Today's Ramble was led by Linda Chafin.
The photos in this post, except where
noted, came from Don's Facebook album (here's the link).
Today's post was written by Linda
Chafin & Dale Hoyt.
Thirty Ramblers met today.
Today's reading: Linda read The Summer Day by Mary Oliver.
A list of books that might appeal to Ramblers.
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| Polyphemus moth; female (because of the thin antennae) |
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| Polyphemus cocoon; exit hole at the bottom |
Before leaving the Arbor Jeff showed us a female Polyphemus moth (Antheraea polyphemus) that emerged from a cocoon he found
on his property.
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| Appalachian Bergamot with Bumblebee visitor |
The group paused at the bed along the road into the
International Garden. This bed has lots of native plants as well as a few
exotics. Appalachian Bergamot, Monarda fistulosa, is in flower and we
watched a bumble bee explore the flowers in a search for nectar. The
long-tubular flowers of all the species in the genus Monarda are popular with long-tongued insects such as bumblebees,
butterflies, skippers, and of course hummingbirds. According to the website
Illinois Wildflowers, this species is useful to lots of insects: “The
caterpillars of the moths Sphinx eremitus
(Hermit Sphinx) and Agriopodes
teratophora (Gray Marvel) feed on the foliage. A seed bug (Ortholomus scolopax) is sometimes found
in the flowerheads.” The author goes on to say that Monarda leaves are not tempting to mammalian herbivores “. . .probably
because of the oregano-mint flavor of the leaves and their capacity to cause
indigestion; they may contain chemicals that disrupt populations of beneficial
bacteria in the digestive tract.” If so,
this should be a good deer-resistant group of plants for gardens. Several
ramblers mentioned seeing the bright red flowers of Oswego Tea (Monarda didyma) in the mountains at this
time of year.
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| Genista broom moth caterpillar on Baptisia |
We spotted a Genista
broom moth caterpillar on the stems and leaves of White Wild Indigo. The
same caterpillar was also seen feeding on Wild Indigo in the Physic Garden.
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| Hibiscus flower showing the epicalyx |
An exotic Hibiscus plant sporting large, showy
flowers caught our eye, the flowers being a perfect vehicle for talking about a
couple of unusual features that characterize this group of plants. Hibiscus
flowers have an “epicalyx,” a whorl of 5 – 10 narrow, green bracts that
surround the base of the flower just below the calyx (or just above, depending
on your perspective). The epicalyx
sticks around after the fruit develops and often persists through the winter,
so you can identify this genus almost year round.
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| Hibiscus; multiple fused stamens; style with 5 stigmas |
Even more noticeable than the epicalyx is the prominent
structure extending from the center of the hibiscus flower. Sometimes as much
as several inches long, this is the “business end” of the flower where pollen
dispersal and pollination take place. The flower’s numerous stamens are fused
into a tube that surrounds most of the length of the pistil. The ends of the stamens, including the
pollen-bearing anthers, are free and spread in every direction, starting about
halfway up. After the pollen is dispersed, five styles emerge from the top of
the tube and are tipped with sticky stigma pads, where pollen from other plants
is (hopefully) deposited by visiting insects. By releasing the pollen before
the stigmas emerge, the flower prevents self-pollination. Look closely at some
of our common garden plants – Rose-of-Sharon, hollyhocks, and okra, all members
of the same plant family – and you’ll see this same distinctive structure.
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| Lotus blossom |
Gazing into the little pond below the Flower Bridge,
ramblers admired the pink flowers of the Sacred
Lotus (Nelumbo nucifera). Close
kin to our own American Lotus, which flourishes in the water garden outside the
Visitor Center, this plant is native to tropical parts of Asia. It is especially
identified with India, where it is sacred to both Buddhists and Hindus. The
fact that its beautiful flowers and impressive leaves rise from the mud is seen
as a symbol of the potential for spiritual growth within every person.
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| Royal Catchfly |
We moved out of the International Garden and into the
Threatened and Endangered Species Garden. Royal
Catchfly (Silene regia), with its
velvety red flowers, is in bloom. This species is widespread in North America’s
midwestern prairies, and reaches into only one county in the limestone region
of northwest Georgia. Its flowers look nearly identical to the flowers of
Fire-pink but the tips of Fire-pink’s petals are notched and Royal Catchfly’s
are not. Also Royal Catchfly has stiffly erect stems whereas Fire-pink tends to
be lax and floppy.
A close look at the calyx of Royal Catchfly illuminates
the common name – insects were stuck all over it. Sticky surfaces like this
serve at least two purposes for plants. To begin with, crawling insects,
especially ants, are prevented from reaching the flower and its precious
nectar; the nectar is reserved for flying insects like bees whose hairy bodies
will pick up pollen at the same time the bee is sipping nectar. (So, should we
rename the genus “Catch-ant”?) Secondly, the hapless insects trapped on the
plant’s surfaces become dinner for predatory insects, including ants. Ants that
are attracted to the stuck prey also patrol other surfaces of the plant,
attacking and eating herbivorous insects like caterpillars that they encounter.
