Leader for today’s Ramble: Linda Chafin

Authors of today’s Ramble report: Linda Chafin, Don Hunter

Insect and gall identifications: Heather Larkin, Don Hunter, Bill Sheehan

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

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

Number of Ramblers today: 32

Today’s Emphasis: Seeking what we found on the White Trail along the Middle Oconee River

Announcements and other interesting things:
No announcements today, but I’d like to recommend this essay by Robert McFarlane, Geography as Generosity: An Afternoon with Barry Lopez – Reflections on the life and work of one of environmentalism’s most prolific writers. Thanks to Jan Coyne for bringing it to my attention.

Today’s Reading: Kathy Stege read a prose poem by Mary Oliver, Foolishness? No, it’s not.

Foolishness?  No, it’s not.
 
Sometimes I spend all day trying to count the leaves on a single tree. To do this I have to climb branch by branch and write down the numbers in a little book. So, I suppose, from their point of view, it’s reasonable that my friends say what foolishness!  She’s got her head in the clouds again.

But it’s not. Of course I have to give up, but by then I’m half crazy with the wonder of it – the abundance of the leaves, the quietness of the branches, the hopelessness of my effort.  And I am in that delicious and important place, roaring with laughter, full of earth praise.

Show and Tell:
Bill brought a Fraternal Potter’s Wasp nest that he collected on the May 23 Ramble and watched at home for three weeks. Ramblers could see the clay nest and recently emerged adult wasp in a small plastic vial that Bill passed around. Later, he released the wasp in the area of the right-of-way where he’d originally found the nest.

The clay “pot” was created by a female Fraternal Potter Wasp as a nest for one of her young. Each nest takes 1-2 hours to build. After mating, the female wasp builds the nest out of clay and begins hunting for soft-bodied insects, which she paralyzes with venom and suspends inside the pot. She then lays an egg inside the pot, seals it up with more clay, and departs to repeat the process again with another nest. After the egg hatches, the resulting larva eats the paralyzed prey, and eventually develops into an adult (above) and chews its way out of the nest.

Pre-Ramble Observations: As usual, Heather and Don explored the Upper Shade Garden and Children’s Garden plants in search of interesting insects.

Today’s Route: We headed downslope on the White Trail, taking the mown right-of-way path to the ADA Trail, which we followed to the river. We then walked upstream (west) along the White Trail. We returned by way of the Mimsie Lanier Center for Native Plants, and visited some of the rare species plantings at the Center, then made our way along the service road back to the Visitor Center.

Today’s Observations

Maryland Senna is abundant in the lower section of the right-of-way, and, even though it won’t flower for another month or two, ramblers are always happy to see this plant thriving. It’s the host plant for several species of sulphur butterflies, including Clouded Sulphur, Cloudless Sulphur, Sleepy Orange, and Large Orange Sulphur. Senna flowers provide protein- and fat-rich pollen to bees, and Senna seeds are eaten by birds, making this species an excellent resource for several types of wildlife.

Senna plants have extra-floral nectaries, i.e. nectar-producing glands found on parts of a plant other than the flower. In the case of Senna, the glands are on the stalks of their compound leaves and look like a dark wart with a dent in the top (above). From that dent, ants and other insects can lap up sweet nectar. While searching for the nectar glands, ants will travel all over the plant, eating caterpillars or any other small insect they come across. Senna is essentially paying the ants with nectar for protection from herbivores such as caterpillars.

Bill spotted a midge gall on the petiole of a Common Wingstem leaf (left, above). The chambers in the gall (dissected, right) were empty but likely created by the midge Neolasioptera verbesinae. A black coating on the walls of several empty chambers suggest that a fungus co-exists with the insect in the gall, something often seen in galls.

Stinging Wood Nettle is very much a stinging member of the Nettle Family – its flower clusters, leaves, and stems are covered with long, glassy, brittle hairs. It’s not the hairs that sting, but the liquid held inside the hairs that does the damage. When brushed, the tips of the hairs break off and release a fluid that contains a witch’s brew of irritating compounds, including histamine, acetylcholine, serotonin, and formic acid, the same chemical that makes ant bites sting. Stinging Wood Nettles have alternate leaves, which separates them from a number of other nettle species. Invertebrates aren’t harmed by the compounds and, though we may not love the stinging, we have to love the beautiful Red Admiral, Eastern Comma, and Question Mark butterflies that use nettles as a larval host plant. Some people love Stinging Wood Nettle as a food and medicine. Boiling and sautéing breaks down the hairs and releases and dilutes the stinging fluid. Native Americans used Stinging Wood Nettle to counteract poison, to facilitate childbirth, and to treat incontinence and tuberculosis.

