Today’s report was jointly written by Don Hunter and
Linda Chafin with additions by Dale Hoyt. Don’s album of photos from today’s ramble can be found here.

33 Ramblers today.

Today’s readings:
Bob Ambrose recited one of his new creations: Reverie – Afternoon in the
Botanical Garden and Marguerite read Howard Nemerov’s Trees.

Today’s route: We began with an observation
of the Ginkgo trees at the Shade Garden arbor then walked down the Shade Garden
walkway to the Dunson Native Flora Garden. We walked through the Dunson Garden
to the head of the wetlands display and returned the same way back to the Shade
Garden arbor, and, for many, on to the Visitor Center to the Cafe Botanica for
socializing over food and drink.

Gingko short shoots and pollen cones

Ginkgo
trees at the Shade Garden Arbor.

Continue reading →

Today’s Ramble was conducted by our guest leaders:
Dr. Chelsea Cunard and Carly Phillips.

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

Today’s post was written by Dale Hoyt.

A message from Linda to all the Ramblers:

“What a great year
of rambling, poetry, fellowship, art, and learning it has been. I am awed by
being a part of this group. Thanks to all of you! L.”

Attendees:42, another new record!

Announcements:

Continue reading →

Today’s Ramble was lead by Linda Chafin.

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

Today’s post was written by Dale Hoyt and Don Hunter.

Attendees: 36 (a
new record)

Announcements:

Visit this page
to see the current Announcements.

Today’s reading:Linda read a poem by Wendell Berry:

The
Peace of Wild Things

Continue reading →

Magnificent Ginkgo leaves

Today’s Ramble was lead by Dale Hoyt.

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

Today’s post was written by Dale Hoyt.

Attendees:31

Continue reading →

Today’s Ramble was lead by Linda Chafin.

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

Today’s post was written by Don Hunter, Linda Chafin and Dale Hoyt.

Attendees:27

Announcements:

Donderos’ Kitchen is ceasing operation at the Botanical Garden next week. 

Andrea Fischer,
the Garden’s Volunteer & Tour Coordinator, has volunteered to fill the gap
and will make coffee for us next Thursday (Nov. 3), but we will have to bring
our own snacks. The Georgia
Center will be taking over the operation of the snack bar sometime next week
but we do not currently know when it will be open for business.  

Next Wednesday
(Nov. 2) @ 9:00 AM Emily will lead a tree
walk at Sandy Creek Nature Center.

Visit this page
to see other Announcements.

Today’s reading: Linda
read a passage from The Triumph of Seeds:

 [There are] any number of
metaphors in Genesis, many of them biological. The chapters concerning Adam and
Eve, for example, do more than de- scribe the dawn of humanity and original
sin. They also tell one of the greatest seed dispersal stories of all time.

From the Renaissance forward,
artists have made the scene in- delible: Adam and Eve sharing a luscious apple
below the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, with a serpent coiled around the
closest branch. Botanical purists point out that such large-fruited apple
varieties didn’t become common until the twelfth century, and that the fruit
should probably be a pomegranate. Whichever the species, the cunning snake had
chosen a perfect lure, something that evolved for the sole purpose of
temptation. To a hungry animal, the tiny seeds inside an apple or the stone at
the center of a date may seem irrelevant, secondary to the irresistible flesh.
But the truth is the other way around. Fruit, in all its magnificent variety,
exists for no other reason than to serve the seeds.

Whether a plant is growing in the
Garden of Eden, in a tropical rainforest, or in a vacant lot, its investment in
producing, nourishing, and protecting its seeds means nothing without
dispersal. Offspring that languish on the mother or drop directly below amount
to little more than a wasted effort. If they sprout at all, they won’t survive
long in the shade of a fully grown parent. (In some cases, adults release
toxins into nearby soil to prevent their progeny from becoming competitors.)
For [most fruits], adding a thin layer of pulp to its seeds can entice
[animals] to carry them half a mile or more. The Tree of Knowledge did even
better. According to Genesis, eating that Forbidden Fruit resulted in Adam and
Eve’s immediate expulsion from Eden. Metaphorically, at least, the fruit went
with them. Some depictions show the guilty couple still clutching a half-eaten
apple. And if it was indeed a pomegranate, then the seeds would have been
safely lodged in their digestive tracts. Either way, the Tree had put itself in
a great position. With that one tempting fruit, it went from a garden-bound existence to the promise of
mass dispersal with humanity across the face of the earth.

From:
Thor Hanson, 2015, The Triumph of Seeds,
Basic Books, pp. 182-184

Today’s
route: We left the Arbor and took the cement walkway down to the access road,
then followed the road down to the bottom of the Dunson Native Flora Garden;
then returned through the DNFG, pausing along the way to search for and discuss
all the fruits we could find.

Our focus today was on fruits and seeds and we needed a little
introduction to some of the ideas and concepts centered around them. Linda
passed out a sheet illustrating and defining a variety of fruit types. If
you missed the Ramble or lost the handout you can find it at this link.

A University of Kentucky course has a series of excellent color illustrated
.pdf files depicting different fruit types. You can access these by downloading
a single file at this link. Once you get the
file, open it and click on the links inside to download the other fruit files.
Even if you aren’t interested in all the terminology the spectacular diversity
of fruit types is mind boggling. I guarantee you won’t be disappointed.

Note: A
reference I use for botanical terms is: Harris, JG & MW Harris, 2001, Plant Identification Terminology, 2nd
ed., Spring Lake Publ., Spring Lake, UT. All the definitions in this post
are in italics and are from that source.

