The reading today was from Bill
Pierson. Two Haiku:
An old pond--
a frog jumps in
the sound of water
Matsuo
Bashō (1644-1694)
An old pond--
after jumping in,
no frog
Kameda
Bōsai(1752–1826
Our
ramble today was through the International Garden to the Physic Garden,
Heritage Garden, and Flower Garden to see the Native Flower Meadows, then down
the Purple Trail to the Orange trail.
Then the Orange upriver to the Power Line Right of Way and up the Power
line Right of Way to some mints. We
returned to the White Trail and back to the Arbor.
Don
Hunter's photos of the ramble can be seen at this link.
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| Oakleaf Hydrangea |
As
we entered the International Garden (Southeastern Section) we noted the Oakleaf
Hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia), a native shrub that Carol and I had once
planted in our yard at Homewood. For the
deer in that area it was deer candy.
They ate it to the ground. Also
in this area was Virginia Spiderwort (Tradescantia virginiana) which has been
blooming a long time. It was nice to see
Crimson BeeBalm (Monarda didyma) in brilliant red. The Stokes' aster (Stokesia laevis), a rare
plant from the Coastal Plain, was still blooming. Someone asked about the fine
leaved plant without flowers. It was the remains of sandhill blue star (Amsonia
ciliata)
Passing
the Silverbell tree, a Halesia cultivar that we had admired when it was in
bloom earlier this year was now showing its distinctive angled seed pod.
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| Ramblers & Bottlebrush Buckeye |
For
weeks we have observed the buds of bottlebrush buckeye (Aesculus
parviflora). Today it was in full bloom,
maybe even a little past full bloom. In
any case, it was planted all around the pool below the Flower Bridge. Also in the pool was beauty berry (Callicarpa
americana) in full bloom. We await the
beautiful purple berries that come later.
There was some discussion of whether hummingbirds would pollinate the
bottlebrush buckeye. James H. Miller and
Karl V. Miller in their Forest Plants of the
Southeast and their Wildlife Uses on page 304 say, "Because buckeyes
flower early, they are an important nectar source for Ruby-throated
Hummingbirds, especially A. pavia."
We
noted a fence around a very tall Crepe Myrtle with striking bark. The reason is that people were carving their
initials in the tree trunk. The curator
caught a person doing that and asked why she did it. The answer was that others had done so, so
she thought it was okay. At that point
the fence was installed to prevent further damage. Nearby was a Korean dogwood in bloom. On this tree the flowers bloom after the
leaves come out. Our native dogwood is
the other way around. In the endangered
plant garden there was a raft of Garden coreopsis (Coreopsis tinctoria). I was a bit puzzled that the petals did not
have red marks. I wonder if that id is
correct. In this bed we also saw the
budding Hairy Rattleweed (Baptisia arachnifera). This is a rare plant that only grows in 2
counties in the Coastal Plain of Georgia.
Carol always thought we should write a book on our photo adventures with
the title, "In Search of the Hairy Rattleweed." Another flowering rare plant was the dwarf
sumac (Rhus michauxii). It grows in just
a few places in the Piedmont. Recently
the Georgia Plant Conservation Alliance has established a safeguarding site in
the Broad Rive Wildlife Management Area, and the most recent observations show
that it is doing very well. Since male
and female flowers are on separate plants it is hard for them to get
together. Both types of plants were
established at the safeguarding site.
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| Rattlesnake Master & Wild Bergamot |
Nearby
was a mullein (Verbascum thapsus). Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) was flowering
in the Physic Garden. This garden
includes medicinal plants, and yarrow was used to stop bleeding, so that it was
sometimes called bloodwort. In the
Physic Garden many plants were blooming:
colicroot (Aletris farinosa), wild quinine (Parthenium integrifolium),
rattlesnake master (Eryngium yuccifolium), and wild bergamot (Monarda
fistulosa), purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea), and a Madigascar vinca that
is used in treating leukemia.
About
this time Ronnie found a sleeping firefly.
We were passing the wall with climbing fig (ficus pumila}.
Our
next stop was the Franklinia Tree (Franklinia alatamaha), which is a clone of
the tree that William Bartram in 1790 brought back to Philadelphia from the
banks of the Altamaha River near Darien, GA.
As
we rambled down the slope to the Flower Garden we saw the flowering sourwood
(Oxydendrum arboretum) way high in the canopy.
As one travels the woodland trails at this time remnants of these
flowers are scattered over the trail. A
cultivar of yarrow, golden yarrow (Achillea 'Coronation Gold') was blooming
next to the path on the way to the meadow.
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| Crimson Beebalm |
There
were not so many flowers actually blooming in the wildflower meadow. Wild bergamot (Monarda fistulosa),,
black-eyed susan (Rudbeckia hirta), partridge pea (Chamaecrista fasciculata),
and Mexican hat (Rudbeckia columnifera). There was a bed of crimson bee balm
(Monarda didyma) that was looking spectacular. As we were leaving the Flower
Garden we found lemon mint (Monarda citriodora).
