caused by bacterial or viral infection of the tree. 

Conservatory Back Area:

Eastern Cottontail Rabbit

SPECIES OBSERVED:
Scarlet Beebalm     Monarda didyma
Mariana Island Lady Fern     Macrothelypteris torresiana
Bald Cypress     Taxodium distichum
Asian Long-legged Fly     Condylostylus longicornis
Bottlebrush Buckeye     Aesculus parviflora
Common Eastern Bumble bee     Bombus impatiens
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail      Papilio glaucus
Red-femured Spotted Orbweaver     Neoscona domiciliorum
Chinese Witch Hazel     Hamamelis mollis
Spiny Witch Hazel Gall aphid     Hamamelistes spinosus
Spined Stilt Bug     Jalysus wickhami
Northern Red Oak     Quercus rubra
Deciduous Holly AKA Possumhaw Holly (male and female)     Ilex decidua
Holly leaf miner (no ID)
American Carrion Beetle     Necrophila americana
American Hophornbeam     Ostrya virginiana
Crossvine     Bignonia capreolata
Eastern Gray Squirrel     Sciurus carolinensis
Eastern Cottontail Rabbit     Sylvilagus floridanus
 

Leader for
today’s Ramble: Linda Chafin

Author of
today’s report: Linda Chafin

Fungus and insect identifications: Don Hunter

Link to Don’s Facebook page for this Ramble. All
the photos that appear in this report, unless otherwise credited, were taken by
Don Hunter.

Today’s emphasis:  Ferns in the Lower Shade Garden and Dunson Native Flora Garden

21 Ramblers today
 
Show-and-Tell:  
 
Both Gary and Michael brought in a frond from the same fern species – Kunth’s Maiden Fern – for identification. This is a widely planted ornamental species as well as a common fern of moist, limestone-based lowlands in the Coastal Plain.

Halley brought in a single flower from her Eastern False-aloe plant. Don has been posting a series of photos of the developing flowers on an Eastern False-aloe he  found at one of his Ga Power ROW meadows. Eastern False-aloe is the only agave native to Georgia.

Announcements:  Sandy recommended “The Genius of Birds” by Jennifer Ackerman, and Linda seconds it. As this review puts it, “This book is a delight… There is another world of intelligence out there, and this is a great introduction to it.”

Some early arriving ramblers were greeted by a Carolina Anole on the split rail fence.

Reading:  Linda read “Turtle” from Kay Ryan’s “The Best of It: New and Selected Poems,” Grove Press, 2010. Here’s a link to the author reading the poem.

Turtle

Who would be a turtle who could help it?
A barely mobile hard roll, a four-oared helmet,
she can ill afford the chances she must take
in rowing toward the grasses that she eats.
Her track is graceless, like dragging
a packing case places, and almost any slope
defeats her modest hopes. Even being practical,
she’s often stuck up to the axle on her way
to something edible. With everything optimal,
she skirts the ditch which would convert
her shell into a serving dish. She lives
below luck-level, never imagining some lottery
will change her load of pottery to wings.
Her only levity is patience,
the sport of truly chastened things.

Today’s Route: We left the Children’s Garden arbor and wound
our way through the Shade Garden and the Dunson
Native Flora Garden, before heading back up to the Children’s
Garden.

Continue reading →

Nature Ramble Report for June 9, 2022 
Leader for today’s Ramble: Dale
Authors of today’s report: Linda and Dale

Link to Don’s Facebook post for this Ramble All the photos that appear in this
report, unless otherwise credited, were taken by Don Hunter.  

20 Ramblers today.

Today’s emphasis:  The Yucca plants in the Dunson Native Flora Garden, wildflowers in the right-of-way, and further discoveries in the Dunson Native Flora Garden.

Reading:  Don read from “A Long Island Meadow,” a chapter in Frances Theodora Parsons’ According to Season, published in 1902.
    “The
brilliant coloring which is a feature of this midsummer meadow is
intensified by the insect life which it sustains. Butterflies,
especially, seem to abound. They float over the nodding grasses or poise
quivering above a nectar-laden blossom or rest on some leafy plant, the
dull undersides of their folded wings blending with their surroundings
and diminishing the likelihood of attacks from their enemies.
    Not
only is a butterfly endowed with unusual beauty, but its life-history
is full of charm. Then, too, the very names of butterflies breathe
romance (unlike those of birds and plants, of which “Wilson’s thrush”
and “Clayton’s fern” form fair samples). Who would not yield to the
spell of the Wanderer, the Brown Elfin, the Little Wood Satyr, and the
Dreamy Dusky-wing?  Or who could resist the charm of the Painted Lady,
the Silver-spotted Hesperid, the Tawny Emperor, or the Red Admiral?
    In
the meadow, perhaps, the monarch or milkweed butterfly is one of the
most omnipresent. Indeed, this is probably the best-known butterfly in
the United States, as its broad, orange-red, black-bordered wings carry
it many hundreds of miles and make it conspicuous everywhere. In
addition to being the most widely distributed, it is one of the most
interesting of our butterflies. Its career is an amazing one. How so
fragile a creature can endure the fatigue and resist the storm and
stress incidental to a journey of thousands of miles, such as it is
believed to take when migrating to southern lands, and how such a
“shining mark” escapes destruction from its enemies, it is difficult to
understand. That this annual migration does take place seems fairly well
established. The butterfly is known to have marvelous powers of flight,
and along the coast in fall it has frequently been seen assembling in
flocks numbering hundreds of thousands, changing the color of the trees
on which it alights for the night.”

 
Show-and-Tell: 

Gary brought some filamentous algae he collected from the water feature behind the Porcelain Arts Museum. Looks can be deceiving: the swaying masses of algae in the pool looked slimy but actually have a texture more like cotton candy.

Bill dissected a fresh Oak Apple Gall, exposing the larval Cynipid wasp in the fibrous mass suspended inside the gall. The gall formed when a female Cynipid wasp injected an egg into a vein of a developing leaf, hijacking the process of leaf development. Instead of producing a leaf, the plant responded to the invasion by forming a structure around the egg, both isolating and protecting it. The egg hatches into a larva then a pupa and ultimately into an adult wasp that chews its way out of the gall and takes flight. The gall doesn’t always succeed in protecting its larval resident however; birds such as woodpeckers and chickadees have learned to open galls to reach the snack that is captive inside.

Today’s Route:  We left the
Children’s Garden pergola and took the entrance road to the lower end of
the Dunson Native Flora Garden. We visited the Yucca patch, then the
adjacent right-of-way, and returned to the Children’s Garden by way of
the Dunson Garden and Shade Garden paths.

