At last a warm day for the ramble! We started by reading an
excerpt from Verlyn Klinkenborg’s The Rural Life and then noticed that the
Ginkgo next to the arbor had produced cones. (Yes, they are called cones,
although they do resemble the male flowers of the other trees that are blooming
right now.) The Ginkgo is very distantly related to pines and cycads and is
classified by itself in its own plant phylum Ginkgophyta. (Botanists call a
phylum a “division.”) Ginkgos are native to China and most that you will
encounter are male for the simple reason that the female Ginkgo produces a
foul-smelling fruit. Unlike their distant relative the pines the Ginkgo
“pollen” releases a motile sperm that must swim through water to fertilize the
female egg – just like mosses and ferns.
Since last week’s ramble was cancelled due to inclement
weather we had a lot of catching up to do in the Dunson Native Plant Garden.
Fortunately, we were accompanied by Ben Fletcher, the curator of the shade and
native floral gardens, who helped us locate and identify the many interesting
plants we saw this morning.
Dunson Native Plant
Garden plants:
1.
Toadshade (Trillium
cuneatum) – a sessile-flowered
Trillium with purpley-brown flowers and mottled leaves. 2. Chattahoochie Trillium (T. decipiens ) – like T. cuneatum but with a distinct light green stripe down the middle of the leaves.
3. Yellow Trillium (T. luteum) – many of the “toadshade” Trilliums in the garden have yellow petals, so I think they are T. luteum.
4. Catesby’s Trillium (T. catesbyi) – just a single specimen with an unopened flower.
5. Persistent Trillium (T. persistens) – also locally known as Edna’s Trillium. This one was named by UGA’s Wilbur Duncan after Edna Garst found it blooming in South Carolina (it is also found in Tallulah Gorge.)
6. Jack-in-the-Pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum) – not blooming yet, but the plants are up
7. Virginia Bluebell (Mertensia virginica) – continuing its wonderful blooming all over the garden. It’s especially attractive when displayed with the yellow flowers of the Golden Ragwort.
8. Three-parted Yellow Violet (Viola tripartita) – a new discovery in the Garden. It has also been found on the Orange and Blue trails.
9. American Ginseng (Panax quinquefolius) – two small plants in flower.
10. Paw Paw (Asimina triloba) – flower buds are just beginning to open.
11. Foam flower (Tiarella cordifolia.) – we only saw one specimen in bloom.
12. Alumroot (Heuchra sp.) – leaves only; no flowers yet.
13. Shooting Star (Dodecatheon meadia) – several plants with this exotic flower.
14. Spring Beauty (Claytonia virginica) – flowers are still hanging on.
15. Red Buckeye (Aesculus pavia) – many of these small shrubs have flower buds, but none have opened as yet.
16. Sweetshrub (Calycanthus ) – one specimen with dark purple petals.
17. Golden Ragwort (Senecio aureum, or Packera aurea) – it’s spread over much of the Dunson garden and in flower everywhere.
There was so much to see that we spent a lot of time in the
Dunson garden but after about an hour we staggered out to the powerline cut and
took a closer look at the tiny flowers in the disturbed areas. These are mostly
non-natives and tend to be despised and ignored by many because they are so
common. But I’ve always had an admiration for them. They’ve either been
deliberately imported or inadvertently came to this country in the soil with
plants brought by the early colonists. From that early introduction they have
spread across the country. But they are largely confined to such disturbed
areas as lawns, roadsides, vacant lots and plowed fields. In lawns they are
regarded as “weeds” because they compete with lawn grasses, which are
themselves often non-native. So I say good luck to them – they offer a bit of
color and variety to a monoculture of grass and relief from the stereotype of
the suburban environment.
Disturbed area
plants:
1. Low Hop Clover (Trifolium campestre) – this small, yellow inflorescence is a tiny clover that fooled me into thinking it was a Pineapple Weed, a plant I knew from the Midwest.
2. Corn Salad (Valerianella radiata) – Alice discovered this plant with the 4 tiny white flowers in tight little groups has an unpleasant odor.
3. Gill-over-the-Ground (Glechoma hederacea) – is a mint with small, purple flowers that scrambles across the lawn. This makes it hard to eliminate by mowing because it grows too low to be touched by the mower blades. You can eliminate it by repeated episodes of hand pulling.
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| Left: Dead Nettle; Right: Hen Bit |
5. Hen Bit (Lamium amplexicaule) – another Lamium mint, but with larger (longer) flowers than Dead Nettle. The flowers also point more toward the vertical. This suggests that they are pollinated by insects with longer tongues.
6. Herb Robert (Geranium robertianum) – a non-native Geranium with tiny, magenta flowers.
7. Field Pansy, Johnny Jump Up (Viola rafinesquii) – a relative of the cultivated Pansy, but with a much smaller flower. See what plant breeders can accomplish?
8. Euphorbia sp. – these are growing between the electric fence wires just to the left of the gate (facing the river) and are surely not natural. How and why they got there is a mystery to me.
We were running short of time so we rushed down to the White
Trail to see the Silver Bells in bloom.
White trail:
1. Bird’s Eye Speedwell (Veronica persica) – another non-native, but with pretty blue petals.
2. Silver Bells (Halesia carolina) – there are several of these trees along the part of the white trail that runs by the river. The first group is found among the Box Elders near the first bench on the trail. The striped bark and white, bell-shaped flowers are unique.
3. Box Elder (Acer negundo) – when young this subcanopy tree is often mistaken for Poison Ivy. The opposite leaf arrangement gives it away (Poison Ivy has alternate leaves).
Then we adjourned to Donderos’ Kitchen
for some snacks and beverages. We saw a total of 28 species today (not counting the Ginkgo)!
Dale
