First we had a reading by Dale Hoyt from Donald
Culross Peattie’s An Almanac for Moderns:
A
man need not know how to name all the oaks or the moths, or be able to
recognize a synclinal fault, or tell time by the stars, in order to possess
Nature. He may have his mind solely on growing larkspurs, or he may love a boat
and a sail and a blue-eyed day at sea. He may have a bent for making paths or
banding birds, or he may be only an inveterate and curious walker.
But
I contend that such a fellow has the best out of life -he and the naturalists.
You are ignorant of life if you do not love it or some portion of it, just as
it is, a shaft of light from a nearby star, a flash of the blue salt water that
curls around the five upthrust rocks of the continents, a net of green leaves
spread to catch the light and use it, and you, walking under the trees. You, a
handful of supple earth and long white stones, with seawater running in your
veins.
Second I read a short item from Aldo
Leopold’s, A Sand County Almanac, page
110.
Finally
there is Draba, beside whom even Linaria [Toadflax] is tall and
ample. I have never met an economist who
knows Draba, but if I were one I
should do all my economic pondering lying prone on the sand, with Draba at nose-length.
This is personally interesting to me,
since I was an economist from 1959 to 1995, and during the last few years I was
prone on the ground counting Draba, a rare plant at Rock and Shoals Outcrop
Natural Area. It is only about 6 inches
high and can really only be seen when it goes to seed. Never did want to think about economics that
way.
Our ramble today was through the
International Garden to the Endangered Plant Area and the Pitcher Plant
Bog. Then on to the Purple Trail down to
the River. Connected to the Orange
Trail. Stopped at the Mountain Laurel
Bluff. Then the rest of the way on the
Orange Trail to the Upper Parking Lot.
In the Endangered Plant Garden we saw
Indian Pink (Spigelia marilandica),
Nodding Wild Onion (Allium cernuum),
a beardtongue (Penstemon spp.), and Cooly's
meadow rue (Thalictrum cooleyi). Overlooking the pitcher plant bog we saw the leaves of yellow trumpet (Sarracenia flava), and the white topped
pitcher plant (Sarracenia leucophylla),
as well as the flowers of Sweet Pitcherplant (Sarracenia rubra) and Parrot Pitcherplant (Sarracenia psittacina).
Down the Purple Trail, Dale found
Turkeytail mushrooms to admire. We
showed some new participants the very tall persimmon tree.
At the Middle Oconee River, Wade Seymour
and his crew were moving the trail where three feet of the bank had slipped
into the river after the last high level of the river took it from the bank.
Walked up to see how much of the
beautiful mountain laurel (Kalmia
latifolia) was still blooming. We
once again commented on the way in which the anthers with pollen are spring
loaded in the petals, so that when wind or an insect knock it, the anthers
spring with force and send off the pollen, some of which attaches to the
insect.
Moving around the beaver pond, we spent
some time discussing a fern by the boardwalk.
It is either Sensitive Fern or Netted Chain Fern. The problem is that
the distinctive characteristic to separate them is the fertile frond. Only last year's was available. We decided again that it is probably Sensitive
Fern (Onoclea sensibilis).
A spittle bug was discovered feeding on a
blackberry. The insect, a leaf hopper,
uses it's piercing-sucking mouthparts to suck juice from plants. Plant juice is
rich in sugar but low in protein, so the spittle bug has to suck a lot of it to
get the protein it needs to grow. The excess is kicked into a froth, creating
the spittle covering that hides it from parasitic wasps. Dale uncovered the insect, so all could see
it.
In the beaver pond, Tim Homan pointed out
the leaves of duck potato (Sagittaria
latifolia).
Next we found the leaves of cut leaf
coneflower (Rudbeckia laciniata). Nearby was the beginning of the many summer
bluets (Houstonia purpurea var. purpurea) that we saw all along the
Orange Trail.
At the stump where the tree fell across
the stream there were several stems of wild yam (Dioscorea villosa) with one in full bloom.
Just past the little bridge over a creek
(that I know as copperhead creek), sweet spire (Itea virginica) was blooming.
Above it was the fruit of muscle wood (Carpinus caroliniana). Then
we stopped to admire the broad beech fern (Thelypteris
hexagonoptera).
The last bloom of the day was the wild
garlic (Allium canadense).
We did stop to ask Dale about the huge
number of suckers from the bottom of the trunk of a Tulip tree (Liriodendron tulipifera). The tree was dying at the top, so that the
leader was no longer controlling growth. It puts out a hormone that inhibits
new growth lower in the tree. When the
leader is gone, the inhibition is released and the plant tries to grow
elsewhere. In this case it will probably
not work because the tulip tree cannot grow in the shade of other trees and the
new stems will probably die.
The next stop was Donderos for food and
conversation.
Hugh