OBSERVATIONS ON TODAY’S RAMBLE Continue reading →

Leader for today’s Ramble, Linda
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.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?vanity=don.hunter.56&set=a.5938741856142330

Number of Ramblers today: 32
 

Today’s emphasis:  Trees (Lower Shade Garden, White Trail Spur and ROW)
 

Reading:  Dale read a passage about Johnny Appleseed from Treepedia:  A Brief Compendium of Arboreal Lore by
Joan Maloof. Roger recounted
how he and Pat recently came across a spring in Pleasant Valley, Ohio, that John Chapman (AKA Johnny Appleseed)
used for water during his wanderings. 

Show-and-Tell:

Southern Magnolia flower Stamens have fallen, exposing the dark red base of the receptacle; the golden stigmas are curling away from the ovaries that will comprise the aggregate fruit.

Although native to moist ravines in the Coastal Plain, Southern Magnolia is planted in parks and lawns throughout the south. Its flowering marks the beginning of summer for many southerners. Fossils from the Magnolia family are found in the fossil record as far back as 140 million years ago, making it the earliest flowering plant family to evolve (how we got from ferns and conifers to magnolias is still a multi-million year mystery). The flowers we see today resemble their ancient ancestors in two ways. Unlike most modern flowers, which have separate whorls of colorful petals and green sepals, Magnolia flowers (and other primitive families’ flowers such as Sweet Shrub’s) have undifferentiated “tepals,” a word for petal-like structures that function as both petals and sepals. At the center of the flower, a cone-shaped receptacle holds whorls of stamens at its base with whorls of curled stigmas above. The stigmas are attached to the ovaries that will eventually form an aggregate fruit with many seeds.

Roger brought a branch of Chinquapin in flower. The fuzzy white spikes contain the pollen-producing flowers. The spiny green structures will mature into nuts.

Richard brought some immature Osage Orange fruits festooned with dried, blackened style branches, each attached to one of the ovaries that make up this “multiple fruit”

Richard also brought a small wasp nest that we thought was probably made by Yellowjackets. It was partially enclosed by a fragile paper envelope.

Reading:  Dale read from the book “Treepedia:  A Brief Compendium of Arboreal Lore” by Joan Maloof.  The passage was about Johny Appleseed. Roger recounted how he and Pat, two weeks ago, while in Ohio, came across a spring in an area called Pleasant Valley, where John Chapman AKA Johnny Appleseed used to stop for water during his wanderings.

Today’s Route:   We left the Children’s Garden pergola, taking the walkway into the Lower Shade Garden. After several switchbacks, we took the mulched path leading from the Shade Garden and heading towards the Children’s Garden forest play area. We stayed on the White Trail Spur and headed down the hill, eventually walking out into the power line right-of-way. We then took a right and headed up the road, back towards the Visitor Center.

OBSERVATIONS:

Today’s tour of trees began with upland species on the slopes above the Middle Oconee River and transitioned to trees adapted to life in the periodically flooded soils of the floodplain.

Black Gum

Black Gum, a tree of uplands, is a difficult tree to identify – its obovate leaves are pretty generic and, until it’s quite old, its bark is not very distinctive. But one trait is very useful: its branches leave the main trunk at a nearly 90 degree angle, making them more or less parallel to the ground. Most trees hold their branches at an acute angle (less than 90 degrees relative to the trunk), seeming to be reaching toward the sun. The placement of branches, and leaves as well, evolved in all plants to maximize the capture of sunlight. In Black Gum, stretching laterally seems to be working just fine.
?

American Beech

American Beech trees are covered now with developing fruits or “beech nuts.” Beech is in the same family as oaks, chestnuts, and chinquapins, and, with some imagination, you can see the similarity of the spiky covering on beech fruits to the rough caps of acorns. Beech leaves are thin-textured, almost papery, and have parallel, evenly spaced lateral veins. Beech trees have only a slim connection to Beech-Nut gum. The company that made Beech-nut gum began life as the Imperial Company making smoked bacon and ham (later expanding into baby food, gum, etc). Deciding that Imperial sounded un-democratic, the original owners changed the name to reflect the beech wood embers over which their meat products was cured.

Northern Red Oak leaf

Northern Red Oak bark with “ski trails”

Northern Red Oaks are common in upland forests throughout the Garden. They are easy to identify by the vertical, white “ski trails” that mark their bark and by the pointed, bristle-tip lobes of their leaves. Northern Red Oaks at the Garden seem especially vulnerable to wind-throw; most of the recently downed trees here are this species. It seems likely that climate change – hotter temperatures, longer droughts, more intense storms – coupled with the shallowness of our topsoils (legacy of 100+ years of cotton agriculture) is responsible for this.
?

Hickory bark

Hickory leaves

A large, old hickory marks the first switchback along the Shade Garden trail. Its bark shows the typical braided or diamond-shaped ridges of most hickory species. This tree may be Pignut Hickory or, more likely, Red Hickory which has shaggier, loose-looking braids. We’d need to see a nut to be certain. Both Pignut and Red Hickories have alternate leaves with five leaflets.
 

Sycamore camo bark

This American Sycamore has the typical “camo” bark found on the mid- to upper trunk of Sycamores. Myrna pointed out that the word “Sycamore” contains the word “camo,” providing us with the best mnemonic of today’s ramble. Sycamores are naturally bottomland trees that nevertheless thrive when planted in uplands.
 

Red Maple branches

Red Maple leaves

Red Maples are among the handful of tree species in the Georgia Piedmont with opposite leaves and branches. Their leaves are distinguished by being both lobed and toothed. (Chalk Maple and Florida Maple leaves are lobed but not toothed and look like small Sugar Maple leaves.) There is something red on a Red Maple in every season of the year:  in winter, it’s twigs and buds; in late winter and early spring, it’s flowers; in spring, the fruits; in summer, petioles; and in fall, the leaves.
 

Chalk Maple leaves

Chalk Maple leaves are lobed but not toothed.

Shortleaf or Loblolly pine?

Shortleaf pine bark with resin pits

From a distance it’s hard to distinguish a Shortleaf from a Loblolly Pine, but up close the resin pits (or pitch pockets), resembling tiny moon craters, on the bark plates distinguish the Shortleaf.
 

Black Oak

Black Oak is the hardest of our upland oaks to identify but the consensus seems to be that these leaves – with the glossy green upper surface and the yellowish-green petioles and midveins – came from a Black Oak, courtesy of a squirrel. The inner bark of the twig was yellow, clinching the deal. We did not locate the tree from which it came.
 

Octagonal Casemaker Moth caterpillar inside self-constructed case

On an American Beech leaf Bill Sheehan found an unusual moth larva living in a case of its own making. It is constructed by the caterpillar from its own frass (a polite word for caterpillar poop). The case grows longer and wider as the caterpillar grows.  It is basically a long, hollow eight-sided tube with unconsolidated frass at the largest end. The common name is Octagonal Casemaker Moth. 

Nymph of Annual Cicada

Bill also found a living crawling on someone’s shirt. This seems to be too small to be one of the dog-day cicadas that we hear later in the summer. 