Unfortunately, Asian Needle Ants also pose a threat to native ants by competing for food and nest sites. Native ants are a key part of our forest ecosystems; their loss could have dire consequences. For more info on identifying and understanding this ant, see this website.

One of the missions of the Mimsie Lanier Center is to safeguard some of Georgia’s rare plants. A good example is a large patch of Dwarf Sumac, currently hosting many Western Honey Bees (left, below). Dwarf Sumac is listed as Endangered at both the state and federal levels and is one of the rarest plants in Georgia. Its rarity is largely due to habitat conversion to pine plantations and commercial and residential development. The fact that Dwarf Sumac is dioecious – meaning its female flowers (right, below) are held on different plants from the male flowers (left) – contributes to its rarity. Plants in the few remaining populations are often of only one sex and may be many miles from plants of the other sex, making it impossible for the plants to reproduce sexually and preserve genetic diversity. One of the best populations in Georgia was enhanced by botanists who transplanted plants from a male-only site to a site with female-only plants about 75 miles away. Within a couple of years, the plants began to set seed and new genetically diverse plants soon began to appear.

Bill discovered and identified this bizarrely beautiful gall on the leaves of Black Walnut sprouts growing in the thicket alongside the entrance road. According to the literature, the galls don’t damage their host.

SUMMARY OF OBSERVED SPECIES:   

Fraternal Potter's Wasp	Eumenes fraternus
Turkey Vulture	Cathartes aura
Daddy Longlegs	Order Opiliones
Florida Anise	Illicium floridanum
Common Eastern Bumblebee	Bombus impatiens
Smooth Spiderwort	Tradescantia ohiensis
Hop Hornbeam	Ostrya virginiana
Leaf beetle	Family Chrysomelidae
Rattleweed, Honestyweed	Baptisia tinctoria
Genista Broom Moth		Uresiphita reversalis
Jack- or Jill-in-the-Pulpit	Arisaema triphyllum
Four-wing Silverbell	Halesia tetraptera
Carolina Wild Petunia	Ruellia caroliniensis
Maryland Senna	Senna marilandica
Ants (on extra-floral nectaries of Maryland Senna)	Family Formicidae
Black Snakeroot	Sanicula canadensis
Click beetle	Melanactes piceus
Silvery Checkerspot (caterpillar)   Chlosyne nycteis
Wingstem	Verbesina sp.
Sculpted Resin Bee	Megachile sculpturalis
Anglepod Milkvine	Gonolobus suberosus
Common Wingstem	 Verbesina alternifolia
Parasitoid wasp	Superfamily Ichneumonidea
Midge Gall midge	Neolasioptera verbesinae
Buttonbush	Cephalanthus occidentalis
Lurid Sedge	Carex lurida
Epazote    	Dysphania ambrosioides 
River Oats	Chasmanthium latifolium
Virgin’s Bower 	Clematis virginiana
Red-headed Bush Cricket	Phyllopalpus pulchellus
Tall Goldenrod	Solidago altissima
Dusky Stink Bug	Euschistus tristigmus
Common Elderberry	Sambucus nigra  
Dewberry		Rubus trivialis
False Nettle	Boehmeria cylindrica
Stinging Wood Nettle	Laportea canadensis
Sugarberry, Southern Hackberry	Celtis laevigata
Garter Snake	Thamnophis sirtalis	
Asian Needle Ant	Brachyponera chinensis
Derbid Planthopper	Paramysidia mississippiensis   
Box Elder		Acer negundo
Common Eastern Firefly	Photinus pyralis
White-eyed Vireo	Vireo griseus
Mock Orange	Philadelphus inodorus  
Catbrier	Smilax sp.
Chinese Wingnut	Pterocarya stenoptera
Dwarf Sumac	Rhus michauxii
Grey-headed Coneflower   Ratibida pinnata
Little-leaf Sensitive Briar     Mimosa microphylla
Rattlesnake Master	          Eryngium yuccifolium
Pink-striped Oakworm Moth (caterpillar)   Anisota virginiensis 
Water Oak        Quercus nigra
Crossvine	 Bignonia capreolata
Black Walnut 	 Juglans nigra
Black Walnut Petiole Gall Mite	Aceria caulis

Leader for today’s Ramble: Linda Chafin

Authors of today’s Ramble report: Linda and Don. Comments, edits, and suggestions for the report can be sent to Linda at Lchafin (at) uga.edu.

Insect identifications: Don Hunter, Bill Sheehan

Fungi and gall identifications: Don Hunter, Bill Sheehan

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

Number of Ramblers today: 30

Today’s Emphasis: Ferns, mostly in the Lower Shade Garden and the Dunson Native Flora Garden, and late spring wildflowers and insects in the Nash Prairie.