A good definition of a fruit is: A ripened ovary and any other structures which are attached and ripen
with it. Like all definitions, the devil is in the details.

The University of Kentucky source cited above divides fruits into the
following useful categories:

Simple fruits
– A fruit derived from a single flower and a single ovary

Multiple fruits
– A fruit derived from a single flower and multiple, non-united ovaries.

Compound fruits
– A fruit from an inflorescence (more than one flower).

Accessory fruits
– Any of the fruits above that include additional tissues not derived from the
ovary. These tissues are usually floral or receptacle tissues, like bracts.

Nuts, acorns (A dry, indehiscent, one-seeded fruit
similar to an achene but with the wall greatly thickened and hardened. (Indehiscent
means: not opening at maturity along
definite lines or pores.)

Examples of
nuts: fruits of beech, chestnut, oak, hazel, walnut and hickory.

In beech, hickory, and walnut, this becomes confusing because the nuts
are surrounded by a husk that does split open. The husk is not actually part of the “nut” but is
“accessory tissue” derived from vegetative tissue of the parent plant, making
these a kind of Accessory, simple fruit.

Nuts, strictly speaking, are the part derived from the
fertilization process. It includes the embryo (future plant), the cotyledons
(food for developing embryo), and the pericarp (the fruit wall that develops
from the ovary). In nuts, the pericarp is usually hard and bony. The pericarp
is made up of three layers (endocarp, mesocarp, and exocarp), but in nuts these
layers are hard to tell apart.

In oaks, the acorn cap (or cupule) is the accessory
tissue derived from the bracts of the flower on the
parent plant. In beech and chestnut, the spiny covering of the nuts is the accessory
tissue. Accessory tissue surrounds the immature ovary as it develops into a nut
and persists on the mature nut as a husk that splits to release the nut. In the
drawing below the accessory tissue, i.e. the acorn cap, is shown.

Wikipedia illustration by KDS444

Similarly, in hickory, pecans, and walnuts, the outer
covering that splits open is accessory tissue. This is the thick “husk” on the
mockernut for example. The nut itself includes the hard, bony shell. (In pecans,
the shell is fairly thin and easily breaks open.) In the drawing below the husk
is not shown. In beech the spiny bur is accessory tissue and surrounds 1 or
more nuts.

Hickory nut section (Clipart)

Beech nut

Beech fruit with contained nuts

Other fruits in other families also include accessory
tissue, e.g. strawberry. The red part is swollen stem tissue, the actual fruits
are the tiny, crunchy things.

Many
acorns were seen scattered across the red brick pavers at the Arbor. There was
some speculation as to the function of the cap and I suggested, tongue in
cheek, that it must be to hold the nut to the tree. Most of the acorns in this
area are from white oaks and northern red oaks. One of the Ramblers impressed
us with her talent whistling across the top of one of the acorn caps.

A note about
hickories in the Garden.

I have been confused as to the identity of some
of the hickories in the Garden for several years. In particular, I have had
trouble convincing myself that we have pignut hickory in the Garden. In 1998
the eminent Georgia ecologist Charles Wharton produced a survey of the natural
environments of the State Botanical Garden of Georgia. Here is what he had to
say about the pignut hickory:

Even most botanists
dread hickories. The SBG has at least four kinds. The most common appears to be
a hybrid between pignut (Carya glabra) and
sweet pignut (C. ovalis). This widespread tree
Dr. Bongarten calls a “hybrid swarm.” . . .The small nut and the thinner husk of the hybrid is distinctive (the
nuts are relished by squirrels).

The Dr. Bongarten referred to in the passage
above is Bruce C. Bongarten. He was Associate Dean of the UGA Warnell School of
Forestry and later became Provost of SUNY College of Environmental Science
and Forestry in New York.

Comparing hickory nuts and acorns: 

The
husk on a hickory nut is equivalent to the cap on an acorn; both are derived
from tissue on the parent plant and provide a protective covering to the
developing nut. In hickories, pecans, and walnuts, the protective covering
persists on the nut. In acorns, the nut “outgrows” its protective cover, which
persists only as a small cap (though in some oak species the nut remains
covered by its spiny husk).  The nut
inside the husk of a hickory nut is like the acorn held by the cap.  The meat inside a cracked hickory nut is like
the meat inside an acorn; both are largely composed of cotyledons which nourish
the developing embryo and young seedling. 
Linda showed the group hickory nuts in a side by side comparison.  The smaller nut, with the thinner husk is a
pignut hickory nut.  The larger nut, with
a very thick husk, was from a mockernut hickory. 

Pignut x Red hickory nut with incomplete separation of husk sections

Comparison of Pignut x Red hickory nut (L) with Mockernut hickory nut (R) Note size difference and thickness of husk

Samara (A dry, indehiscent winged fruit.)

Examples of samaras: fruits of maples,
elm, ash, tulip tree.

At the first switch back in the sidewalk, we started
seeing Tulip tree samaras which were scattered over the walkway down to the
next two switchbacks. The large Japanese maple at the first switchback must
have shed its samara fruits earlier because we only found a few of them in the
mulch

A single samara from a Tulip tree the seed is at the right

Clusters of Tulip tree samaras

Red maple samara

Trumpet vine samaras

Legume (A dry dehiscent fruit derived from a single
carpel and usually opening along two lines of dehiscence, as a pea pod.

Examples of legumes: fruits of the
bean family (Fabaceae) – Redbud, Baptisia (False indigo), Tall Indigo (Amorpha fruticosa), peas, beans.