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| Plum-leaf Azalea |
We also admired the deep red flowers of the Plum-leaf Azalea, found only in
southwest Georgia in ravines feeding into the Flint and Chattahoochee Rivers,
and also at the bottom of Providence Canyon.
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| Dwarf Sumac |
Dwarf Sumac is
also flourishing in the T&E Garden. Dwarf Sumac is dioecious, meaning
pollen-bearing (“male”) flowers and fruit-bearing (“female”) flowers are on
separate plants. The plants here are female and are in full bloom now. Georgia
once had at least five populations of Dwarf Sumac, but this number had dwindled
to two by the 1990s. One male population was located in Covington, and a female
population was located in Elbert County near the Broad River. Members of the
Georgia Plant Conservation Alliance brought the two together one Valentine’s
Day about 10 years ago by planting rhizomes from Covington at the Broad River
site. That population is now thriving and happily producing offspring.
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| Hairy Rattleweed (gray foliage) Tall Coreopsis (yellow flowers) |
Plants of the Hairy
Rattleweed caught our eye, its silvery-hairy leaves gleaming in the sun.
This is one of the rarest and most endangered plants in Georgia, possibly even
the world. Found in only two SE Georgia counties, it occurs mostly around the
sunny edges of pine plantations that have largely displaced the native pine
flatwoods that once blanketed that part of Georgia. The plant was discovered in
the 1950s by UGA’s Dr. Wilbur Duncan, who gave it the species name of arachnifera, referring to the
spider-webbed surfaces of the plant.
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| Culver's root |
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| Rattlesnake Master |
Plants in the Physic Garden, especially the section
devoted to Native American medicinals, are blooming like crazy right now,
including Rattlesnake Master, Culver’s Root, Beautyberry, and Wild
Quinine.
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| Japanese Cornel leaf fragments suspended by intact vascular tissue. |
The group paused at the fruiting Japanese Cornel tree and practiced breaking the leaves of this
Asian dogwood species. By carefully dividing a leaf crosswise, the tough,
elastic strands of vascular tissue are revealed, holding the leaf halves
together. This stretchy tissue is a good identifying trait for native dogwoods
too, along with the arcing veins that don’t reach the leaf margins but instead
curve downward to the leaf tip.
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| Two varieties of Cotton in the Heritage Garden |
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| Cotton flower starting to open |
We found two more members of the Mallow (or Hibiscus) Family in the Heritage Garden: cotton and okra. Both are in flower and exhibit the characteristic fused
reproductive structures in the center of the flower as well as the epicalyx.
Other plants on display that are part of Georgia’s agricultural heritage
include sorghum, squash, rice, and sunflowers.
The sorghum especially drew comments from our ramblers who have lived and
worked in Africa, where the grain (seeds) is used as food for both humans and
animals. Some native Georgian ramblers grew up eating sorghum syrup, which is
still produced in north Georgia by pressing the sweet sap from the stems and
boiling it down. Wikipedia tells us that Sorghum is the “fifth-most important
cereal crop grown in the world.”
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| Sweet Bay magnolia flower |
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| Sweet Bay fruits developing |
Heading back to the Visitor’s Center for some much needed
AC and cold beverages, we came across Sweet
Bay in flower. Both the flowers and the fruits are dead give-aways for this
species’ family, the Magnoliaceae.
Sweet Bay is one of three trees called “bays” that grow in Coastal Plain
swamps. The other two trees are Loblolly Bay and Swamp Red Bay; none of the
three are closely related, but they grow together in wetlands called “bayheads”
or “baygalls.”
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| Tropical Bleeding Hearts |
Once in the Visitor Center, some of us were short-stopped
on our way to the café by a pot of Tropical
Bleeding Hearts (Clerodendrum
thomsoniae), aka Glory Bower, a native of tropical west Africa. What
strange flowers! Dark red petals emerge from an enfolding white calyx. The
petals are clustered together in one plane with a small tightly coiled mass of
some sort of filaments – name and function unknown to this botanist – tucked beneath. Four long stamens and a
pistil extend for several inches beyond the petals. The fruits are even
stranger! They are black and split open to reveal a wrinkled orange lining and
four black seeds. Even native plant enthusiasts like the ramblers are bowled
over by something as beautiful and strange as the flowers of this plant.
According to Wikipedia, " Clerodendrum and
its relatives have an unusual pollination syndrome which avoids self-pollination.
The flowers are protandrous, meaning the male stamens mature first, before the
female pistil is receptive. When the flower opens, the stamens stand erect,
parallel to the central axis of the flower, while the style bends over, holding
the stigma beyond the rim of the corolla. After the pollen is shed, the stamens
curl up or bend over, and the style straightens out, bringing the stigma to the
center of the flower."
Insects
Flowers and warm, sunny days are the
right combination for insects. Although we weren't looking for them
specifically we did see a number of interesting ones.
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| Dogban beetles |
The Dogbane beetle is probably the most spectacular beetle we've seen
on our rambles. This brilliant, coppery gold, green and blue beetle feeds on Dogbane
and that is the plant we found it on.
