Today's
report was written by Hugh Nourse. You can see all the photos Don Hunter took of
today's Ramble here.
Sixteen Ramblers met at
the Arbor at 8 AM. First Hugh read a
poem from Mary Oliver called “The Summer Day.”
Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and
the black bear?
Who made the
grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I
mean—
the one who has flung
herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating
sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws
back and forth instead of up and down—
who is gazing around
with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale
forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings
open, and floats away.
I don’t know exactly
what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay
attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to
kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and
blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have
been doing all day.
Tell me, what else
should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die
at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you
plan to do
with your one wild and
precious life?
Our ramble today was
through the Shade Garden on the paved path to the service road, across the
service road on the White Trail to the power line right-of-way. There we went up through the Elaine Nash
Prairie to the fence at the top of the hill. From there, left along the fence
to the White Trail to connect up with the Short Tree Trail that follows the
service road to the Green Trail. We turned left on the Green Trail, which
intersects the White Trail, which we took back to the Shade Garden. We then walked back up the paved path through
the Shade Garden to the Arbor.
In the Shade Garden, we stopped to see that the black
cohosh that had bloomed earlier was now in fruit. Next we looked at the pin galls on the
American witch hazel. They had turned
black and one could see the exit holes of the insects on the back side of the
leaf. Apparently, native insects do not
bother the oriental witch hazel across the path because it did not have any
galls. Virginia sweet spire was a
massive bush in full bloom. There were
bumble bees still on the blooms where they had spent the night. After it heats up they will be gone.
Across the road and up the White Trail, we stopped to see
river oats (Avis’s fish on a pole). Next
was the fruit of a hawthorne (I believe it was Crateagus uniflora). A very
small sapling of winged elm enabled us to view the corky flanges (wings) on the
branches which give it its name. A
number of wild petunias were in full bloom.
So was a small beautyberry bush. Avis found a few perfect flowers among
the many imperfect ones on the buckeye shrubs. Later we looked at a buckeye
shrub that was developing seed—the buckeyes—and noted how few buckeyes there
were compared to the many florets on the bush.
Only perfect flowers yield buckeyes and most of the florets are only
male flowers. Tom spotted a Mississippi
kite in the top of the sycamore tree. As
we observed him or her (?), it flew away, but went in a big circle and returned
to the same spot. We did identify a
northern red oak sapling. The
hophornbeam was still showing its seeds, but now most were turning brown.
Up the two-rut road through the Elaine Nash Prairie we
found many blooming plants and insects. There was the Carolina desert chicory,
which we saw two weeks ago, still
blooming. Horse nettle, bitterweed, field thistle, and common mullein
were all in flower. Don found a leaf
footed bug, and nearby were the reddish leaves of the beefsteak plant. Also nearby was a small sensitive brier, but
across the rutty road was a huge patch of it to consider. Below was heal-all, which some were surprised
was not native. We talked about the
whitish leaves and bracts of mountain mint. The white actually comes from
whitish hairs covering them. Wild
bergamot continues to bloom, although it was beginning to look ragged and many
petals were gone.
Sue wondered what a particular yellow composite was. She thought it was a whorled coreopsis, but
it looked too small to me. She was right
though; we looked up its characteristics in our field guide and they matched
the plant in front of us. More species
of yellow composites are coming into bloom now.
Later we found a hairy sunflower, near a flowering rabbit tobacco. And next to the sunflower was a whorled
rosinweed. It was neat to see the
difference in color since they were so close together. Rosinweed is a much paler yellow and its
bracts are rounded, while the bracts of the sunflower are pointed and even
reflexed. The latter is also very hairy
on stems and leaves.
Don found a common agrimony. Many bumble bees were visiting the wild
bergamots. Bees, butterflies, and grasshoppers were beginning to move
about. We think the butterfly was silvery
checkerspot. The plume grass flowers
were gone leaving only a woody like stalk where the flower had been. Surprisingly, summer bluets were still
blooming. Off the trail Avis discovered a nice patch of bracken fern. In the same spot, Don found a juniper
leaf. As we got toward the top of the
hill we found deer prints in the mud.
This part of the area is usually very dry and sunny, so that many plants
and lichens that are found on granitic outcrops are also found here: Dixie reindeer lichen, pixie cups, British
soldiers, and pineweed.
Turning left at the fence we worked our way along the
fence to the White Trail and to the service road which is at this point part of
the short tree trail. Someone pointed
out some short trees!?! This road runs
along a xeric (dry) ridge, so the trees we found belong to that habitat: winged elm, sweetgum, scarlet oak, northern
red oak, white oak, hop hornbeam, post oak, southern red oak, and black
gum. Much time was spent showing the
difference in leaves between the various oaks.
We divided them into white and red oaks first, the latter having points
on the tips of the lobes of leaves. The
scarlet oak leaves have much deeper sinuses between points than northern red
oaks, and the southern red oak leaf is scythe like. If you hold the leaf so the stem is at the
top it looks like a bell. The horizontal
branches of the black gum were very distinctive and diagnostic. Along the way we almost ran into a spiny orb
weaver’s web. Nearby was a muscadine
vine that was bearing fruit high up on a tree branch. Muscadine is all over the ground, but rarely
blooms or provides fruit there. Only
when it gets higher does it flower and fruit.
We expected to find sparkleberry bushes here, but found only highbush blueberry .
Going left on the Green Trail it was delightful to see
the dancing ballerinas (beech aphids) on a beech tree. We have not seen any since last year. While we were at the beech tree, we talked
about the thin bark and shallow root system of these trees. As a result they are very sensitive to
fires. Since wild fires are suppressed
nowadays, beech trees have become more numerous. Tom found a stinkhorn mushroom. At one of the water dips recently dug in the
trail, Don stopped to tell how they should be done. He helped Walter Cook put these in last
Tuesday. They worked from 9 to 4! How did they do it in this heat? We stopped to admire a shagbark hickory
(Carya ovata). Don also pointed out the free-growing mycelium at the bottom of
a tree. "Mycelium is
the vegetative part of a fungus,
consisting of a mass of branching, thread-like hyphae. The mass
of hyphae is sometimes called shiro, especially within the fairy ring fungi.
Fungal colonies composed of mycelium are found in and on soil and
many other substrates." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mycelium Nearby was a red
mulberry tree sapling. Farther on was a beautiful fresh Japanese parasol
mushroom. Before leaving the trail
someone spotted a blooming elephant’s foot.
Back under the power line
right-of-way. Don also pointed out purpletop vervain.
It was now getting very warm and
time to return to the Arbor and to Donderos for drinks and refreshment.
Hugh