Baptisia seed pod, a legume

Redbud seed pod, a legume

Baptisia seed pod, opened to show seeds

Seed (L) and seed pod (R) of Amorpha fruticosa Although the seed pod does not split open (indehiscent) it is still a legume.

We also found several brown, dried Baptisia seed pods.  Most
were open and had lost their seeds but a few unopened pods remained.  These rattled, with the enclosed seeds, when
shook.  These seed pods are, by
definition, legumes, since they split open lengthwise into two halves.

Nearby was a tall indigo, a member of the
legume family, with hundreds of very small black pods. While its fruit is indehiscent, it is still considered a legume.  Perhaps because of its small size, the pod is
eaten whole by animals. We crushe one, revealing a single, small black
seed.

Berry (A fleshy fruit developing from a single
pistil, with several or many seeds, as the tomato. Sometimes applied to any
fruit which is fleshy or pulpy throughout, i.e., lacking a pit or core.”)

Beauty berry

Beautyberry seeds in a berry

We stopped along the deer fence to look at several
American beautyberry shrubs that were sticking out from the fence.  The once purple berries are now shades of
brown and somewhat soft and wilted looking. 
Pressing an individual berry between the thumb and finger reveals two to
three tiny seeds, floating in the moist, pulpy interior.  Each of the beautyberry fruits is, by
definition, a berry because it is juicy and fleshy and has multiple seeds.

Drupe (A fleshy, indehiscent fruit with a stony
endocarp surrounding a usually single seed, as in a peach or cherry.)

Examples:

Viburnum

Viburnum fruits

We
passed by a viburnum with many clusters of red fruit.  Each red berry is a drupe, containing a
single large seed.

Dogwood,

Next, we stopped briefly at a dogwood.  The fruit were borne high up on unreachable
limbs but we were able to find some on the ground. The red color of the berries
attracts birds. The fruits are drupes, a single-seeded fleshy type of fruit.

Winterberry, Possum
haw

Back to the deer fence, we found a possum haw or
winterberry full of red fruit, each containing approximately three seeds in a
very moist pulp. Although these seem to meet the definition of “berry,” they
are technically considered a special kind of drupe. The fruit of this tree is
poisonous to humans although it is edible to wildlife.

Silverbell, Halesia

Someone produced the fruit of a four-winged silverbell
tree. We splayed back the wings and found a hard seed inside. According to this
site “The fruit is a dry, oblong, four-winged drupe that matures in
the fall.”

Capsule (A dry, dehiscent fruit composed of more than
one carpel.)

A
carpel is a “simple pistil formed from one modified leaf, or that part of
a compound pistil formed from one modified leaf. Carpel number of a compound
pistil is determined by counting the number of stigmas, styles, locules and
placentae. Carpel number is indicated by whichever of these parts is found in
the greatest number.”)

Camellia

Camellia flower and fruit

In
the lower Shade Garden, we passed by several camellias and stopped to look at
the fruit, a type of capsule that splits into segments (a loculicidal capsule).
The fruit wall (pericarp) is tan and splits into 3 sections to reveal the
rounded seeds, which are covered with a dark seed coat.  The seed, when crushed, revealed a cream
colored interior, the endosperm.

Sweet pepperbush, Clethra

Clethra fruits with retained styles and stigmas

We
next looked at the fruit of a sweet pepperbush shrub.  The tiny fruits were arranged along the
length of a raceme about three to four inches long.  The styles were still present, extending from
the top of each fruit. The three stigmas were still visible on the tips of the
styles.  These were the sites of
pollination.  After pollination, the
pollen grew a tube down the style, releasing sperm cells into the ovary of each
flower.  The fruits of sweet pepperbush
are septicidal capsules, which separate into three segments along the wall between
the fruit’s segments.

Trumpet vine

Trumpet vine seed capsule split open

Down the road a short distance, we saw several green and
brown seed pods hanging from a trumpet vine growing up a large pine tree.  We examined the brown, dried pods and found
that they were split lengthwise along both sides.  Because of this, we thought the pod was a
legume. However, it turns out the fruit is actually a capsule that splits into
two segments. The thin, flat seeds were stacked inside the segments, each
bearing two wings for wind dispersal.

Hibiscus

Hibiscus seed capsule

We examined several dried seed capsules from the hibiscus
bushes located in the Dunson Garden.  The
five-sectioned fruits are loculicidal capsules.

Pepo (A fleshy, indehiscent, many-seeded fruit
with a tough rind, as a melon or cucumber.)

Passionflower  

Passionflower fruit opened to show seeds

Sue returned from the Dunson Garden with a
drying, shriveled maypop, the fruit of the passionflower vine.  Opening the fruit, we saw many free hard,
dark seeds, each encased in a moist, gelatinous coating.  The fruit is considered a pepo, a special
kind of berry that has a hard rind. 
Several Ramblers commented on the pleasant smell emanating from the
fruit when it was opened.  Don decided to
see what the pulpy seeds tasted like and found then both sweet and, at the same
time, sour….and also quite tasty. A related species of passionflower, Passiflora edulis, is used to flavor drinks and ice cream in the Caribbean and Latin America.

Achene (A dry, indehiscent fruit with a single
locule and a single seed(ovule), and with the seed attached to the ovary wall
at a single point, as in the sunflower.)

Seeds of Smooth coneflower are the dark structures between the pointed accessory tissues.