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| Ambush bug |
An Ambush bug is often overlooked because they are small and cryptically
colored. They typically sit motionless on or near a flower, waiting for other
insects to visit. Then they strike with their raptorial front legs, quickly
seizing their prey, which they immediately stab with their piercing, sucking
mouthparts. They inject two things: a substance that quickly paralyzes the prey
and a complex mixture of digestive enzymes that begin to liquify its insides.
Soon they suck up all the digested material, leaving a dried husk. Ambush bugs
can't harm an animal the size of a human being, but their bite is quite painful
and the damage to the tissue lasts a long time. I speak from personal
experience.
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| Widow Skimmer (dragonfly) |
Sunny gardens and meadows are good
places to find insects and dragonflies seem to know this because they are often
seen flying about. They are more typically found near wetlands because they
have aquatic larvae and that is where they go to find mates and lay their eggs.
A few species hunt their aerial prey and we saw one, a Widow Skimmer, in the garden today. Last year in the garden I
observed a Widow Skimmer flying up to plant with a tall raceme of flowers.
Instead of landing it bumped the flower stalk hard enough for the stalk to
shake. I watched it for about 15 minutes and it repeated this behavior many
times. I can only conjecture what it was doing – perhaps it was shaking the
flowers to dislodge any insects that might be nectaring or hiding among the
blossoms. I never saw it capture anything, nor did I notice anything flying
away from the disturbance. I wrote to an odonatologist (that's a person that
studies dragonflies) and they had never seen or heard of a similar behavior.
Keep your eyes open. Maybe you'll see something interesting.
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| Oblique syrphid fly on Mistflower |
We found an Oblique syrphid fly visiting
a Mistflower. Many people have seen a syrphid fly and thought they were looking
at a small bee or wasp. Syrphids are commonly called Flower flies or Hover
flies because they are often found on flowers or observed hovering in mid-air
in front of them. The adults are important pollinators of plants and their larvae
are voracious consumers of aphids.
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| A "True" bug |
The problem with identifying insects
is that there are so many different kinds of them. Further, in many cases they
can only be identified through close examination under a microscope. We saw an
example today – all I can say with confidence is that it is a true bug, in the insect order Hemiptera,
suborder Heteroptera, possibly related to the squash bugs. If you look
carefully at the photo you will notice a large triangular structure on its
back, behind the head and between the "shoulders." That structure is
called a scutellum, and a large one is characteristic of true bugs.
Entomologists tend to get annoyed when people use the word "bug" to
refer to any kind of insect. They never know if a true bug is meant or just any
insect.
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| Red-banded Hairstreak on Rattlesnake Master |
The Rattlesnake Master attracted a lot
of insects this morning, including a Red-banded Hairstreak. The common name is
derived from the tiny, hair-like projections on the back edge of the hind
wings. They are hard to see in the photo but they are near the black spot at
the edge of the hind wing. That spot resembles an eye and the butterfly will
rub its hind wings up and down, making the combination of dark spot and moving
hairs look like a head with wiggling antennae. On older hairstreaks you can
find wedge-shaped pieces removed from the hind wings where birds or lizards
attacked the wrong part of the butterfly. The predator got a mouthful of
tasteless wing and the butterfly got away.
SUMMARY OF OBSERVED SPECIES:
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Bee balm
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Monarda fistulosa
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Wild indigo
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Baptisia sp.
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Genista broom moth
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Uresiphita
reversalis
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Hibiscus
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Hibiscus sp.
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Water lotus
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Nelumbo sp.
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Royal catchfly
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Silene regia
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Plum leaf azalea
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Rhododendron prunifolium
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Dwarf sumac
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Rhus michauxii
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Winged sumac
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Rhus copallinum
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Stemless ironweed
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Vernonia acaulis
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Wild petunia
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Ruellia caroliniensis
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Hairy rattleweed
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Baptisia arachnifera
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Tall coreopsis
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Coreopsis tripteris
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Hop vine
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Humulus lupulus
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"True" bug
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Order Hemiptera, Suborder Heteroptera
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Dogbane
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Apocynum cannabinum
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Dogbane beetle
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Chrysochus auratus
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Widow skimmer dragonfly
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Libellula luctuosa
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Rattlesnake master
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Eryngium yuccifolium
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Culver's root
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Veronicastrum
virginicum
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Wild quinine
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Parthenium integrifolium
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Ambush bug
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Family Reduviidae
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Red-banded hairstreak
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Calycopis cecrops
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Japanese cornel
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Cornus officinalis
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Paw paw
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Asimina triloba
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Northern cardinal (female and fledglings)
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Cardinalis cardinalis
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Red buckeye
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Aesculus pavia
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Beautyberry
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Callicarpa americana
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Cotton
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Gossypium sp.
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Grasshopper (nymph)
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Order Orthoptera: Acrididae
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Squash
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Cucurbita sp.
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Okra
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Abelmoschus sp.
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Sorghum
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Sorghum sp.
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Rice
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Oryza sp.
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Unidentified bee
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Order Hymenoptera
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Oblique syrphid
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Allograpta obliqua
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Blue mist flower
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Conoclinium coelestinum
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Sweetbay magnolia
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Magnolia virginiana
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Glorybower or Tropical bleeding heart
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Clerodendrum thomsoniae
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