Jack-in-the-Pulpit

Jack-in-the-Pulpit is not a tree, but who can complain about going off-mission when a conspicuously tall one is growing right on the trail, with developing fruits and lush, five-leafletted leaves? The question arises: what is a wetland species doing on this high-and-dry upper slope? Maybe it’s not the wet soils that this species requires but the extra nutrients washed downslope to floodplains? And maybe the soil on this slope provides those nutrients?
 

Hop Hornbeam

A positive answer to that last question is suggested by the presence along this trail of a number of Hop Hornbeams, with their “cat-scratched” bark. This species is an indicator of a soil high in the nutrient elements calcium and magnesium.
 

Mockernut Hickory bark Photo courtesy of Janie K. Marlow, Name that Plant, http://www.namethatplant.net/plantdetail.shtml?plant=279

Mockernut Hickory leaves

Mockernut Hickory has the most conspicuously “braided” bark of all our hickories. The tight ridges look more like diamonds or expanded metal than braids to some people. Mockernut is as likely to have seven leaflets as five, and they are very hairy on the lower surface, the leaf stalk, and the rachis (the extension of the leaf stalk that holds the leaflets).
 

Leaving the upland slopes and entering the Middle Oconee River floodplain, we encountered what is probably the most abundant tree along this stretch of the river, 

Box Elder leaves

Box Elder (or Ash-leaved Maple). Its leaves have 3, 5, or 7 leaflets; when three, the leaf resembles those of Poison Ivy.
 

Silverbell bark

Silverbell leaves

Common (or Mountain) Silverbell is abundant in the floodplain at the Garden. Its oval leaves are not particularly distinctive but the bark, striped gray and tan, is a good indicator. When the dangling, four-winged fruits are present, you can narrow your choices to this species or Carolina Silverbell, which is mostly found in the Coastal Plain and is rare in the Piedmont.
 

Red Mulberry

Red Mulberry is a beautiful and ecologically important tree of the floodplain subcanopy. Its rough-textured, heart-shaped leaves are distinguished by elongated “drip tips,” so named because they are thought to channel water away from the leaf surface, thus reducing the growth of fungi or other pathogens on the leaf surface. Drip tips are especially noticeable and quite elongated where they occur in the hot, rainy tropics. But recent research is calling this “just so” story into question, so the jury is still out. The berries in this photo are immature and will turn white then reddish- or purplish-black as they mature; they are relished by a variety of birds.
 

Silky Dogwood flowers

Silky Dogwood “elastic veins”

Silky Dogwood flower clusters are quite different from those of the upland Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida), completely lacking the showy white bracts that mark the latter species and attract pollinators to its tiny greenish flowers. Silky Dogwood flowers are larger and form a showy, flat-topped cluster that is plenty attractive to pollinators. Silky Dogwood is found in southern swamps and other wetlands as is Swamp Dogwood (Cornus foemina); they can be distinguished by counting the number of veins on one side of the midvein. Silky Dogwood leaves have 5 or more veins on each side of the midvein; Swamp Dogwood has only 3 or 4. Dogwood veins have an amazing feature: if you gently tear the leaf and carefully part the broken segments, fibrous threads will stretch across the gap. These threads are the vascular tissues that transport water and nutrients throughout the plant. In the Cornus genus, they are especially strong and elastic.
 

SPECIES LIST

Common Eastern Bumble Bee     Bombus impatiens
Purple Beautyberry     Callicarpa dichotoma
Southern Magnolia     Magnolia grandiflora
Blackgum       Nyssa sylvatica
American Beech     Fagus grandifolia
Japanese Maple     Acer palmatum
Northern Red Oak     Quercus rubra
Prothonotary Warbler     Protonotaria citrea
Borage species     Family Boraginaceae
Pignut Hickory     Carya glabra
American Sycamore     Platanus occidentalis
White Oak     Quercus alba
Red Maple     Acer rubrum
Shortleaf Pine     Pinus echinata
Octagonal Casemaker Moth (cocoon)     Homoledra octagonella
Black Oak (tentative)     Quercus velutina
Annual cicada     Family Cicadidae
Jack-in-the-Pulpit     Arisaema triphyllum
Hophornbeam     Ostrya virginiana
Mockernut Hickory     Carya tomentosa
Box Elder     Acer negundo
Four-winged Silverbells     Halesia tetraptera
Chalk Maple     Acer leucoderme
Wild Rye     Elymus sp.
North American Tarnished Plant Bug     Lygus lineolaris
Flower weevil     Family Baridinae
Daisy fleabane     Erigeron sp.
Goldenrod gall fly     Eurosta solidaginis
Tulip Tree     Liriodendron tulipifera
Sweetgum Tree     Liquidambar styraciflua
Aaron’s Rod     Thermopsis villosa
Swamp Dogwood     Cornus foemina

Leader for today’s Ramble: Dale
 

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.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set?vanity=don.hunter.56&set=a.4987661561250369
 

Number of Ramblers today: 31
 

Today’s emphasis: Seeking what we find in the formal gardens.
 

Reading: Avis read a poem: Grass by Joyce Sidman. [link]
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/54675/grass-56d2354b8c8e0
 

Today’s Route:  From the pergola to the sidewalk between the Ceramics bldg. and the Visitor’s center then the first right down the steps to the formal garden then past the Pawpaws and down the steps following the walkway to the right and past several beds and across the stepping stone to the steps back up to the formal garden and back to the parking lot.
 

OBSERVATIONS:

Sidewalk between Ceramic museum and Visitor Center:

Swamp Milkweed beginning to bloom.

Swamp Milkweed is developing flower buds in the bed to the right of the sidewalk. This plant is a food source for the larval stage of the Monarch butterfly, so it will be worth checking in future rambles. 

Monarchs are not the only insects that feed exclusively on milkweed species. There is a moth and several species of beetles that are specialized as milkweed feeders. Two true bugs, several aphids. The beetles and bugs are warningly colored in black and red. 

Herb Garden:

American Toad

An American Toad was captured in one of the mulched beds next to the steps leading into the Herb Garden. Toads, like all amphibians, have a moist skin through which they lose water by evaporation. They compensate for this water loss by rapid absorption of water through their belly skin; i.e., they find a wet spot and sit in it. Usually, they are most active at night when the relative humidity is higher. During the day they seek out moist areas like leaf litter or dense vegetation. Daily spraying of water at the Garden creates an ideal habitat for them.

Pill Bug

Roly-poly, Wood louse, Pill Bug are just a few of the common names for a terrestrial crustacean that rolls up into a sphere when disturbed.
What is a crustacean? Most people are familiar with edible crustaceans like lobsters, crabs and crayfish (crawdads). But these are just a few of the crustaceans. Most are marine (living in the ocean) or aquatic (living in fresh water), but a few have made it to the terrestrial environment. Those that live on dry land need to have access to water because they get their oxygen through gills and gills are effective only if they are moist. (Land crabs need to return periodically to the sea to moisten their gills.) Pill Bugs reduce  moisture loss like toads: by hiding under rocks or pieces of wood and only venturing forth when the relative humidity is high. That’s why we saw a Pill Bug this morning on the brick surface of the Herb Garden. The Gardens are usually sprinkled early In the morning, raising the humidity of the bricks and allowing the Pill Bugs to venture forth in daylight for a short period of time.