Next to the hibiscus bushes is a smooth purple
coneflower, now gone to seed.  We
examined several of the brown seed heads, and though they had lost most of
their seeds to birds, we could see a few seeds, classified as achenes, present
deep inside the bristly seed heads.

Non-flowering seed
plants

The
non-flowering plants that produce seeds are called Gymnosperms, which means
“naked seed.” As the name implies, the seeds of gymnosperms are not
enclosed in an ovary. Instead they lie on the surface of modified leaves. In
the conifers, the dominant group of Gymnosperms, the reproductive structure is
called a cone. It consists of a spirally arranged set of modified leaves called
scales; the collection of cone scales forming the cone. In addition to the
conifers, the other gymnosperms are cycads, the ginkgo and a plant called
Gnetum.

The
cone is the functional equivalent of a flower. Each of the cone scales holds an
ovule (a potential seed) on its upper surface. If pollen blown from a male cone
lands on a female cone scale a seed will develop on the surface of the cone
scale. Gymnosperms are a more ancient group of plants than flower & fruit-bearing
plants. Fruits are produced from the ovaries of flowers and typically enclose
their seeds in a covering that encourages seed dispersal by animals, or water,
or wind, etc.

Pollen-bearing cones of Eastern red cedar just beginning to develop.

We
took note of two gymnosperm reproductive structures today: an aborted Loblolly
pine cone, too small to contain seeds, and the yellowish tips of branches of an
Eastern red cedar. Those branch tips will develop into pollen producing male
cones by spring.

Seeking What We
Find

As we made our way back through the Dunson garden, Ed
found an “owl pellet.” 

Owl pellet

Owls and other
predatory birds, like hawks, cannot digest hair, bones, feathers, teeth or
insect exoskeletal material. After the other parts are digested these indigregurgitated
in the form of a compressed pellet. It is possible to determine what the bird
was eating by examining such pellets. A reference collection is necessary to
make such identifications.

Bony contents of the owl pellet

Ed pulled the pellet apart and discovered small
bones, including a tiny jaw bone, complete with teeth. It was clearly the bones
of a small rodent.

I discovered an aborted hickory fruit with a small hole
in the husk. Don was not in sight to photograph it, but Angeli was. Such holes
are the result of a beetle grub feeding on the seed inside the nut. Earlier in
the spring the adult beetle, a type of weevil in this case, lays an egg on the
ovary of a hickory flower. As the seed develops the egg hatches and the larva
feeds on the nutritious contents. When the fruit falls the grub eats its way
out, leaving a small exit hole, and pupates in the soil.

There
is an ant in the genus Temnothorax
that uses such emptied nuts as a nest, creating a small colony of approximately
one hundred individuals. When Angeli and I looked inside the hole we saw
movement and one of the ants emerged while I was holding the fruit. Angeli managed to get a photo of the tiny ant. Nothing
goes to waste in nature!

Temnothorax ant surveying its domain.

Time up, we made our way back to the Arbor and some of us
gathered at Donderos’ for the last time. (Not for us – for Donderos’ Kitchen at
the Garden.)

SUMMARY OF
OBSERVED SPECIES:

Today’s Ramble was lead by Dale Hoyt.

Here’s the link to Don’s
Facebook album for today’s Ramble. (All the photos in this post are compliments
of Don. Don also has posted another Facebook album with a
lot of interesting nature photos he took in Sumter Co. )

Today’s post was written by Dale Hoyt.

Attendees: 24

Announcements:Visit this page
to see the current Announcements.

Today’s reading:
Bob Ambrose presented one of his latest creations.

Continue reading →

Today’s Ramble was lead by Linda Chafin.

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

Today’s post was written by Don Hunter and Linda Chafin, with minor
edits/additions by Dale Hoyt.

Attendees:22

Announcements:

Visit this page
to see the current Announcements.

Today’s reading: Dale
read a short piece about the Ginkgo tree, inspired by a tree he knew in
Indiana. In the morning after the first hard freeze, when the first rays of the
sun fell on the tree, all the leaves suddenly started dropping. Within an hour
or two most of the leaves had fallen and the ground beneath the tree was
covered to a depth of two-three inches with lemon yellow fans.

Ginkgo leaves beginning to turn yellow

Continue reading →

Today’s Ramble was lead by Linda Chafin.

Here’s
the link to Don’s Facebook album
for today’s Ramble. (All the photos in this post are compliments of Don. Don
also has a butterfly album you can see
here.)

Today’s post was written by Dale Hoyt.

Attendees:32

Announcements:Visit
this
page to see the current Announcements.

Today’s reading: Rosemary read a poem by Denise Levertov:

Continue reading →

Today’s Ramble was lead by Linda Chafin.

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

Today’s post was written by Dale Hoyt, Linda Chafin and
Don Hunter.

Attendees: 25

Announcements:

Visit
this page to see
the current Announcements.

Today’s reading: Ed read excerpts from an article about recent discoveries in Lichen
symbiosis in a recent issue of The Atlantic
magazine. You can find the article here.

Don
read a Robert Service poem, Fallen Leaves,
appropriate to the first day of Fall. You can find the text of the poem here.

Today’s
route: We took a quick trip through the Shade Garden,
stopping only to look at the Hurricane Lilies, then crossed the road on the
White trail, turned off the trail briefly to examine the test plots for getting
rid of Bermuda and Fescue grasses, then rambled up the Power line ROW before
returning back to the Arbor.