Number of Ramblers today: 30

Announcements:
Bob announced that he will give a reading from his new book, Between Birdsong and Boulder: Poems on the Life of Gaia, at Avid Bookshop on June 11, 7:00-8:00pm. The set of poems will be “Creation, Destruction, and Recreation – Poems on the Resiliency of Gaia.” Amy Rosemond will be the respondent / conversation partner.

Today’s Reading: Don read from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s journal entry for May 21, 1856, about an outing Emerson had with Henry David Thoreau on that day:

Yesterday [I went] to the Sawmill Brook with Henry. He was in search of yellow violet (Viola pubescens) and Menyanthes, which he waded into the water for, and which he concluded, on examination, had been out five days. Having found his flowers, he drew out of his breast pocket his diary & read the names of all the plants that should bloom on this day, 20 May; whereof he keeps account as a banker when his notes fall due: Rubus triflora, guerens, Vaccinium, etc. The Cypripedium not due ’till tomorrow. Then we diverged to the brook, where was Viburnum dentatum, arrowhead.

But his attention was drawn to the Redstart which flew about with its cheah-cheah-chevet, & presently two fine Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, whose brilliant scarlet “made the rash gazer wipe his eye,” & which he brought nearer with his spy glass, & whose fine clear note he compares to that of a “tanager who has got rid of his hoarseness,” then he heard a note which he calls that of the nightwarbler, a bird he has never identified, and has been in search of for twelve years; which, always, when he sees, is in the act of diving down into a tree or bush, & which ’tis vain to seek; the only bird that sings indifferently by night & by day. I told him, he must beware of finding & booking him, lest life should have nothing more to show him. He said, “What you seek in vain for half your life, one day you come full upon, all the family at dinner.—You seek him like a dream, and as soon as you find him, you become his prey.” 
Henry thinks he could tell by the flowers what day of the month it is, within two days.

Today’s route: We walked through the Lower Shade Garden, making our way to the Dunson Native Flora Garden. After exploring Dunson’s fern populations, we took the entrance road to the service road that runs north up the powerline right-of-way to the Nash Prairie on the north side of the White Trail. We went in search of the Carolina Milkvine population on the west side of the right-of-way, just below the top of the hill. From the Carolina Milkvine patch, we retraced our steps back to the Visitor Center and parking lot.

Show-and-Tell: Fern Terminology
Fern leaves are called fronds, which consist of a blade (the leafy part) and a stipe (leaf stalk or petiole). Fern stems are usually completely underground and are called rhizomes.

Fern Growth Habits: Ferns occur in one of two growth forms: clumps or patches. All fern fronds arise from underground stems (rhizomes), that spread horizontally and put down fibrous roots. In some species, the buds that produce fronds are clustered at the growing tip of a short rhizome, resulting in a vase- or fountain-shaped clump of closely spaced fronds. In other species, the frond-producing buds are scattered on a long rhizome, resulting in widely spaced fronds in patches.

Fern reproduction: Ferns reproduce both vegetatively by the spread of rhizomes and sexually by spores. Spores are produced in tiny structures called sporangia that are gathered together into a sorus (plural, sori). Sori come in a variety of shapes and sizes and are found on several places on fronds. These are best viewed with a 10x hand lens. Examples:

Spores are single-celled reproductive structures produced by meiosis, a type of cell division that reduces the number of chromosomes in the cell’s nucleus by half. Thus, the spore cell has only half the number of chromosomes in its nucleus that its parent has (haploid or 1n). In contrast, seeds are made up of many, many cells – each with a full complement of chromosomes (diploid or 2n), half from one parent, half from the other. Ferns spores are produced inside tiny structures called sporangia that are grouped together into numerous “sori” (singular: sorus). Sori are most often found on the lower surface of fern leaflets, though occasionally occur elsewhere on the plant (more later).

