This
morning, fourteen kindred souls gathered at the arbor for the Thursday ramble,
dressed in flannel shirts and jackets to ward off the temps in the low 50’s
that greeted us as we gathered for the pre-ramble readings.
Two people brought readings today; first up was Catherine Chastain
who read Night-Spider's Advice by
Joyce Sidman, from
the book, The Dark Emporer and Other
Poems of the Night.
Night-Spider's
Advice
Build
a frame
and stick to it,
and stick to it,
I
always say.
Life's
a circle.
Just
keep going around.
Do
your work, then
sit
back and see
what
falls in your lap.
Eat
your triumphs,
eat
your mistakes:
that
way your belly
will
always be full.
Use
what you have.
Rest
when you need to.
Dawn
will come soon enough.
Someone
has to remake
the
world each night.
It
might as well be you.
Then Dale Hoyt read
the lyrics from Misalliance by the
British musical comedy duo Flanders and Swann (click here to
see the text). This seemed appropriate and should have been read last week
when we were more focused on vines.
After the
readings we all headed off for the Threatened and Endangered Plants garden
before heading down the Purple Trail to the Orange Trail, where we headed down
river to the wetlands area and then up
along the creek to the upper parking lots.
The emphasis today was ferns. We
observed several ferns but, as usual, there were plenty of other things to
capture our interest.
 |
| Georgia Aster |
 |
| Georgia Mint |
 |
| Silene ovate |
At the
Threatened and Endangered Plant garden, several plants were pointed out, among
them Mountain Catchfly (Silene ovate), Georgia Mint (Calamintha georgiana) and
Georgia Aster (Symphyotrichum georgianum).
As we headed into the woods, Dale and Hugh pointed out the Yaupon Holly
(Ilex vomitoria). Not far down the
trail, Dale found a few abnormally large acorns and after some discussion, it was determined to be the acorn of a white
oak that towered above the trail at that spot.
Other acorns found in the general vicinity were more normal in size.
 |
| muscadine aerial roots |
We saw several
different vines today. A particularly
large muscadine vine was seen with long and prominent aerial roots, some
hanging four to five feet below the vine.
Also in the area, and at many other locations along the trail, were
several Greenbrier (Smilax rotundifolia).
 |
| American Hornbeam |
Next, we
came upon a large grape vine, species not identified. Before we arrived at the river, Martha
spotted something growing on a fallen and rotten log, far off the trail. Several folks went into the woods to get a
better look and found that what Martha had seen was bleached white looking
Turkey Tail mushrooms. In addition to
the white mushrooms, there were several nice displays of fresh Turkey Tail
mushrooms, with white and deep red brown bands.
Several other mushrooms were seen but weren’t identified.
 |
| Hearts-A-Bursting |
Just as we
arrived at the river, we saw a Strawberry Plant, also known as a Hearts-A-Bursting
(Euonymus americanus), with it’s deeply red and shiny berries.
 |
| Spotted Forest Orbweaver |
Nearby was a gorgeous yellow, red and brown Spotted
Forest Orb Weaver (Neoscona domiciliorum), in a web next to the trail, coming
across as very sharply dressed.
 |
| Blue Stem Goldenrod |
There was a
fair amount of goldenrod blooming. One
species pointed out was the Wreath or Blue Stem Goldenrod (Solidago
caesia). It is generally smaller than
its larger cousins and consist of a single flowered stalk. The common name Wreath Goldenrod describes
how the long densely flowered stalks can be pulled together head to tail and
tied together, to form a wreath.
 |
| White Turtlehead |
As we
turned left and walked along the edge of the wetland, Hugh found a lone and
lonely Pale Jewelweed (Impatiens
pallida) and just uptrail from the jewelweed we found a six-foot tall White
Turtlehead (Chelone glabra), with many pink-tinged white flowers.
 |
| Fertile frond-tip |
 |
| Underside showing sporangia |
Next we saw
a Christmas Fern (Polystichum acrostichoides).
Dale pointed out the fertile frond on the tip of the fern.
 |
| Decumaria with rootlets for climbing |
A little
further up the trail, we saw a Climbing Hydrangea (Decumeria barbara) climbing
up a tree next to one of the foot bridges.
 |
| Beech Drops |
We saw some
amazing numbers of Beech Drops (Epifagus americana), most in a very large
“patch” that littered the bank of the upstream side of the trail for what
seemed like forever at one point.
Upstream of this, Bob and Martha pointed out some liverwort (Conocephalum conicum) on a large rock in the middle of the
stream.
 |
| Banded Tussock Moth |
We found a Banded
Tussock Moth (Halysidota tessellaris) caterpillar, with its sparkling, bristly
hairs and its long tuffs of hair.
 |
| Grape Fern |
Winding our way up the hill we came across a
grape fern and several unidentified spiders. The fertile frond is separate from the sterile fronds, unlike the Christmas fern. The spore producing structures look like a cluster of tiny grapes, hence the name.
 |
| Sooty Mold |
Near the
end of the trail, we found black masses of a fungus, both on the ground and on
the trunk of a beech tree. The masses
were comprised of Sooty mold (an Ascomycete
fungus, Scorias spongiosa). Also visible
at this location was the Wooly Beech Aphid (Phyllaphis fagi) and the discolored ground
beneath the aphids and the Sooty mold. The mold grows on the "honeydew" produced as a by-product of the aphids' feeding mode.
 |
| Wooly Beech Aphid |
 |
| Triangulate Orbweaver |
The Ramble
arrived back at the Visitor Center for coffee and conversation at Dondero’s and
we discovered that Gary brought in a hitchhiking Triangulate Orbweaver
spider. Pleasant conversation and
refreshments were enjoyed by those of the group who retired to Donderos'.
Don Hunter