Bald-faced Hornet (L) and European Hornet (R)

Hornets at the Arbor: The White Oak next to the Arbor is still seeping sap and the fermenting sap continues to attract a variety of insects. This morning the show consisted of European Hornets and a single Bald-faced Hornet. The larger Europeans succeeded in chasing off the Bald-faced.

Today’s
focus: Grasses. While we were still at the Arbor Linda
passed around examples of three easily recognized grasses: River Oats, Yellow
Indian Grass and Foxtail and told us a little about how grasses differ from
other flowering plants. The flowers of grasses are much reduced. Being
wind-pollinated they have no use for petals, nectaries or floral scents. A
grass inflorescence consists of spikelets, each of which contains 1 or more
florets. The group of spikelets that make up the flower cluster is also known
as the seed head.

River Oats

In River Oats the groups of spikelets resemble fish, a
similarity that gives rise to another common name: Fish-on-a-Pole.

Yellow Indiangrass seed with awn (Sam C. Strickland, Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center)

Yellow Indiangrass flower with stigma and yellow anthers. (Carolyn Fannon, Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center)

The spikelets of Yellow Indian Grass are much
more diffusely arranged, creating a yellowish haze when viewed from a distance.
Linda recommends a trip down GA-15 this time of year to see the numerous stands
of Yellow Indian Grass on the roadside. An awn,
bent at an angle, is attached to each seed. When the seed is ripe and falls to
the ground the awn twists and turns in response to changes in humidity. This
twisting action drives the seed into the ground and the bristles on the seed
surface keep it buried.

Grasses are wind pollinated, so to ensure that each flower captures enough pollen to fertilize its ovum the stigma has an enormous surface area. It looks like a bottle brush hanging out of the spikelet. Similarly, the pollen dispensing anthers dangle out of the spikelet allowing the pollen free access to the air so it may be carried to the exposed stigmas of other plants plants.

Yellow Foxtail Grass

The Yellow Foxtail grass, a non-native, has a
distinctive cluster of spikelets at the end of the stem. It looks like the
bushy tail of a Fox. 

After this brief introduction we left the Arbor and
hustled through the Shade Garden, stopping only once, near the bottom. 

Hurricane Lilies

At
the bottom of the Shade Garden some Hurricane
Lilies (also known as Surprise Lily
or Red Spider Lily) are still blooming
(we saw this group three weeks ago). These flowers are native to China and
Japan and are in the Amaryllis family, which means that nearly every part is
toxic – even deer will leave them alone. The Hurricane in the name refers to
the late summer season in which the flowers appear, about the time when
hurricanes or tropical storms begin to threaten the Atlantic coastal states.
The odd thing about the plants is that the flower and foliage appear at
different times of the year. The naked stems with their flowers emerge suddenly
during late summer (the origin of the Surprise name) but the foliage only
appears after the flowers are gone. It persists sometimes through the winter
and then disappears in the spring. There is no sign of the plant during the
summer until the flower stalk pops up again in August.

Japanese Stilt Grass (Nepalese Browntop, Microstegium)

Microstegium (Japanese Stilt
Grass, Nepalese Browntop): This plant looks like a miniature bamboo. The midvein
of the leaf is silvery or pale and shiny, and is slightly off center; the leaf
blades are 2-4 inches long and about 1/2 inch wide. It is an annual plant
producing numerous seeds that can remain dormant in the soil for up to 5 years.
Control is achieved by pulling plants before they flower. Mowing is less effective
because the plants simply flower on shorter stalks. The best control is
preventing it from establishing. In addition to the long viability in the seed
bank the seeds are tiny and easily transported on soil that adheres to shoes or
automobile tires. Linda has observed Microstegium
on the Appalachian trail where only hikers could have brought it in. 

Our expert on the control of invasive plants, Gary Crider, said that Microstegium can be controlled with an herbicide that is grass-specific. The active ingredient of one such product is Sethoxydim, a compound that inhibits the formation of lipids in grasses. (Lipids are components of cell membranes.) More information about Sethoxydim can be found at this Cornell University Weed Ecology and Management Laboratory website. Gary also says that this herbicide is available locally.

Grass removal test plots: Linda gave an overview of the Garden’s native prairie conversion project. Over thirty years ago the area between the road and the White trail was planted in Bermuda grass. The first task in creating a native prairie is to get rid of the Bermuda grass, which is difficult to control because it is very resistant to most herbicides. The Bermuda eradication project is being funded by a grant from the Institute for Museum and Library Sciences. Different methods of removal are being tested in this area. When all the grass has been successfully removed from one of the plots the Garden is planting it with native prairie species to get them established. All the new plants were grown, plugged and planted by Heather Alley and her staff. Approximately half a dozen species have already been planted, including Yellow Indian Grass.

Cool and Warm
season grasses.
Two types of grasses are defined by their periods of active growth and
flowering. Cool-season grasses start growth either during the winter or in
early spring and flower in late spring. Warm-season grasses begin growth in
spring and flower in late summer and fall.

More about Bermuda Grass

Following
are excerpts about Bermuda grass from All
About Weeds, by Edwin Rollin Spencer. First published (as Just Weeds) in 1940, before the use of chemical
herbicides, it is of
interest for the recommended methods of control, as well as the delightful writing style. The author is also willing to
see several sides of a controversy. In this book weeds are neither wholly evil or wholly good. Spencer (Ph.D, University of Illinois) was
a farmer as well as a Professor of Biology at what was then Southeast Missouri State Teachers College (subsequently Southeast Missouri State College and, later, University) in Cape
Girardeau, Missouri.