Unlike a seed, which is usually protected from the environment by a seed coat and an enveloping fruit, a spore is incredibly fragile and subject to drying out. But thousands are produced by each plant, carried near and far by the wind, so at least a few are likely to drift into suitable habitat. Once settled, the spore germinates and begins to grow by mitosis (cell division that maintains the number of chromosomes) into a very small, flat, heart-shaped, free-living, haploid plant called a “gametophyte,” meaning a gamete-producing plant. Gametes are haploid sex cells, i.e. egg and sperm, just like in animals. In ferns, these are produced in tiny organs on the moist lower surface of the gametophyte. Once released, the sperm (which have tiny tails) swim around in what moisture may be available and with luck find their way to the waiting egg cells, sometimes on the same gametophyte (self-fertilization), sometimes on a different one (cross-fertilization).
Once an egg and sperm unite, a diploid zygote with the full complement of chromosomes begins to develop into the leafy, green plant we know as a fern. Botanists call this showy, leafy stage of the plant’s life a “sporophyte” because it is the spore-producing part of the fern’s life cycle–which brings the cycle back to where we started. This two-phase cycle of reproduction – partly haploid, partly diploid – is called “alternation of generations,” and is found in all the so-called “primitive plants,” the ones that have been around hundreds of million years, long before the seed- and flower- producing plants, and even before dinosaurs. So, reproduction by alternation of generations may seem inefficient and contingent in the extreme, but it has worked for these plants a very long time. It’s true that there are more than ten times as many seed-producing plants than ferns, but there is more than one way to measure success and persistence is a good one.
(You can read more about and see lots of examples of fern anatomy and growth habits at this website.

TODAY’S OBSERVATIONS:

On our way to the Lower Shade Garden to look for ferns, we noticed that Eastern (Red) Columbine plants we’ve been watching all spring are now in fruit. These are volunteers that emerged from a crack in the sidewalk where the Lower Shade Garden path enters the Children’s Garden. We first saw it in flower on April 4. It is an aggregate fruit that consists of five fused separate fruits about an inch long, each with a pointed beak. Its leaves have been visited by leaf miners who have eaten their way across several of the leaves.

Christmas Fern grows in nearly every county in Georgia, in a wide range of habitats from dry upland woods to streamside bottomlands. It has evergreen fronds bearing many pinnae that resemble Christmas stockings or Santa’s sleigh. Christmas Fern is one of the few evergreen ferns in the Georgia Piedmont. As temperatures drop in the fall, specialized cells at the base of each frond collapse, forming a sort of hinge that causes the frond to fall over. Living most of the year under a dense canopy of leaves, Christmas Fern actually conducts much of the year’s photosynthesis during the winter. Flattened to the ground, the fronds are able to capture more of winter’s low-angle sunlight than if they were upright. They are also less vulnerable to winter winds. Further north, the flattened fronds are protected from extreme temperatures by a blanket of snow. Interestingly, the cells that carry water and nutrients through the leaf (xylem and phloem) do not collapse; they continue to function through the winter and contribute to the growth of new fronds in the spring. The overwintering fronds begin to wither and decay as new fronds appear in the spring.

Ebony Spleenwort is another evergreen fern in the Piedmont that looks superficially like a small version of Christmas Fern but its stalk is dark in color – maroon to black – and glossy; the leaf stalk of Christmas Fern is green and scaley. Also, Ebony Spleenwort produces spores on the lower surfaces of all its leaflets, not just the uppermost.

Southern Lady Fern is found in moist forests throughout the southeast. Lower elevation plants have reddish stalks; mountain plants (above 3,500 feet or so) have green stalks. Both have been planted in the Dunson Garden. This species is distinguished by the shape of its pinnae – they are about the same width for most of their length then abruptly taper to a point, a shape known to botanists as “acuminate.” Steve Bowling, a famous Georgia botanist, explained that this fern’s hairless leaf stalks are due to the undisputed fact that “southern ladies always shave their legs.” With a hand lens, you can see that its spores are produced in tiny, crescent-shaped sori on the undersides of the leaflets.

This year there is a bumper crop of five-leafleted Jack-in-the-Pulpits, or actually, Jill-in-the-Pulpits since these robust plants were all bearing clusters of green, immature fruits. This species is able to change sex from year to year, responding to moisture and nutrient levels. If the previous year was a good year with plenty of rain, and the plant had access to plenty of soil nutrients, it will store lots of energy (in the form of carbohydrates) in its underground storage organ, called a corm. With all this money in the bank, this year’s plants will be “female,” able to produce leaves with five leaflets instead of the more common three leaflets as well as flowers with ovaries that develop into fruits, an energy-expensive process that depletes the corm of its stores. The following year, that same plant will be “male,” producing three-leaflet leaves and male flowers with pollen, a less expensive process, and begin to store up energy in the corm once again. The hefty corms of Jill plants made them a valuable food item for native Americans who dried, ground, and heated them to break down certain enzymes as well as the calcium oxalate crystals that characterize plants in this family (Araceae). Without serious pre-treatment, eating the corms and leaves cause painful burning and swelling of the tongue and mouth.