Monarch butterfly; upper wing surface

Monarch butterfly; lower wing surface

A Monarch butterfly was nectaring on some of the open flowers in the Herb Garden. Judging by its bright colors this was probably a first or second generation descendent of the Monarchs that overwintered in Mexico. How do we know this? The colors of a butterfly’s wings are produced by millions of microscopic scales attached to the transparent wing surface, like shingles on a roof. When a butterfly flies a few scales are knocked off with each flap of the wings. The older the butterfly, the more scales it has lost and the less intense its color pattern is. Because the Monarch we saw this morning was still beautiful it was probably recently emerged from its chrysalis.
Is it a boy or girl Monarch butterfly? Male Monarch butterflies have a swelling on one of the dark veins on the upper side of the hind wings. This enlargement contains scales that carry a perfume the male will use to court a female. This so-called “scent patch” is not found in females. The difference is clearly seen in a photo from the Journey North website.
https://journeynorth.org/tm/monarch/id_male_female.html
 

Lizards

Carolina Anole basking on bench

Eastern Fence Lizard

The bricks in the Herb Garden not only retain water when sprinkled, they also soak up sunlight during the day and radiate it away during the night. When the days are hot and the nights short the brick structures are favorite places for cold-blooded animals like grasshoppers and lizards to gather and warm up. For the lizards there is the added benefit of having their insect food supply on the bricks nearby. Today we found a Carolina Anole and an Eastern Fence lizard basking on the bricks and wooden benches. The fence lizard scooted away before most of the ramblers had a chance to see it, so I included a photo that Don took back in 2019.
 

Heritage Garden
 

Pawpaw fruit (only 2 seeds)

Pawpaw flower; (usually dark maroon in color)

The Pawpaw trees had a lot of flowers earlier this spring, but didn’t produce much fruit. This can probably be attributed to a lack of pollinators. We were able to find one small fruit, but, as they are the same color as the leaves, we may have missed some. Don located a late flower, but its green colored petals are not typical.

Longleaf Pine

Longleaf Pine once covered most of the southeastern USA. It was maintained by periodic, low intensity fires set by lightning. It’s thick bark and rapid growth to put its upper reaches above the flames make is fire-resistant. It has been replaced by faster growing species and suppresion of fire that allows non-fire resistant species to outcompete it.

Flower Garden:

Eastern Cottontail rabbit

An Eastern Cottontail rabbit sampled the greens while ignoring us. 

Bumble bee nectar robbing Foxglove?

Foxglove is planted in several locations in the Flower Garden and an assortment of bees are visiting all of them.  The photo above looks like a Bumble bee cutting an opening at the base of a Foxglove flower to get access to nectar, bypassing the route through the open blossom.

Honeybee gathering pollen from Evergreen Rose. Note the pollen carried in the pollen baskets.

Bumble bee gathering pollen from Evergreen Rose. Masses of orange pollen are in both pollen baskets.

Species Observed:

Swamp Milkweed     Asclepias incarnata
American Toad     Anaxyrus americanus
Pill woodlouse     Family Armadillidiidae
Poppy     Papaver sp.
Western Honey Bee     Apis mellifera
Monarch Butterfly     Danaus plexippus
Yaupon Holly     Ilex vomitoria
Carolina Anole     Anolis carolinensis
Pawpaw     Asimina triloba
Evergreen Rose (tentative)     Rosa sempervirens
Eastern Carpenter Bee     Xylocopa virginica
Common Eastern Bumble Bee     Bombus impatiens
Long-legged Fly      Chrysotus sp.
Tumbling Flower Beetle     Mordell sp.
Japanese Spirea     Spirea japonica
Longleaf Pine     Pinus palustris
Eastern Cottontail Rabbit     Sylvilagus floridanus
Purple Foxglove     Digitalis purpurea
California Poppy     Eschscholzia californica

Leader for today’s Ramble: Linda
 

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.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.5873645862651930&type=3
 

Number of Ramblers today: 26
 

Today’s emphasis:  Cool season grasses, Carolina Milkvine and anything else we saw in the ROW.
 

Announcements:
Don announced the 2022 Pollinator Fair at the Madison County Library, on May 21st, from 10:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m.  The event is hosted by the Ladies Homestead Gathering of Madison County.  Don will be presenting on his documentation of the common roadside pollinators in south Madison County.  In addition, there will be presentations by other speakers.  Carole Knight, Madison County Extension Coordinator and Ag Agent will talk about the importance of pollinators in Georgia and author Cathy Payne will talk about how to turn your yard into a pollinator sanctuary, in particular, addressing removing invasive plants and replacing them with beneficial native flora. Directions:  Take Hwy. 29 north to Danielsville.  At the redlight north of the old courthouse roundabout, take Hwy 98 west for 1.3 miles.  The library will be on your left.

Reading: Linda read “Spring” by Gerard Manley Hopkins
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/51002/spring-56d22e75d65bd

Show and Tell:  Gary brought a handful of Eastern Cottonwood (Populus deltoides) fruits from the North Oconee River Greenway. Cottonwoods are bottomland trees that flourish in both the North Oconee and Middle Oconee river floodplains; they are distinguished by their dark, deeply furrowed bark and triangular leaves with flattened petioles. 

Cottonwood seed pods The dark structures are the seed pods The white fluff is the “parachute”

The pale green pointed object is a single Cottonwood seed, surrounded by its cottony hairs.

The source of the common name is obvious when the trees go to seed. Each oval seedpod (the dark shapes in the photo) contains thousands of tiny seeds, each equipped with a tuft of long, cottony hairs. A single cottonwood tree can produce over 25 million seeds. This species is dioecious: only female trees produce seedpods. The seeds require bare mineral soil for germination, provided naturally by the scoured soils and sediment accumulations that follow winter and early spring floods.  Here’s a short and interesting article about this amazingly prolific tree: https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/metro/urban-jungle/pages/100518.html
 

Today’s Route:   We left the Children’s Garden pergola and headed down through the Lower Shade Garden, exiting through the gate on to the White Trail Spur and over to the Georgia Power right-of-way.  We worked our way up the ROW to the Carolina Milkvine, near the top of the hill.  We then returned to the upper parking lot, much the way we came

OBSERVATIONS:
Lower Shade Garden:

Oak Apple Galls

The paved path through the Lower Shade Garden was littered with Oak Apple Galls. These are the created when a Gall Wasp (Family Cynipidae) lays an egg inside a newly expanded leaf of a red oak. The leaf responds to the invasion by creating an enlarged mass of tissue, inside which the egg matures into a larva, suspended in the center of the gall by the radiating fibers seen in the opened gall, on the left. This helps protect the wasp larvae from parasitoids as well as providing food. Oak Apple Galls are green when newly formed; when the gall dries out and turns brown, the mature wasp escapes from holes that have formed in the exterior of the gall. 