   No one in the South has to be told what Bermuda
grass is, but some Southerners should be told that it is not entirely a weed.
That it is bad under certain conditions the most ardent advocate of the plant
has to admit. It can take a cornfield or a cotton patch, and the farmer who
hopes completely to eradicate it from his cultivated fields can expect to fight
throughout a growing season, and be ever on the lookout every season
thereafter.

   But
Bermuda grass has virtues as well as faults. It is the peer of grazing grasses.
It has no equal as a pasture grass, especially in the South. . . . It has two faults as a lawn grass: it starts late in the spring and
it refuses to grow in the slightest shade. Of course, the lawn owner wants a
grass that will shoot up green as soon as the growing season starts. The
Bermuda grass will not do this, but in July and August when other lawn grasses
have to be pampered the Bermuda grass is luxuriant.

   It
is in the pasture that the Bermuda grass excels, however. A good field of
Bermuda will pasture five head of cattle to the acre throughout the growing
season. . . .

   For
the information of him who does not know Bermuda grass it should be said that
its general appearance is somewhat like that of Crab grass. It has the
fingerlike fruiting top that the Crab grass has, but the fingers are smaller
and much shorter than those of the Crab grass. They also extend out
horizontally, almost perpendicular to the supporting stem. The leaves are not nearly so long as those of the Crab grass, and much finer
in texture and there are runners sent out from the main bunches. . . .

   The prejudice against Bermuda grass has all come about because
the southern farmer does not know how to keep it out of his cultivated fields.
This is easily done by shallow plowing of the field just before the ground
freezes in late autumn or early winter. After the ground freezes the Bermuda is
easily killed. This one plowing, which turns the rootstalks up on top of the ground,
and so destroys them by freezing, leaves little to be done except the essential
cultivation of the next year. . . .

   The feeling against the Bermuda is so great that farmers in the
South refuse to allow a field to produce Bermuda hay. They fight Bermuda all
summer and buy hay all winter. Only the dairymen of the South seem to
appreciate fully the value of this wonderful weed. Ten or twelve acres of
Bermuda grass are the equivalent of five or six times that acreage of bluegrass
or red top and timothy. . . .

   It
is one of the very best plants to use for controlling soil erosion. Ditches may
be actually filled by planting a few bunches of Bermuda grass in the bottoms of
them. It will hold dams for impounding water almost as effectively as a
concrete core and it can be used very effectively on terrace outlets or
spillways. There are so many places where Bermuda grass will grow and serve the
landowner that it is almost sacrilege to call it a weed, but what else is it
when the enraged farmer finds that it has choked large areas of his cotton
plants to death?

Beefsteak plant (Perilla mint)

On the way up the power line ROW Gary pointed out the Perilla mint (Beefsteak
plant) that he and Linda agree is becoming another invasive species. It is
widely used in Chinese, Korean and Japanese cuisine. There are reports in the
United States of toxicity issues in cattle, but there is no clear evidence that
all varieties of the plant or even all parts of the plant are responsible.
These reports are at variance with the usage of the herb in Japan and Korea.

Grasses
in the Elaine Nash prairie.

Several species are currently flowering or about to.
Those that we took special note of were Purple Love grass, Purple Top (or Greasy
grass), Little Bluestem, Beaked panic grass and Silver Plume Grass.

Purple Love Grass

Seed heads of Purple Top Grass (Greasy Grass)

 Purple Top Grass: Edwin Spencer (in All About Weeds) says that “Stock almost never eat it; never after its beautiful panicle of flowers is formed, for there is a viscid substance that issues from the branches of the panicle and from the stem below it, and that substance has a strange odor. It is the odor that gives the tang to the evening air that time of year; a peculiar, Oriental smell that is almost entrancing to some nostrils, but is evidently disgusting to those of grazing stock. For this reason it is on the increase. Nearly every roadside is lined with it now, and it is likely to be seen in partially grazed pastures, in neglected town lots and in unmown farm fence rows.”

Little Bluestem flowers; when tapped clouds of pollen are released from the brown anthers and float away.

Silver Plume grass; note the tiny stamens hanging from the flower spikes.

Gulf Fritillary; compare the upper surface with the Variegated Fritillary.

Gulf Fritillary; silver spots are absent in the Variegated Fritillary

Variegated Fritillary

Variegated Fritillary: Last week we saw the distinctive  caterpillar of the Variegated Fritillary feeding on Purple Passionflower vines. Today we spotted an adult butterfly warming itself up in the sun. This species is a little drab, compared to the Gulf Fritillary — it lacks the dazzling silver spots on the under surface of the wings. It has a larger host range — the caterpillars can be found feeding on violets as well as Passionflower vines.

Potter wasp nests

Potter
wasp nest. George discovered two small clay jugs, the work of
a potter wasp. Even Alice was impressed with the workmanship. Each little jug
was assembled from tiny globs of clay, carried one at a time by a single wasp
builder. Once constructed the wasp provisions the little jug with caterpillar
prey that she hunts and subdues with a sting. When the jug is full she lays a
single egg and then seals the opening with a glob of mud. The wasp grub feeds
on the caterpillar and, after pupating, has to chew its way out of the sealed
nest. One of the two nests on the twig had several tiny holes in the wall.
These were probably made by parasitoids that either fed on the potter wasp
larva or on the paralyzed caterpillars in the nest.