Black Cohosh is in flower! It’s been a wet, cool spring in Athens, just the right combination of conditions for this largely Appalachian species. One of the highlights of early summer in Dunson is the appearance of these tall white candles in their branched candelabras. Black Cohosh flowers (below) have four minute petals and rely on lots of showy, bright white stamens to attract pollinators – a variety of flies, bees, and beetles that are drawn by the white flowers and their strongly unpleasant odor. They come in search of pollen; the flowers do not produce nectar. Black Cohosh is the only host for the caterpillars of the small blue Appalachian Azure butterfly which lays its eggs on the flowers.

Winterberry, a species of Holly, is in flower. Hollies are dioecious – female flowers and male flowers are on separate plants – and the flowers on this specimen have only stamens, i.e. are male. In order to insure a crop of Christmas-time holly berries in your yard, you have to be sure to buy a plant of both sexes, or hope that your neighbor’s have one of each.

NOW, back to ferns…..
There are two wetland fern species planted in Dunson, Royal Fern and Cinnamon Fern.

Royal Fern has a different look from other ferns – the fronds (photo, above) are symmetrical and lack the many divisions that define “ferniness.” Its pinnae are widely spaced as are the pinnules which have neither teeth or pinnulets. Overall, the fronds have a tailored look. Earlier on during this ramble, we saw Christmas Fern with its sori massed on lower surfaces of the uppermost pinnae. Royal Fern, though in an entirely different fern family, has taken a similar approach. The uppermost pinnae on a fertile frond are converted to spore production and look very different from the other pinnae below (photo, below).

The few Cinnamon Ferns found in the Dunson Garden have never seemed very happy – they aren’t spreading and produce only a few, middling-sized fronds. At their best, Cinnamon Ferns can produce beautiful, fountain-like clumps of sterile fronds that can be up to 30 inches long and 10 inches wide, with a cinnamon-colored fertile frond rising from the middle (photo, left). When the fertile frond is present, identification of Cinnamon Ferns is easy. Otherwise, examine the lower surface of the frond, looking for a white or tan patch of hairs in the “armpits” between the pinnae and the stalk (photo, right). No other southeastern fern has “hairy armpits.” (Certainly not Southern Lady Ferns!)

Georgia has two species of maidenhair ferns: Northern Maidenhair Fern (left) and Southern Maidenhair Fern (right), occurring respectively in north and south Georgia (mostly). In both species, the pinnae are delicate and fan-shaped, with the sporangia tucked under small flaps of tissue along the edges of some pinnae. Both species grow only where soil moisture and pH are high. Northern Maidenhair Fern has a broadly fan-shaped or semi-circular frond, with the soft, blue-green pinnae radiating out from the top of a black, wiry, erect stem. Southern Maidenhair Fern grows among the rocks lining the wash in Dunson. In the wild, it is most often found growing on damp limestone or marl cliffs. Its stems are black and glossy and the blade is typically drooping and oval in outline with many pale green pinnae.

New York Fern forms large colonies on moist mountain slopes, spreading by a network of its underground stems. Its fronds taper at both the top and the bottom, i.e. the pinnae become shorter and shorter at both ends, inspiring the helpful mnemonic “New Yorkers burn their candles at both ends.”

A snakey aside: Ramblers have so often commented on how many common names for plants refer to snakes, especially rattlesnakes, that I decided to try and quantify this observation. Using the common name index at the back of the “Flora of the Southeastern United States” (Weakley et al. 2022), I quickly counted 20 “Rattlesnake” names, 19 “Snakeroot” names, one “Snake Cactus,” two “Snake Fern,” four “Snakebark,” one “Snakeberry,” two “Snake-cotton,” one “Snake-eyes,” one “Snakemouth,” one “Snakeskin Fern,” and three “Snakewood”….for a grand total of 55 snake names. There are at least two obvious reasons for the common use of snake names, the first being a physical resemblance between the plant and a part or behavior of a snake, such as buttonlike rattles, skin patterns, or zigzag or curving locomotion. Just as prevalent is the widespread use by Native American and European settlers of plants to treat snakebite, a fearsome prospect before modern medicine. Since a quarter to a half of North American rattlesnake strikes are “dry” – without venom – these remedies “worked” at least some of the time and no doubt provided some mental and physical relief. Plants are still used as an antivenom in tropical countries – I discovered several articles online on this topic.

Two clump-forming species of Wood Ferns are planted in Dunson, Goldie’s Wood Fern (left) and Marginal Wood Fern (right). Goldie’s Wood Fern occurs in high-elevation boulderfields and nutrient-rich cove forests over mafic bedrock in north Georgia. Its sori are in two rows, one on either side of the midveins of the pinnules (below, left). Marginal Wood Fern is also a mostly montane species. Its fronds overwinter, spreading flat against the ground to maximize the amount of sunlight they can capture on short winter days. Marginal Wood Fern is named for the location of the sori which typically line the margins of the pinnules (below, right).