Tulip Tree flower

The Shade Garden paths are also littered with Tulip Tree flowers, dropped by squirrels that bite off the young, tender twigs and lap up the sap that flows from the twig. Squirrels aren’t the only forest animals that enjoy Tulip Trees. Most of the flowers we picked up had ants scurrying around inside the flowers, looking for the nectar produced by tiny glands in the orange patches on the petals. The nectar produced by these flowers is an important energy source for other insects, as well as birds, in early spring; according to one source, each flower produces about one-third of a teaspoon of nectar.  

Pipestem

Pipestem is blooming now. This tall evergreen shrub is in the Heath Family and closely resembles the shorter wetland plant Doghobble. Common in central peninsular Florida, it occurred historically in southeastern Georgia but hasn’t been seen there in many decades.

Harvestman (AKA Daddylonglegs)

A small harvestman (aka Granddaddy Longlegs) was seen on its leaves.

Sweetshrub ‘Athens’

The yellow-flowered cultivar of Sweetshrub, named ‘Athens’ by Michael Dirr, UGA horticulturist and former Garden director, is in flower. The pale greenish-yellow color is due to a mutation that leads to a lack of anthocyanin, the plant pigment responsible for reds and purples in plants. Though pale, the flowers are extra fragrant, something like a very ripe strawberry.

White Trail Spur:

Smooth Spiderwort will be flowering for months

Cool-season grasses are flowering and going to seed now. These are grass species that grow rapidly in the early spring, then flower and fruit while temperatures are still moderate; they cease growing during the summer and begin again when temperatures cool down in the fall. Many species overwinter as low leaf rosettes, continuing to photosynthesize and preparing for the spring growth spurt. Given Georgia’s brutal summers, it’s no surprise that most of our grass species are warm-season grasses that flourish in late summer and early fall; but even so there are plenty of interesting grasses to admire in May and June.

Eastern Needlegrass seeds + awns

My personal favorite is Eastern Needle Grass, a perennial grass with a finely tuned seed dispersal system. In Don’s photo, you can see each dark seed partially enclosed by flower parts. Each seed comes equipped with a long spirally twisted bristle it into the ground. A patch of tiny upwardly pointing hairs at the seed’s tip helps to hold the seed in place; barbs lining the sides of the seed serve the same purpose.

Needlegrass hairs at tip of seed

Needlegrass barbs (magnified) photo courtesy of Bill Sheehan

The bristles, barbs, and hairs also ensure that a variety of animals carry the seeds long distances. As Don wrote in his Facebook album, “The more you walk with these in your socks, the deeper they bore into them, until they reach your skin, at which point, you are driven mad until you stop and pull your shoes and socks off to systematically remove every one of the bristles. I would imagine the sensation is something akin to standing on a fire ant hill, letting them attack you, unabated.”

Needlegrass: The Joy of Socks

Little Barley photo by Matt Lavin from Bozeman, Montana, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25124158

Little Barley is a native grass species; it is an annual that thrives in sunny, dry, gravelly soils. Like all grasses, it is wind-pollinated. Little Barley was domesticated by Native Americans before the arrival of maize; its seeds have been found in archaeological sites along with other domesticated plants such as squash. The grains are high in protein. Little Barley is easier to recognize than many grasses: it is short (less than 1.5 feet tall) with erect seed heads tightly packed with bristle-tipped spikelets (grass talk for flower clusters).

Two-flowered Melic Grass

Two-flowered Melic Grass is another common native cool-season grass that is relatively easy to identify. The spikelets have only two florets and are widely spaced and drooping along a delicate, erect stem. It usually occurs in forests and woodlands in dappled sunlight.

Deer Tongue Witch Grass has the open, sparsely flowered seedhead typical of species in the genus Dichanthelium. The wavy branches are usually tipped with a single spikelet  which, though small, bears two florets.

Deer Tongue Witch Grass

In this photo, the maroon style branches can be seen peeking out of the tips of the spikelets and will soon be sweeping pollen out of the air.

Deer Tongue Witch Grass stem + leaf

The stems are usually softly hairy as are the leaf sheaths. Perhaps someone familiar with deer can tell us if the pointed, hairy leaf blades resemble a deer’s tongue. 

Several non-native and invasive grass species are also in flower in the right-of-way.

Brome Grass

So-called Rescue Grass, one of many introduced Brome Grasses, is a common, highly invasive plant that is native to South America. Introduced as a forage crop, it’s found throughout much of North America in disturbed openings, roadsides, pastures, etc. The spikelets, held at the tips of slender branches, are strongly flattened. Don’s closeup photo captures the stamens dangling from the florets, waiting for a breeze to scatter pollen.

Meadow Fescue

Meadow Fescue (or Meadow Ryegrass), a native of Eurasia, is abundant in fields, pastures, rights-of-way, and other disturbed areas. It was introduced as a forage grass and is also widely planted for erosion control. In this photo, both stamens and brushy-tipped styles are visible. The styles, which comb pollen from the air, typically mature after the stamens to prevent self-pollination.

Annual Ryegrass

Annual Ryegrass Photo by Harry Ross https://www.flickr.com/photos/macleaygrassman/6773226750/in/photostream/

Annual Ryegrass, another grass introduced as forage, is easy to identify even at 60 miles per hour. The flattened spikelets are held more or less in one plane and alternate up the tall erect stem. In Don’s photo, a small mite is exploring a newly expanding spikelet.

A Vetch seed pod (called a legume)

A non-native vetch with long, open seedpods remaining. As a member of the bean family, Fabaceae, this fruit type — dry, several-seeded, and opening along both seams — is properly called a legume 

ROW:

Small’s Ragwort

Small’s Ragwort, with tufts of woolly hairs in the leaf axils.  These are described in irresistible terms as “persistent floccose tomentum” in Weakley’s Flora of the Southeastern United States. 

Nodding Thistle

Nodding Thistle (also called Musk Thistle) is one of the most destructive plants in the U.S.  The developing head shown here (and the fully flowered heads soon to come) are attractive, but don’t be fooled: these plants can ruin a pasture and degrade a native prairie in a few brief years. When the head matures, it begins to droop, hence the common name. The whole plant is spiny, from the bristly flower head to the winged stems and lobed leaves down to the leaf rosette. If you can’t dig it up, at least break off the stem and flower head. Since they are biennials that bloom then die in their second year, you may have disarmed that particular plant by beheading it. However, the plants are capable of resprouting from dormant buds held in the stem below ground level. To really kill the plant, cut the stem 2-4 inches below the ground surface with a shovel. The plants are also susceptible to a variety of herbicides, a much easier and more assured way to kill them.  Our native Tall Thistle has broadly oval leaves that are densely white-hairy on the lower surface. Nodding Thistle leaves are narrower and green on both surfaces.

Sheep’s Sorrel seeds

Sheep’s Sorrel plant

Sheep’s Sorrel, a European native, is found in disturbed areas throughout most of North America. In early spring, the red flowers are a common sight along roadsides and pastures in Georgia. Now, the female plants have gone to seed, giving the plants a pale appearance. The three-sided seeds have three showy wings, typical of many plants in the Buckwheat Family. 

Green & Gold

Green-and-Gold, still in flower, is scattered along the low bank of the road through the Nash Prairie.

Southern Beardtongue

Southern Beardtongue is also thriving in the Nash Prairie. The flowers, buds and stems are covered with glandular hairs and the flowers are white and pink, with “tongues” covered with golden yellow hairs. 

Foamy mass concealing a Spittlebug nymph.

The Spittlebug nymph revealed.

Foamy spittlebug masses are commonly found on a variety of grasses and other plants in the ROW.  Dale selected one, from an unidentified aster or daisy, and removed the foam to reveal a leafhopper nymph inside.  The foam is a froth created as the larva agitates the excreted plant sap upon elimination.  

Bracken Fern

Bracken Fern is one of the few Georgia ferns that thrives in full sun.

Wild Onion

The native Wild Onion, with both bulblets and pretty pink flowers. Unlike the weedy onion that pops up in lawns, which also has aerial bulblets, Wild Onion leaves are grass-like and flat not round. Wild Onion can reproduce asexually by both the aerial bulblets and an underground bulb.

Summer Bluet is getting an early start in the right-of-way.

Carolina Milkvine flowers and leaf

Carolina Milkvine flowers closeup

Carolina Milkvine thrives in the right-of-way in an area that is underlain by amphibolite, a type of bedrock that is high in calcium and magnesium. It is a close relative of the milkweeds and produces milky latex that discourages herbivores. There are reports that monarch butterflies use milkvine leaves as a larval host as they do with milkweeds

Blackberry fruits developing

Sue pointed out how pretty the young blackberries are.

Sparkleberry tree in flower

Sparkleberry bark

Ants climbing Sparkleberry tree trunk

Sparkleberry branches covered with silk of Fall Webworm caterpillars.

Fall Webworm caterpillars inside their silken tent.

A large heavily flowering Sparkleberry tree overlooks the patch of Carolina Milkvine. Sparkleberry bark is shaggy, peeling and flaking away to reveal rusty-red inner bark.  A parade of red ants were seen making their way up and down along a defined path between bark plates — headed to the flowers for a bit of nectar?  Fall Webworms have spun a web on the tip of one of the limbs, with many tiny, slender new caterpillars. Fall webworms are often mistaken for Eastern Tent Caterpillars that build tents in the crotch of a Cherry tree. They never extend their tent to include the leaves they eat. Fall Webworms have three generations in our area; Eastern Tent caterpillars only one generation per year.

Nettle-leaf Sage

A small population of Nettle-leaf Sage has been hanging on for many years near the edge of the woods. A calciphile, it testifies to the presence of amphibolite beneath the right-of-way soils. Its square stems, opposite leaves, and two-lipped flowers testify to its membership in the mint family. The cobalt blue flowers are diminutive but gorgeous. 

Phylloxeran gall on hickory leaf.

Bill collected several examples of a hickory leaf gall on Mockernut Hickory.  The galls are caused by the Hickory Phylloxeran (Phylloxera caryaecaulis), a small aphid-like insect.  The phylloxeran survived the winter as an egg deposited on the bark of the tree or near an old gall from a previous year.  About the time when leaf buds are breaking, these eggs hatch into tiny nymphs destined to become breeders called fundatrices.  Each fundatrix hunkers down on the rapidly expanding leaf blade or its petiole and inserts its needle-like mouthparts into the leaf tissue.  This feeding brings about remarkable transformations as the leaf develops.  Chemicals secreted by the phylloxeran cause the hickory’s cells to differentiate and create a strange globular gall. Within the hollow gall, the fundatrix develops into a fully mature female that lays hundreds to more than a thousand eggs parthenogenetically, that is, without the assistance of a male.

Opened Phylloxeran gall with eggs and 1st instar nymphs inside.

Opened Phylloxeran galls with winged adult and possible parasites in gall.

After hatching, legions of tiny nymphs feed within the gall and eventually develop into winged forms. By late May, galls split open and the winged phylloxerans exit and move to the undersurface of leaves where they lay hundreds of eggs. These eggs hatch and produce nymphs destined to become males and females that will ultimately mate and lay eggs to endure the next winter. Talk about a complicated lifestyle, phylloxerans certainly have one.
Visit this link for more detais: https://bugoftheweek.com/blog/2013/1/27/gall-darn-it-gall-insects-on-hickory-oak-and-elm-iphylloxera-caryaecaulis-andricus-palustris-colopha-ulmicolai
 

Let Aldo Leopold have the last word on this week’s ramble: “No matter how intently one studies the hundred little dramas of the woods and meadows, one can never learn all the salient facts about any one of them.”

OBSERVED SPECIES:

Oak Apple Gall Wasp   Amphibolips quercusinanis (synonym A. inanis)
Bigleaf Magnolia     Magnolia macrophylla
Oak-leaved Hydrangea     Hydrangea quercifolia
Pipestem, Florida Fetterbush     Agarista populifolia
Harvestman     Order Opiliones
Black Cohosh     Actea racemosa
‘Athens’ Sweetshrub     Calycanthus floridus ‘Athens’ cultivar
Tulip Tree     Liriodendron tulipifera
Smooth Spiderwort     Tradescantia ohiensis
Red-shouldered Hawk     Buteo lineatus
Black-seeded Needle Grass     Piptochaetium avenaceum
Little Barley     Hordeum pusillum
Deer Tongue Grass     Dichanthelium clandestinum
Two-flowered Melic Grass     Melica mutica
River Oats     Chasmanthium latifolium
Rescue Grass     Bromus catharticus var. catharticus
Meadow Fescue     Festuca pratensis, synonym: Lolium pratense
Annual Rye     Festuca perennis
Unidentified non-native vetch     Vicia sp.
Small’s Ragwort     Packera anonyma
Nodding Thistle     Carduus nutans
Sheep’s Sorrel     Rumex acetosella
Green-and-Gold     Chrysogonum virginianum
Southern Beardtongue     Penstemon australis
Spittlebug     Order Hemiptera
Mountain Mint     Pcynanthemum sp.
Bracken Fern     Pteridium aquilinum
Wild onion     Allium canadense
Summer Bluet     Houstonia purpurea
Blackberry     Rubus sp.
Carolina Milkvine     Matelea carolinensis
Sparkleberry     Vaccinium arboreum
Red ant     Family Formicidae
Fall Webworm Moth caterpillars     Hyphantria cunea
Nettle-leaf Sage     Salvia urticifolia
Mockernut Hickory     Carya tomentosa
Hickory Phylloxeran     Phylloxera caryaecaulis

Leader for today’s Ramble: Dale

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.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.5852056758144174&type=3

Number of Ramblers today: 31

Reading:  Dale brought an excerpt from “Crow Planet:  Essential Wisdom from the Urban Wilderness” by Lyanda Lynn Haupt. (Read by Terry).
 