Ailanthus Webworm Moth

Ailanthus
webworm moth

This curious looking and colorful moth is commonly
seen all summer into fall. It was originally found only in tropical regions,
but began to appear when the Ailanthus tree was planted in the US. Ailanthus is
native to China and became a popular urban tree because it was very tolerant of
pollution. The moth discovered that it could feed on Ailanthus and has spread
over the US where ever Ailanthus trees are available. The caterpillars tie
several leaflets together to form a silken web or nest within which they feed.
I have never seen an Ailanthus tree in Athens or the Garden, so I’m curious as
to where these moths come from.

SUMMARY OF OBSERVED SPECIES:

Today’s Ramble was lead by Dale Hoyt.

Here’s the link to
Don’s Facebook album for today’s Ramble. (All the photos in this post are compliments
of Don.) Don also put together an album of nifty photos he calls “Monroe
County Lichen Foray Lagniappe.” If you want to know what lagniappe means or
look at more of Don’s photos just visit this link.

Today’s post was written by Dale Hoyt.

Attendees: 22

Announcements: 

There were quite a few announcements relevant to Ramblers
today:

·       
The Alhuda Islamic Center of Athens is inviting us
for Eid dinner Sept. 18.

·       
Anne Shenk’s retirement gathering Sept. 27

·       
Sandy Creek Nature Center’s annual bird seed
sale begins.

·       
Barnes & Noble bookfair Oct. 7-9 benefiting
the Garden’s children education program.

·       
Oct. 8 our own Gary Crider will teach a course in
the Certificate in Native Plants program on how to identify and control exotic
pest plants.

For details about these announcements visit this page.

Misc. links you’ll enjoy:
 

My friend, Dac Crossley, reminisces here
about spiders he has known.

Today’s reading:

Dale read the lyrics to Misalliance
by Flanders and Swan; hear them sing the lyrics here. If you have trouble understanding the English accents you can find the
written lyrics here.

Today’s
route: We’ve been having trouble getting to the floodplain power line right-of-way
lately – we’ve run out of time the last two weeks. So today we hustled down the
cement walkway to the access road without stopping. We walked down the road to
the Passion vines on the fence and from there to the power line and down
towards the river. We returned to the arbor via the White trail.

Gulf fritillary caterpillar; in some individuals the purple stripe is more pronounced.

Variegated fritillary caterpillar; beautiful red with white stripes.

The Variegated Fritillary challenge: We stopped at the Passion
vines we’ve been watching disappear the past two weeks. Our challenge was to
find caterpillars of the Variegated Fritillary (VF) with only a description of
them to go on. By far the most numerous caterpillar was the Gulf Fritillary
(GF). The VF caterpillar looks very similar to the GF, but has a red body color
with white stripes that runs the length of the body. It was quite a challenge
but the Ramblers were up to it and soon discovered two VF caterpillars. The
adult VF butterfly is not as common as the GF and we didn’t see one this
morning. But if you come to the power line an hour or so later, when the sun is
shining on all the flowers, you may see one or two nectaring and searching for
uneaten Passion vines. While we were gazing on the remains of the Passion vines
Avis stomped on one of the fruits to show another Rambler why they are called
“Maypops.” But that origin of the name is folk etymology.
The real origin is an English corruption of the Indian word for the fruit: maracock, which means
“rattle-fruit.” When the gourd-like fruit is dried the seeds rattle
within it.

More about
insect metamorphosis.

The pupal stage of a butterfly is called a chrysalis or chrysalid
(pl.: chrysalides or chrysalises). Strictly speaking, the chrysalis is the hard
covering of the pupa which is inside the chrysalis, but, in general usage, it
is often used to mean the pupa plus the shell.

It is in the chrysalis that the miracle of metamorphosis takes place.
Within the body of the caterpillar, in addition to the customary organs
(muscles, digestive tract, nervous system, etc.), there are tiny sacs of
embryonic tissues called imaginal disks (ID) that will give rise
to all the parts of the adult. (You can think of these as equivalent to embryonic
stem cells.) During the formation of the chrysalis all the caterpillar tissues
and organs, except the nervous system and the ID, undergo self destruction. The
death of all these cells releases the substances that will fuel the growth of
the ID to make the adult form.

Two hormones, ecdysone and juvenile hormone (JH), are
involved in controlling the growth of the caterpillar through several molts and
its transformation into the chrysalis and then the adult. In simple terms,
pulses of ecdysone stimulate the molting process. What emerges from the molt is
determined by the level of JH. When JH is high the growth of ID is inhibited
and a caterpillar emerges from the molt. At the end of the last caterpillar molt the levels of JH begin to drop. The caterpillar stops eating, evacuates its hindgut and begins to wander. When it finds a suitable place to form a chrysalis it stops and after suspending itself begins to molt into the chrysalis stage. During the chrysalis stage the levels of JH
continue to decline and the ID are no longer inhibited. The ID cells start to divide rapidly and they begin to form
the adult structures. At the last molt the adult emerges from the chrysalis. 

Silver-spotted skipper

Silver-spotted skipper on Ironweed

Butterfly egg under the folded edge of American wisteria vine; the egg is a little less than 1 mm in diameter.

A Silver-spotted skipper egg from another source for comparison with the one above. from https://www.learner.org/jnorth/tm/monarch/egg_butterflies_gallery.html

Rosemary noticed that the American wisteria vine growing on the rail
fence by the road had several leaves with a section of the edge folded over. I
examined one and didn’t find anything under the fold, but a second leaf had the
empty shell of a butterfly egg under it. Several Ramblers were amazed at the
intricacy of the structure; the egg is less than a millimeter in diameter. What
kind of egg is it? One possibility is the Silver-spotted skipper. It’s
caterpillar feeds on wisteria and other legumes and this egg shell looks very
similar to pictures on the internet. The Butterflies of North America indicates
that the egg is: laid singly on the
upperside of host leaves. . . .Young larvae live in a folded-over flap of a
leaf. That matches what we saw.