On our way out of the Dunson Garden, we stopped to admire two flowering plant species that are very rare in Georgia: Fringed Campion and Goldenseal.

At this point, we decided to head out to the Nash Prairie to check on the population of Carolina Milkvine that has flourished there for many years. Along the way, we encountered lots of other interesting sights and species.

As we did last year, we found the Nine-banded Armadillos making a home in the edge of the road through the Nash Prairie. We counted at least five burrows, including some that were quite large, along the edge of a large, muddy wallow with numerous tail-drags and paw prints scattered about the damp surface.

Carolina Milkvine, a sprawling herbaceous vine in the same family as milkweeds, has established a robust population in the upper part of the Nash Prairie, west of the service road. The vines seem especially heavy laden with their satiny, maroon flowers this year, and we hope for at least a few fruits in August. The milkvines, in the genus Matelea, produce a milky latex similar to milkweeds but have not been documented as host plants for Monarch caterpillars.

This red clay sphere was attached to a dead, overwintered stem near the Milkvine patch. It was created by a female Fraternal Potter Wasp (right) as a nest for one of her young. Each “pot” takes 1-2 hours to build. After mating, the female wasp builds the nest out of clay and begins hunting for caterpillars and other soft-bodied insects, which she paralyzes with venom and suspends inside the pot. She then lays an egg inside the pot, seals it up with more clay, and departs to repeat the process again with another nest. After the egg hatches, the resulting larva eats the paralyzed prey, and eventually develops into an adult and chews its way out of the nest. Potter Wasps are not aggressive and do not defend their nests, stinging only if harassed. (Although they too build mud nests, Mud Dauber wasps belong to different families than Potter Wasps.) Photo of Fraternal Potter Wasp by Dan Mullen.

This description of Case-bearing Leaf Beetle behavior is copied from a wonderful blog, Naturally Curious with Mary Holland, that I highly recommend. Here’s what Holland wrote: “It’s not every day that I discover a species I’ve never seen before, but when it comes to insects, it happens regularly. Rarely, however, are they as interesting as the Case-bearing Leaf Beetle I observed on a blackberry leaf recently… How its case was created is as, or more, interesting than the beetle itself. The adult female Case-bearing Leaf Beetle lays an egg and wraps it with her fecal material as she turns the egg, until it is completely enclosed. Once hardened, the feces create a protective case for both the egg and eventually the larva. When the egg hatches, the larva opens one end of the case, extends its head and legs, flips the case over its back and crawls away. As the larva eats and grows, it adds its own fecal material to the case in order to enlarge it. Eventually the larva reseals the case, pupates and then emerges as an adult Case-bearing Leaf Beetle. If it’s a female it then prepares to mate, lay eggs, and recycle its waste.”

As we walked down and out of the prairie, an Indigo Bunting flew past us. This photo is by Kelly Colgan Azar, downloaded from her Flickr photostream.

SUMMARY OF OBSERVED SPECIES:
Southern Shield Fern, Kunth’s Maiden Fern Parathelypteris kunthii
Mariana Island Maiden-fern Macrothelypteris torresiana
Southern (or Red) Columbin Aquilegia canadensis
Christmas Fern Polystichum acrostichoides
Southern Lady Fern Athyrium asplenioides
Jack-in-the-pulpit, Jill-in-the-pulpit Arisaema triphyllum
Japanese Painted Fern Athyrium niponicum
American Burnweed/Fireweed Erechtites hieracifolia
Asian Jumpseed/Lady’s Thumb Persicaria filiformis
Black Cohosh Actaea racemosa
Royal Fern Osmunda regalis
Golden Ragwort Packera aurea
Crossvine Bignonia capreolata
Winterberry Holly Ilex verticillata
Northern Horsebalm Collinsonia canadensis
Southern Maidenhair Fern Adiantum capillus-veneris
Northern Maidenhair Fern Adiantum pedatum
Sensitive Fern Onoclea sensibilis
New York Fern Thelypteris noveboracensis
Kentucky Yellowwood Cladrastis kentukea
Perfoliate Bellwort Uvularia perfoliata
Broad Beech Fern Phegopteris hexagonoptera
Rattlesnake Fern Botrypus virginianus
Indian Pink Spigelia marilandica
Goldie’s Wood Fern Dryopteris goldiana
Fringed Campion Silene polypetala
Hairy Bedstraw Galium pilosum
Old Man of the Woods mushroom Strobilomyces strobilaceus
Cinnamon Fern Osmundastrum cinnamomeum
Goldenseal Hydrastis canadensis
Dove’s-foot Cranes-bill Geranium molle
Stilt Bug (adult and nymphs) Jalysus sp.
Common Foxglove Digitalis purpurea
Yellow-billed Cuckoo (call only) Coccyzus americanus
Carolina Wild Petunia Ruellia caroliniensis
Nine-banded Armadillo (burrows and wallow) Dasypus novemcinctus
Carolina Phlox Phlox carolina
Eastern Bracken Fern Pteridium latiusculum (synonym, P. aquilinum)
Carolina Milkvine Matelea carolinensis
Lance-leaf Loosestrife Lysimachia lanceolata
Little-leaf Sensitive Briar Mimosa microphylla
Chinese Mantis (juvenile and egg case) Tenodera sinensis
Meadow Katydid (nymph) Conocephalus sp.
Fraternal Potter Wasp (nest only) Eumenes fraternus
Southern Beardtongue Penstemon australis
Pencil Flower Stylosanthes biflora
Case-bearing Leaf Beetle subfamily Cryptocephalinae
Blackberry Rubus sp.
Eastern Redbud Cercis canadensis
Hairy Skullcap Scutellaria elliptica
Indigo Bunting (visual) Passerina cyanea

Leaders for today’s Ramble: Eugenia Thompson and Tom Shelton

Authors of today’s Ramble report: Linda and Don. Comments, edits, and suggestions for the report can be sent to Linda at Lchafin ( at ) uga.edu.

Insect, fungi, and gall identifications: Don Hunter, Bill Sheehan

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

Number of Ramblers today: 33

Today’s emphasis: Birding with Tom and Eugenia, searching for late arriving migrants, mostly in the forest edges along the right-of-way.

Announcements and other interesting things to note:
Heather is recovering well at home after surgery last week. You can wish her well at crickie (at) gmail.com

Eugenia recommended a book by biologist Joan Strassmann, Slow Birding, as an antidote to the kind of birding that focuses on list-keeping. Linda recommended a similar book by Simon Barnes, How to Be a (Bad) Birdwatcher.

For fans of A River Runs Through It, Norman MacLean’s classic novel: Rebecca McCarthy, local journalist and author, has written a biography, Norman MacLean: A Life of Letters and Rivers. Rebecca will discuss her book this Wednesday, May 22, at 7:00 p.m at the Athens Public Library on Baxter Street. More info about this event is here.

Bob announced that there are three upcoming events featuring his new book of poetry, Between Birdsong and Boulder: Poems on the Life of Gaia. The first will be Saturday, May 25, at the Alps Road Presbyterian Church, 380 Alps Rd, Athens, from 10:00 a.m. to noon. It will be an interactive presentation, with readings and questions, as well as a book signing. The other presentation will be at Avid Books, Tuesday, June 11, and will consist of several readings, followed by a panel discussion; more info about this event is here. A third event will be held at the Botanical Garden on Sunday, August 18, 2-3:00 p.m. and will include poems and visuals describing Earth through geologic time.

Interesting article on “plant intelligence”!

Show and Tell:
Gary brought a branch from a fruiting Cottonwood tree covered with masses of fluff-tipped seeds releasing from fruit capsules. The seeds are tiny and pale green. Cottonwoods are a common floodplain tree in the Georgia Piedmont. They are distinguished by their dark, deeply furrowed bark and by triangular leaves with flattened petioles. The source of the common name is obvious when the trees go to seed. A single Cottonwood tree produces thousands of dark, oval seedpods, each of which contains thousands of tiny seeds that are 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 our winter and early spring floods. Here’s a short and interesting article about this amazingly prolific tree.

Today’s Reading: Bob recited “Praise,” a poem from Between Birdsong and Boulder: Poems on the Life of Gaia.

Praise

The days of creation move through time
    filling out the soon-to-be
        with songs and creatures yet undreamed.
 
So praise to the cells that capture the sun –
    the algae that aerate the oceans,
        the grasses that anchor the plains.
 
Praise to the microbes that render the soil
    and fungi entwined with the roots of trees.
        Praise insects that pollinate weeds.
 
Praise to the chorus that wakes the dawn
    to the bustling hum of a summer day
        and the hush that ushers the night.
 
And praise to the ongoing song of Gaia –
    the eons ring as her trillion-voice choir
        sings praise to the maker who moves through it all.

Today’s Route: We left the Children’s Garden arbor and headed down the entrance road to the right-of-way, taking the paved ADA walkway to the Middle Oconee River then returned the same way.