Announcements:

What: 2022 Pollinator Fair 

When: Saturday, May 21st, from 10:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m.

Where: Madison County Library,  

Directions: From Athens, take
Hwy. 29 north to Danielsville.  At the red light north of the old
courthouse roundabout, take Hwy 98 west for 1.3 miles.  The library will
be on your left.

Details: The event is hosted by the Ladies Homestead Gathering of Madison County.  Don will be presenting on his documentation of the common roadside pollinators in south Madison County.  In addition, there will be presentations by other speakers.  Carole Knight, Madison County Extension Coordinator and Ag Agent will talk about the importance of pollinators in Georgia and author Cathy Payne will talk about how to turn your yard into a pollinator sanctuary, in particular, addressing removing invasive plants and replacing them with beneficial native flora.

Today’s Route:   From the Children’s Garden pergola we went through the American South Section, crossing the Flower Bridge, then through the China and Asia Section, the Native American and Southeastern Tribes Section and over to the Mediterranean and Middle East Section. Then we went across the lawn to the Pitcher Plant Bog.  We retraced our path to the Freedom Plaza before we returned to the parking lot.

OBSERVATIONS:

Piedmont Azalea 

Piedmont Azalea

Single flower of Piedmont Azalea The stamens and style project far forward, The style is longer than the stamens and ends with the stigma. The stamens are tipped with the brown anthers that contain pollen.

Azaleas are justly
celebrated for their masses of colorful flowers. Humans are not the only species
attracted to the blossoms; casual observers have noticed a variety of small
bees visiting the flowers and assumed that they were responsible for
pollination. But assumption is not proof, only opinion. Looking at the structure
of the flower one thing stands out: the stamens and pistil style project a
considerable distance in front of the petals. The nectar is at the base of the
flower’s throat, so an insect, like a bee, who was seeking nectar would not
come in contact with either the pollen producing anthers or the stigma of the
pistil which is at the end of the style. (In order to produce seeds pollen
needs to be deposited on the stigma.) Small bees that are collecting pollen to
feed to their offspring climbed up the stamen to the anther. In doing this the
stamen was bent away from the stigma of the flower. This suggested that such
bees would not be effective pollinators.Working at Mountain
Lake Biological Station in Virginia, a team of researchers devised a way to
test these ideas on a related species of Azalea. More details of the study can
be found here.

The
surprise of their study was that the most effective pollinator was the Eastern
Tiger Swallowtail butterfly and it carried the pollen on its wings, not its
body! Swallowtail butterflies flap their wings while nectaring on flowers. The
azalea anthers and stigma are arranged at the correct distance to contact the butterflies
wings as they sip nectar. Not only do the wings pick up pollen, they also
deposit pollen on the stigma. The surprise here is that the pollen is carried
on the wings of the butterfly, not the body.

Franklinia alatamaha

Extinct in the wild, this unique species is conserved in arboreta and botanical gardens around the world.  In 1765, John Bartram and his son, William, journeyed to the Altamaha River in Georgia, where they first spotted the tree on the banks of the Altamaha River.  Several years later, William returned to the location to collect seed to collect seed.  Later, in 1791, he wrote, “We never saw it any other place, nor have I ever seen it growing wild, in all my travels, from Pennsylvania to Point Coupe, on the banks of the Mississippi.” He brought the seeds back to Philadelphia. His collection of the species was timely; within 50 years, the tree was extinct in the wild. All living Franklin trees-which Bartram named for family friend Benjamin Franklin-are descended from the seeds Bartram collected. 

(Factual information from the Arnold Arboretum website)

You may have noticed that the specific epithet is not the way we spell “altamaha.” This not a typo; the original description spelled it that way. The rules of nomenclature state that the original spelling, even if incorrect, must stand.)

Palmately Compound leaves

Bottlebrush Buckeye has palmately compound leaves. Each leaf is composed of five leaflets that arise from the end of the leaf stalk (the petiole).

A compound leaf is a leaf with two or more leaflets. So how do you tell when a “leaf” is a leaf or a leaflet? Look at where it is attached. Is there a bud there or is the bud absent? If present, you’re looking at a leaf, otherwise ii is a leaflet.
If you are looking at a leaflet you are looking at a leaf that is made up of  many leaflets — it’s a compound leaf. There are two types of compound leaves: palmate and pinnate. A palmately compound leaf has all of its leaflets attached at the same point. The trees and shrubs of the Buckeye genus, Aesculus, have palmately compound leaves.

Arum family (Araceae)

Aroid plants have seen better days.

In the China section of the Garden we found a group of unusual plants that look like they belong to the Arum family. (That’s the family of the Jack-in-the-Pulpit. ) 

The spathe was dark and mottled with maroon blotches, giving the impression of decaying flesh. On the previous day Emily and I saw clouds of fungus gnats and a green bottle fly swarming about these plants. 

A fungus gnat is a fly about the size of a mosquito. It’s larvae feed on mushrooms or decaying organic matter, as does the green bottle fly larvae. Many aroids are known to produce the scents of decaying animal flesh or vegetation to attract pollinators.

Pitcher Plant Bog:

Purple and White-topped Pitcher Plants

We saw several species of pitcher plants in the little artificial bog, including Yellow Pitcher Plant, Purple Pitcher Plant and White-topped Pitcher Plant.

Pitcher plants can grow in very nutrient poor soils because they trap and digest insects (and sometimes small vertebrates). The pitcher part of the plant is a modified leaf. Imagine a long leaf that is curled about its long axis so that the lateral edges meet and fuse. This makes a cylinder. If the lower opening is sealed and the other end carved out to form a flap then you’ve made a pitcher. Fill it with water and you’re ready to trap bugs. The inner surface of the lip is slick and waxy and the upper portion of the pitcher has downward pointing bristles. These features prevent insects that fall into the pitcher from crawling out. Eventually they die from exhaustion and are gradually digested in the pitcher “soup.” Each pitcher develops its own ecosystem microbes that feed on drowned insects and mosquitoes that feed on the microbes. Elements like Nitrogen and Phosphorus are freed into the soup and absorbed by the pitcher walls.

Pitcher plant flower structure

The flowers of pitcher plants are also bizarre. I’ll review flower structures so you can appreciate just how different they are. In a typical plant the central structure of the flower is the pistil. It is made of three parts: ovary, style and stigma. The ovary is where the seed will develop. The style is a tube the connects the ovary to the stigma. The stigma is the surface that receives the pollen. Pollen lands on the stigma, the pollen grain germinates and a pollen tube begins to grow through the style. Eventually the pollen tube, which carries the sperm nucleus, reaches the ovule in the ovary. That’s the female part of a flower.

Surrounding the pistil are the stamens, the male reproductive structures of the flower. Stamens have two parts, the filament and the anther. The filament holds the anther aloft and the anthers make and hold the pollen grains until they are needed.

Petals pushed aside to show the five pointed style of a pitcher plant.

The fuve-pointed style is pushed aside to show the mass of stamens and anthers. Pollen released from the anthers will fall into the style “basket” below the anthers.

Pitcher plant flowers are held upside down. There are five pistils fused together to form a five chambered ovary. The fused styles have stretched out to form an umbrella shape and that “umbrella” reaches beyond the stamens that surround the fused ovaries. Turn the flower upside down and you can see how pollen can fall out of the anthers into the stylar umbrella. Where are the stigmas? There were five fused pistils, making the five ribs of the umbrella. The stigmas are at the end of each rib.

When a bee forces its way into a pitcher plant flower it walks across a floor of pollen grains that are picked up by its hairy body. When it enters or leaves it crawls over the stigmatic surfaces at the ends of the “ribs.”

Plant galls are abnormal growths on plant parts. They may be caused by bacteria, viruses, fungi, and a variety of insects. Today, we saw two types of galls induced by insects.

Witch Hazel Cone galls on Chinese Witch Hazel leaf.

Witch Hazel Cone Gall Aphid
The puzzle: The Garden has at least four kinds of Witch Hazel: Common Witch Hazel (native to Georgia), Ozark Witch Hazel (native to Missouri), Japanese Witch Hazel and Chinese Witch Hazel. The first four of these can be found growing near each other in the Shade Garden and we have never seen the Cone Gall on the Japanese plants and only a few galls on the Ozark plants. It looks like the aphids are species-specific, either because they only recognize the native species or they actively discriminate against the non-native plants. But the mystery is that we found numerous galls on the Chinese Witch Hazel. Something strange is going on here.
The complex life history of the Cone Gall Aphid begins in autumn with the aphid eggs laid near the leaf buds of the Witch Hazel. As the leaves emerge from their buds the eggs hatch and the aphids, all females, lay an egg on the young leaves. This causes the leaf to grow a hollow conical structure that surrounds the freshly hatched aphid. Inside this protective gall the aphid matures and begins to produce daughters asexually. The aphids feed by sucking fluids from the walls of the gall. Soon there 50 or more aphids in each gall and they develop wings. The winged aphids emerge from the gall and fly to an alternate host plant, a Birch tree. (In our area this would be a River Birch.) There they produce asexual wingless offspring the feed on the lower surface of the Birch leaves. Several more generations of wingless aphids are produced until autumn when sexual, winged adult aphids are produced. These mate and the females disperse, seeking their Witch Hazel host and laying eggs near the leaf buds, completing the life cycle.
Another mystery: Among the green cone-shaped galls we usually find a few red galls. I’ve unsuccessfully tried to find more information about the gall color. Your guess is as good as mine. I suspect it is a polymorphism: some aphids produce a substance that stimulates anthocyanin production by the Witch Hazel. Other aphids don’t produce this substance. Some people have brown hair, some red. It’s natural variation (code words to cover ignorance).

Maple Eye Spot gall

Maple Eye Spot gall (upper surface of Red Maple leaf)

Maple Eye Spot gall (under surface of leaf showing exit holes)

This pretty gall was induced by a flying insect called a “midge.” Midges resemble mosquitos but do not bite. I’m indebted to fellow rambler Bill Sheehan for the identification: 

“According to this source, midge larvae emerge from the galls on the bottom of the red maple leaf in 8 to 10 days, drop to the soil and pupate. There is only one generation a year. Since all of the galls we saw had exit holes, the larvae are apparently all in the soil  now pupating and waiting until next year to emerge and start the cycle again. Given the moist appearance of the galls, this probably happened pretty recently.”

https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/maple-eyespot-gall-midge-acericecis-ocellaris-osten-sacken-diptera-cecidomyiidae
 

Tree Growth Patterns

Each year a tree adds to its size as new shoots emerge from their buds. For many trees these terminal buds contain the entire years worth of growth. For these trees their shoots elongate and leaves expand but no additional leaves are produced. The entire summer’s growth occurs within the first few weeks. Since the number of leaves is set in the bud that formed in the previous year this pattern of growth is called determinate or preformed.

But not all trees compress their annual growth within this short period of time. Their buds contain only a single leaf that emerges with bud-break. Growth of the shoot does not cease. Instead, new leaves appear for the rest of the growing season. Such a growth pattern is called indeterminate or sustained.

How can you tell which pattern a tree follows? If the new growth has a terminal bud it is preformed growth; no terminal bud, sustained growth.

But, as always, biological definitions have fuzzy edges. Some common plants have a mixture of preformed and sustained growth. The begin with a short preformed shoot that continues to add leaves throughout the growing season.
 

White Oak new shoot with terminal bud. (photo by Emily Carr)

Pawpaw new shoot showing indeterminate growth. Note absence of terminal bud presence of new developing leaves. (photo by Dale Hoyt)

Trees with determinate (preformed) growth

American beech, Ash, Black cherry, Hickories, Oaks

Trees with indeterminate (sustained) growth

Birch sp.,  Cottonwood, Elm, ,Flowering dogwood, Hackberry, Holly, Pawpaw, Redbud. Sycamore, Tulip poplar

Trees with both growth forms

Red maple, Sugar maple, Sweetgum

[source]

OBSERVED SPECIES:
 

Oak-leaf Hydrangea     Hydrangea quercifolia
Harvestman     Class Arachnida: Order Opiliones
Beardtongue     Penstemon sp.
Fringed Bluestar     Amsonia cilliata
Native azalea     Rhodendron sp.
Franklin Tree     Franklinia alatamaha
Bottlebrush Buckeye     Aesculus parviflora
Tea Trees     Camellia sinensis
Orchard Orbweaver       Leucauge venusta
Chinese Witch Hazel     Hamamelis mollis
Arum ??     Family Araceae
Paperbark Maple     Acer griseum
Whitebark Magnolia    Magnolia hypoleuca
Fragrant Snowbells     Styrax obassia
Indian Pink     Spigelia marilandica
Rose Hooktip Moth     Oreta rosea
Yellow Pitcher Plant     Sarracenia flava
Purple Pitcher Plant     Sarracenia purpureum
White-topped Pitcher Plant     Sarracenia leucophylla
Inch worm/Geometer moth caterpillar     Order Lepidoptera: Geometridae
Red Maple     Acer rubrum
Ocellate Gall Midge     Acericecis ocellaris