Down
the Purple Trail to the River, chalk maple (Acer leucoderme) was an indicator
of more basic soil than the usual acid soil of the Piedmont. The reason is that there is a seam of
amphibolite that runs down the Orange Trail and across this area to the
river. Nearby was a Georgia mint not
flowering. The sign indicates an older name Satureja georgiana, but it is now
called Clinopodium georgianum. There are quite a few in a power line right of
way in Whitehall Forest, which can be entered at the end of Milledge. A deer
scooted out of sight beyond the deer fence.
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| Golden St. John's wort |
At
the end of the Purple Trail turning right onto the Orange trail was a lot of
flowering golden St. Johnswort (Hyperidum frondosum).
As
we walked the Orange Trail along the river through a privet tunnel, we found a
number of things to talk about. First of
all, Charlie Wharton has commented that one of the reasons why privet
(Ligustrum sinense) is so prevalent on the floodplain, is that there are not
many competing native shrubs on the floodplain, just mostly grasses--giant cane
(Arundinaria giganteum) and river oats
(Chasmanthium latifolium). The
privet
has taken over and become in fact sub canopy trees. Nonetheless, there are a lot of vines along
this stretch: cross vine (Bignonia
capreolata), round leaf greenbrier (Smilax rotundifolia), cinnamon vine
(Dioscorea oppositafolia), and lance leaf greenbrier (Smilax small). On the cinnamon vine Don spotted an insect
that has turned out to be a nymph stage of an assassin bug. We spent some time distinguishing box elder
(Acer negundo) sprouts from poison ivy.
The main difference being that box elder, being a maple, has opposite
leaves. Poison ivy does not. River oats (Chasmanthium latifolium) were
beginning to flower, and some native cane was in evidence. The dominant
trees in the canopy of the
floodplain were mainly green ash (Fraxinus pennsylvanica). We found their fruit on the trail. The wing extended beyond the middle of the
round part of the seed which distinguishes it from a white ash seed. At several
spots we found wing stems, some alternative leaf and others opposite leaf, but
they did not look all that happy in the tunnel.
One was winding around looking for the light. As we were leaving the tunnel of privet, Hugh
pointed out the leaf of coral bead (Cocculus carolinus), a vine that will have
brilliant red berries in the fall.
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| Cross Vine |
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| Green Ash fruits (seeds) |
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| Wild Leek |
Flowering
in the power line right of way in the floodplain were wild leeks (Allium
ampeloprasum). Knowing the passionflower
vine was in this area, we looked for it, but were unsure whether we could
identify it at this stage. We repeated
Dale's story of the wasps that lay eggs
in goldenrod stems inject a growth enzyme which causes the round globe in the
stem to protect the eggs. Avis pointed
out a pile of saw dust that seemed to be coming from a woody plant that was cut
off. It looked like it might have been
the work of a solitary bee making a hole in the pith of the plant. On the trail was the white flower of the Virginia
buttonweed (Diodia virginiana), which forms a crawling mat.
A
photographer was photographing some children.
Parents were using stuffed
animals waved in the air to keep the kids active for the camera. At that point we found common St. Johnswort
(Hypericum punctatum) with black dots on the underside of the leaves that could
be seen with a hand lens. More wild
bergamot (Mondarda fistulosa) was flowering here.
At
the road, Hugh showed everyone the heliotrope (Heliotropium amplexicaule).
Across
the road was a bunch of the striking orange butterfly weed or chigger weed
(Asclepias
tuberosa). The last time we
were here, someone asked if one could buy butterfly weed plants at the visitor
center. The answer is no. Heather Alley propagates the plants, but she
only has enough for the fall and spring sales.
They fly off the shelf. In
amongst the grasses nearby were Queen Anne's lace (Daucus carota). Later we found the flower with a purple
center. Not all have it. There is a myth that while Queen Anne was
making lace she pricked her finger leaving the purple center flower. All along
the power line right of way the low blue wild petunia (Ruellia caroliniensis)
was scattered.
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| Queen Anne's Lace |
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| Trumpet vine flowers |
A
huge pine tree had many intertwining vines climbing all over it. One was poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans);
the other was trumpet vine (Campsis radicans).
They were so intertwined that it was causing confusion as to which leaf
belonged to which flower.
Don
pointed out a whole group of plants on the side of the path: field madder (Sherardia arvensis), common
yellow wood sorrel (Oxalis stricta), and Carolina geranium (Geranium
carolinianum).
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| Heal-All |
Bitterweed
(Helenium amarum) was still blooming along with scattered false dandelion
(Carolina desert chickory according to Dale) (Pyrrhopappus carolinianus). Along the way we found heal-all (Prunella
vulgaris), and mountain mint (Pycnanthemum incanum) which wasn't blooming
although its top leaves were turning white.
We went this far mainly to see the variety of colors in which wild
bergamot flowers come.
At
this point we headed back to the Arbor.
Some retired to Donderos' for a snack.
Hugh