BIRD OBSERVATIONS:
Spotting birds was much harder today than in last month’s birding ramble with Bay; the tree canopy is fully leafed out and birds were mostly in hiding. We pulled out our phones and opened the Merlin app to do a little birding by ear as well as by binoculars. Here are the species we heard or identified by sight:

Acadian Flycatcher Empidonax virescens
Black Vulture Coragyps atratus
Blue Grosbeak Passerina caerulea
Blue Jay Cyanocitta cristata
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher Polioptila caerulea
Brown-headed Cowbird Molothrus ater
Carolina Wren Thryothorus ludovicianus
Chipping Sparrow Spizella passerina
Common Yellowthroat Geothlypis trichas
Downy Woodpecker Picoides pubescens
Eastern Towhee Pipilo erythrophthalmus
Eastern Wood-Pewee Contopus virens
Great Blue Heron Ardea herodias
Great Crested Flycatcher Myiarchus crinitus
Great Horned Owl Bubo virginianus
Indigo Bunting Passerina cyanea
Louisiana Waterthrush Parkesia motacilla
Mallard Duck Anas platyrhynchos
Northern Cardinal Cardinalis cardinalis
Pine Warbler Setophaga pinus
Red-bellied Woodpecker Melanerpes carolinus
Red-tailed Hawk Buteo jamaicensis
Red-winged Blackbird Agelaius phoeniceus
Summer Tanager Piranga rubra
Tufted Titmouse Baeolophus bicolor
Turkey Vulture Cathartes aura
Wood Thrush Hylocichla mustelina

NON-BIRD OBSERVATIONS:

Silky Dogwood’s four-petaled flowers are small but clustered into a showy, flat-topped cyme. They are visited by a variety of bees, flies, wasps, and butterflies. The anthers are purple, something I never noticed before seeing Don’s photo. The fruits are round, dark blue drupes (a fleshy fruit with a single seed). Both leaves and twigs are covered with silky hairs. Silky Dogwood is a common wetland shrub that also thrives when planted in moist gardens such as the Dunson Garden.

Anglepod Milkvine is a climbing, herbaceous vine in the same family as Milkweed – its leaves and stems also ooze a milky latex when damaged. There are scattered anecdotal reports of Monarchs using milkvines as a larval host but there are no published data. Its natural habitats include moist deciduous forests and bottomlands; in Dunson, it grows on the deer fence along the road.

Purple Milkweed is one of the rarest plant species in Georgia, with only eight documented occurrences in the state, all occurring in only two northwestern counties. In the wild, they prefer moist to wet savannas and flatwoods but are thriving in the Dunson Garden. In the photo on the left, Large Milkweed Bugs are exploring flower buds; on the right, a Western Honey Bee is searching for nectar in the flower.

As we walked toward the river, we noticed several Silvery Checkerspot Butterflies fluttering across the White Clover flower heads, taking nectar from the flowers. As usual, ramblers debated how to tell this species (below, left) from Pearl Crescent (right). The difference between the two species is pretty obscure. The edge of the lower pair of wings of Silvery Checkerspot is bordered with a series of white dash marks. Above the white dashes there is a dark gray or black band topped with a series of black spots, some of which have a round, white dot in the center. If the butterfly you’re looking at is a Silvery Checkerspot at least one of those lower wing black dots will have a white dot in the center of the black dot. If not, it is a Pearl Crescent (below right).

Bill took some of the Hackberry galls home to his lab and took these great photos.

Other weedy species in the right-of-way include Japanese Mazus, with its dainty purple and yellow flowers (below, left), and Virginia Pepperweed (right).

Across the river, a pair of Red-shouldered Hawks tending a nest they’d built on a power pole captured Ramblers’ attention.

SUMMARY OF NON-BIRD OBSERVED SPECIES

Click beetle Limonius basilaris
Magnolia Green Jumping Spider Lyssomanes viridis
Hop Hornbeam Ostrya virginiana
Southern Magnolia Magnolia grandiflora
Serviceberry Amelanchier arborea
Eastern Gray Squirrel Sciurus carolinensis
Chipmunk Tamias striatus
Tumbling Flower Beetle Mordella sp.
Silky Dogwood Cornus amomum
Anglepod Milkvine Gonolobus suberosus
Purple Milkweed Asclepias purpurascens
Large Milkweed Bug Oncopeltus fasciatus
Western Honey Bee Apis mellifera
Eastern Carpenter Bee Xylocopa virginica
Clasping Venus’s Looking Glass Triodanis perfoliata
Carolina Horsenettle Solanum carolinense
Silvery Checkerspot butterfly Chlosyne nycteis
White Clover Trifolium repens
Southern Hackberry Celtis laevigata
Hackberry Hackberry Petiole Gall Psyllid Pachypsylla venusta
Annual Ryegrass Lolium multiflorum
Japanese Mazus Mazus pumilus
Virginia Pepperweed Lepidium virginicum