Butterfly
supplement

Cloudless sulphur; we’ve seen the caterpillar feeding on Maryland senna.

Gulf fritillary;underside of wings showing the silver spots.

Gulf fritillary; upper surface of wings.

Sleepy orange; the upper surface of the wings is orange; they almost never rest with the wings open.

Don went back to the power line later in the morning when the sun was
high enough to shine on the vegetation. Butterflies are sun lovers and aren’t
usually very active until it warms up. Direct sunlight is their friend. So Don was
able to photograph several of the butterflies that we have only seen in the
caterpillar stages.

Other
insects.

Kissing bug; it can inflict a painful bite.

Catherine pointed out a small insect nimbly moving through the vegetation
and I couldn’t get a good look at it. It kept scrambling away so I grabbed it just
as Catherine said: “I think it’s an assassin bug.” I immediately
regretted my haste. I felt a sharp, painful burning sensation in my index
finger. I finally got the critter in a box where I could get a good look at it.
It was a true bug in the Assassin bug family, Reduviidae. More specifically, it
was a Kissing bug, or Blood sucking conenose, Triatoma sp. Like all true bugs the assassin
bugs have a needle-like mouth part which they stab into their victim, injecting
a venom that paralyzes and digests at the same time. The digested liquid us
sucked back up. If you’ve read Annie Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek you probably remember her stumbling upon a
frog that had been reduced to hollow sack of skin by the bite of another kind
of true bug. Kissing bugs normally feed on small mammals, ingesting small meals
of blood, like vampire bats with tiny straws. In Latin America a related species
transmits Chagas disease, a serious illness, but thankfully the North American
species do not. The initial pain I felt was uncomfortable, but not as bad as a
Fire ant or Honeybee sting; it was gone after 5 or 10 minutes.

It’s hard to pick out the Chinese praying mantis from among the vegetation.

The sharp spines on the mantis front limbs insures a tight grasp on their prey.

Nearby a large female Chinese praying mantis was found on a
Wingstem. This large predatory insects has raptorial front legs, meaning that
they function like the legs of raptors: they seize and hold their prey, which
consists of a variety of small and large insects. The mantis is an ambush
predator. By hanging out in flowers it comes in contact with pollinators like
bees, butterflies or moths. All it has to do is maneuver into striking distance
and quickly grab its victim. Because the mantis is not selective in its food
choice it is really not a good choice for pest control in the garden even
though it is often promoted as a “natural” or “organic”
solution. It can’t tell a harmful from a beneficial insect – they’re all food
to the mantis. Which I hope will cause you to contemplate the meaning of
“harmful” and “beneficial.” Is the enemy of my enemy my
friend?

During mating the female mantis is famous for eating the head of her mate
who blithely continues doing his duty. (Insert warning against anthropomorphic
comments.)

Common Ragweed showing foliage and inflorescence

Each tiny white bump is a pollen-spewing flower in this enlargement of a Ragweed inflorescence.

Ragweed is
flowering right now and, fortunately, there is not a lot of it in this part of
the garden. Ragweed flowers are very tiny and inconspicuous, so small that most
people either don’t notice them or don’t recognize them as flowers. It is
responsible for most of the allergies in late summer and fall. The plant is
wind pollinated and the pollen grains are very small and dry, so they can be,
and are, carried by the wind for hundreds of miles. Because the Ragweed flowers
are so unnoticeable another plant, Goldenrod is often blamed for causing
allergies in late summer or fall. This is because it, Goldenrod, begins to
bloom at the same time as Ragweed. Noticing the correlation between Goldenrod flowering
and the onset of allergy symptoms caused people to mistakenly blame it for
causing the runny nose and itching eyes. But Goldenrods are insect pollinated
and they have large, sticky pollen grains that are not transported by the wind.
Goldenrod is blameless, the victim of confusing correlation with cause.

The Wingstems

Today was a review of how to identify the three species of Wingstems (genus Verbesina) that are all blooming in the garden right now. In this case the scientific names are more stable than the variety of common names. Remembering the combinations of flower color and leaf arrangement is the first step in identifying them. (Recognizing them comes later.) I’ll use the common names from Linda’s book in the summary below:

Yellow flowers:

   opposite leaves: V. occidentalis (Southern Crownbeard)

   alternate leaves: V. alternifolia (Wingstem)

White flowers

   alternate leaves: V. virginica (Frostweed)

Sunflowers

There are two sunflowers (genus Helianthus) blooming in the Garden right now. They are a little more difficult to identify than the wingstems, so Don made a special effort to take pictures of the crucial parts. I hope this helps.

Rough-leaf Sunflower:

   mostly opposite leaves

   Upper surface of leaves very rough

   Under surface of leaves with glands, not as rough as upper

   Base of leaf blade rounded

   Petioles longer (3/4 inch)

Woodland Sunflower

   leaves opposite to alternate

   Both surfaces of leaves very rough

   Base of leaf blade tapered

   Petioles short to none

Rough-leaf Sunflower Note rounded base of leaf blade

Woodland Sunflower

Rough-lead Sunflower; Note longer petioles

Woodland Sunflower; Note shorter petioles; tapered base of leaf blade

SUMMARY
OF OBSERVED SPECIES: