Today's
report was written by Hugh Nourse. You can see all the photos Don took of today's
Ramble here.
Nineteen Ramblers met at the Arbor at
8:00AM. First Hugh read from Simon
Barnes, How to Be Wild (London, UK: Short Books, 2007), page 24:
“Nature
is bad, not to be trusted, full of dangers, an implacable, almost a personal
foe. Human civilisation is good, safe,
to be cherished. Civilisation is, in
short, the answer. Civilisation is a series
of small, perpetually threatened islands in a sea of wilderness. This was the situation for all humankind from
the time of the invention of agriculture 10,000 years ago, and it held good
until the last two centuries. Now the
situation is the exact opposite. It is
hardly surprising that human nature is struggling to cope with this
extraordinary reversal.
“These
days, the wild places are small, beleaguered islands in a sea of
civilisation. These days, it is nature,
not civilisation that is under siege.
These days, we seek peace in nature and destructive passions in the
city.”
Our route today was through the
International Garden to the Purple Trail, then left on the Orange Trail up to
the Upper Parking Lot.
Our first stop was the American South
section of the Garden, where we found wild bergamot, crimson beebalm, and Virginia spiderwort still blooming. Two new plants were blooming: giant ironweed and Southeastern
beardtongue. Out on the trails we have
been seeing a lot of black snakeroot, and we saw it here in this section of the
Garden. We also noted the rounded shape of the fruit of the wild blue indigo,
so that we could compare it later to another plant.
Crossing the Flower Bridge a silvery
checkerspot butterfly landed on the flowers on the bridge. While there we looked into the wetland below
and saw beautyberry, and Lotus in bloom.
Hmmm. There was also pokeweed!
We admired the fruit of the bigleaf
magnolia, and then observed how few buckeyes were created from all those many
flowers previously on the bottlebrush buckeye.
It reminded us that few of the flowers in the hundreds of flowers in the
panicles were actually perfect (had both male and female parts). Most only
showed anthers (male parts). In the nearby redbud tree were lively tent caterpillars.
In the Oriental and Chinese Garden we
found a reddish-purple resurrection lily (Lycoris squamigera) near the Tori
Gate. We also spotted an asiatic day
flower in the same bed.
In the Threatened and Endangered Plant
Garden the plum leaf azalea was in prime midsummer bloom, most beautiful. It is native to Providence Canyon State Park,
and to the area of Callaway Gardens. In
fact, one of the reasons for establishing Callaway was to preserve the plum
leaf azalea. Don spotted a banded
tussock moth caterpillar on one of the leaves. Next to these shrubs were the
Florida torreya trees. This is a
safeguarding site for these plants that are struggling in the wild along the
Appalachicola River in Florida and near Lake Seminole in Georgia where they are
found in steephead ravines. The problem
is that they do not produce viable seed and only grow vegetatively in the
wild. It is thought they are relicts
from an earlier colder geologic age, and have been unable to move farther
north. The Carolina lupine or golden
banner is a plant of concern in Georgia, in fruit here today. The point of visiting this plant was to see
how different the fruit was from that of the wild blue indigo we had seen
earlier. The leaves of both plants are
similar, but this one’s fruit is very flat, a characteristic of the Thermopsis
genus and not of Baptisias which have more rounded fruit. The pink flowers of
the meadow beauties stood out as we turned around to view the bog.
Moving on to the American Indian section
we noted the black cohosh in fruit, its flowers long gone. On the top of the
hill with the granite outcrop were several trees damaged in a recent
storm. It looked like lightening had
struck the main big tree. We told the
story of the curators and other workers cleaning up the site after the
storm. There was a wasp nest in that
tree, and when they started chopping up the limbs and hauling them away, at
least one of the workers was stung several times in the face, arms, and backs of
the legs. Cora Keber told him to put chewing
tobacco on the stings to take down the
swelling. It seemed to have worked.
We now turned to walk down the Purple
Trail to the Orange Trail. I thought
there would not be much to see here at this time of year. What do I know? There was lots to talk about. First, was a reminder of the fuzzy, hairy,
poison ivy vine on the white oak tree.
Nearby was an aged, partially disintegrated chanterelle mushroom, the
first of many mushrooms to be found today.
Then we reviewed again how to identify the hop hornbeam
(cat-scratched-like bark and doubly serrate elliptical leaves.) Further, we noted the holes the sapsucker
drilled in the trunk, in circles from top to bottom of the tree. The sapsuckers eat some of the sap that seeps
out, but the sap also attracts insects, who then provide more food.
Sue and Ed pointed out an invasive
Chinese wisteria growing by the path up to the Heritage Garden! Someone will have to deal with that, or it
will be trouble.
Don found a swarm of Carolina mantle
slugs in a waterhole in the trunk of another hop hornbeam. This tree seems to be the most common
understory tree in this area. We did
talk about this area being a typical mesic oak-hickory-pine forest of the
Piedmont. On a nearby sweetgum was a
daddy longlegs. Then George caught an American toad. It quickly leaped away, and we had to be
careful not to step on it.
When we stopped to talk about the huge
Persimmon tree down the slope, Don found a white a coral slime mold on a
rotting log at our feet.
Arriving at a big hole in the canopy of
the forest, we were reminded that a huge northern red oak had come down in a
storm and opened up the canopy to bring light to the forest floor. Young saplings and other plants will take
advantage of the light to begin filling up the space. We stopped to view another of the twig
structures put together by the artist, Chris Taylor. As we passed through the
opening in the old deer fence, several mushrooms were spotted, one of which
might have been a Japanese parasol.
Nearby was an oak apple gall which had a big hole through which the
insect had emerged. Don found a surprise
lichen, greenish with black dots, which was new to me.
George was with us today, and as usual
came up with great finds. He found a
triangulate orb weaver to share with everyone. Ronnie found a group of puff
ball mushrooms to squeeze and release the spores. From here to the river were more mushrooms
and slime molds.
At the river, we joined the Orange
Trail. First, however, we had to show
the new comers how to distinguish the hop hornbeam tree from the musclewood
tree. As we have seen the hop hornbeam
was an understory all along the Purple Tree.
The musclewood wants to be near water and is found by the river and
streams. We have already talked about the hop hornbeam. The trunk of the musclewood tree is smooth
and sinewy like muscles. Sue spotted the
sapling of a silverbell tree next to the musclewood.
Tom made the find of the day by spotting
a lavender bloom on the banks of the Oconee River. Don climbed down the bank to get a closer
picture of it. We were able to identify
it as monkey flower by viewing his photo.
From here we could see the big boulders
in the river below the heath bluff where in spring we had seen the huge mass of
mountain laurel.
We found the leaves of trumpet vine on
the massive old river birch near the bridge.
At the bridge we talked about the beaver pond. At the time the beavers
were there, a University pig farm was near the headwaters of the stream. After
the beavers left and their dam disintegrated, the University built a new small
dam to make a sort of retention pond to purify the water before it enters the
Oconee River. As we crossed the bridge Hugh noted the samara (winged seeds) on
the floor of the bridge. They had come from the huge green ash trees that are
the dominant canopy tree in the flood plain.
Rambling around the beaver pond, Don
pointed out more black snakeroots. and Ronnie found a white avens in flower.
Somewhere around this spot someone spotted a leaf footed bug on a tree root. At
Ben’s bridge there were raccoon footprints in the mud. From the bridge we could see many hairy
angelica plants flowering in the beaver pond area. Sue noted that they are not supposed to have
their feet in water, but although damp, these plants were not in standing
water. From the bridge we also observed
the sensitive fern. There were no
fertile fronds to show how they are distinguished from netted chain fern,
although we have observed them in the past.
The sensitive fern fertile frond has branches tight to the rachis
(stem). The netted chain fertile frond
has horizontal branches that have netted chain-like indentions in the branches.
Where the trail passed next to the stream we could see minnows dashing for
cover.
Our next stop was the slope where the
hepaticas bloom in January, sometimes as early as January 2. Later, bloodroot also flower on this slope.
Moving up the trail we stopped to admire the smoky-eyed boulder lichen.
Why is it that every time the Ramblers
start along the narrow trail by the stream with no place to step aside, several
runners and hikers come and want to get through? In this stretch, we noted several interesting
plants: jumpseed, named for the way the
achenes (seeds) jump off when touched, naked tick-trefoil, and pipsissiwa or
spotted wintergreen. Almost in the water
by the boulder where a side stream joins the main creek, Hugh pointed out
yellowroot. It was not in bloom, but is
interesting because historically the roots were used to make a yellow dye.
Behind this spot Don found a green lacewing larvae on a hop hornbeam tree. On a nearby musclewood tree we noted the
frizzy hook moss, that seems to grown on many of this specie of tree along the
stream. Farther along there were tiny shelf mushrooms on a hop hornbeam. That tree had scars in the trunk that looked
like it had been struck by lightning. Next we stopped to admire the great patch
of broad beech fern.
One of the reasons that I wanted to take
the Orange Trail today was to see the huge tulip tree that had fallen across
the trail and stream. The amazing thing
was to see the place from which it was uprooted. It had been growing on a flat rock near the
middle of the stream with some of its roots going across to the far side of the
stream. Crossing the stream on the bridge, we saw beech blight aphids over our
heads on a branch of the large beech tree by the trail. Here Sue and Ed saw a yellow billed cuckoo.
Then Don had another great find, spotting
a flowering cranefly orchid. We see its
leaf all winter and part of the spring, and then it disappears. In summer it sends up a raceme of beautiful
yellow-tan flowers that resemble craneflies.
But the colors blend so much with the background that they are hard to
see and photograph.
In this next section we often find either
rattlesnake fern (winter-spring), or grape fern (summer-fall). Today we spotted a southern grape fern (Botrychium
biternatum) with its fertile frond coming from near the ground. (To
remember: Grape Goes to the Ground.) The fertile frond of rattlesnake ferns arises
from the joint of the three vegetative fronds. Martine found a log with a dense
population of the very beautiful fernleaf moss.
We stopped by the black cherry (Prunus
serotina) tree by the old deer fence, so that Hugh could talk about the change
in the forest. We had left the streamside habitat, but had not returned to the
mesic oak hickory forest. Instead we
were in a transitional forest changing from pine to hardwoods. Pines can’t grow under a canopy of pines,
whereas the hardwood trees can. After
agriculture the pines are first to grow, but under their canopy come the
hardwood trees. From here to the end of
the trail the forest is in transition.
About ten yards from the end there is a spot where a large pine was
broken off about 20 feet from the ground, and next to it were a number of
hardwood trees growing rapidly.
Behind this spot along the trail, we
found a large sparkleberry (Vaccinium arboreum).
Reaching the Upper Parking Lot, many
retired to Donderos for snacks and conversation.
Hugh
