Ramble Report October 26 2017

Today's Ramble was led by Dale Hoyt.

The photos in this post, except where noted, came from Don's Facebook album (here's the link).

Today's post was written by Dale Hoyt with assistance from Don Hunter.

24 Ramblers met today.

Announcements:

Wednesday, Nov. 1, 9AM: Sandy Creek Nature Center's "First Wednesday Walk" next week will be another “by consensus” tree identification walk, as well as a bit of seeking what we find.

Friday, Nov. 3, 7:30PM: SCNC, Tales on the Porch. Jackie Elsner will tell stories down by the Cabin. The stories are suitable for older children and adults (PG-13). Cost is $3.00.

Today's reading:

Don read a haiku, “Clear Sky Sunrise” he composed after viewing the sunrise on Wednesday morning:

Orange-hued clear sky sunrise

Beneath deepest blue.

Filled with joyous reverie.

Today's route:

We headed up the steps to the upper parking lot and made our way down the island of trees separating the first and second section of the parking lot, checking out all of the trees and shrubs growing along the edge.  At the end of the island, we took the Orange Trail down to the bridge to the Flower Garden.  Here we took the spur up to the Flower Garden and made our way back to the Visitor Center conservatory 

A special thanks to Richard Saunders who treated us to some of his wonderful homemade bread accompanied with butter, olive oil and fig preserves.

The upper parking lot dividing islands contain a lot of different tree species, many of which are young, which means that their leaves are easily accessible. It's a good location to practice tree identification. Here are some of the trees we found: Sourwood, Tuliptree, Callery Pear, Winged Elm, Sweet Gum, Yaupon Holly, Black Cherry and the always puzzling young Oaks.

Sourwood leaves changing color
remnants of fruits

 

The Sourwoods are beginning to turn color. Many of the leaves have a pinkish glow already. Sourwood is famous for the honey made from its nectar; some aficionados maintain it's the best honey in the US. Beeyards in the Appalachians were commonly surrounded with Sourwoods to capitalize on the higher prices Sourwood honey commands. It flowers in the late spring and the white flowers are born in curving clusters that persist on the tree long after the petals have dropped. The remains of the flowers are a good identification aid for the tree. Other features are the long, narrow leaves that tend toward strap-shaped with pointed ends and, in mature trees, the deeply ridged bark. The trees in the island are too young to have this bark, but we saw at least one example on the upper end of the Orange Trail.

Deeply ridged Sourwood bark & twisted trunk growth

Another feature of the Sourwood is the twisted growth pattern of the trunk. You almost never see a straight sourwood trunk – it twists and turns as it grows upward. Some say that it is following the light, but other trees that also grow toward the light don't twist and turn as much as they grow toward the canopy.

Tulip tree leaves

Tuliptree leaves are unique with their four lobes that looks like the profile of a tulip. But that is not the origin of the common name. It comes from the greenish white flower that appears in early spring and resembles a tulip. This tree also has other common names, Yellow poplar and Tulip poplar, that are very misleading because the Tuliptree is not related to poplars. It's related to the Magnolias.

Leaves of Callery pear

There is a small Callery pear, better known as a Bradford pear, growing in the island. The Bradford variety used to be widely planted because of its beautiful shape and early spring display of white flowers. Plus, it didn't produce any fruit, reducing the cost and effort of cleaning up the yard. But the story ends badly – read this post by Ellen Honeycutt for the interesting details.

There is also a young Tulip tree growing near the Callery pear. The leaves of this tree are unique, looking like a profile view of a tulip. (The Tulip tree also has other common names: Tulip Poplar and Yellow Poplar. These names are misleading because the Tulip tree is not even related to the poplars. It is in the Magnolia family.)

Winged Elm leaves

Corky ridge on branch is the "wing" of Winged Elm

There are several Winged Elms in the island. The name refers to a corky strip of tissue that is sometimes found running on either side along the length of small branches. But this is not always present and on larger trees it is difficult to see on higher branches, even if present. The shape of the leaf is pretty characteristic – it's like an almond, pointed at both ends and has a coarsely toothed margin. If you look closely at the marginal teeth you will find that each large tooth has 1 or 2 smaller teeth on it. Unusual for elms, the base of the leaf blade is symmetrical or only very slightly oblique.

Wax Myrtle leaves

Wax Myrtle is a large shrub with leaves that are spatulate (wider toward the end), reminiscent of Water Oak leaves. But the leaves are clustered, not alternately arranged on the stem. The "wax" refers to the thin layer of wax that covers the small fruits. In colonial times the wax was harvested by boiling the berries until the wax melted and floated to the top. It was then poured off and used to scent candles when mixed with bee's wax.

Hophornbeam leaf

Hophornbeam is a tree that many Ramblers struggle to identify. The leaves superficially resemble those of Winged Elm, but are fatter, not almond shaped. They are also thinner and the marginal teeth are finer. Each large tooth has a smaller tooth on it, but the large teeth are much smaller than the large teeth of the Winged Elm.

Smooth, cherry-like bark of Hophornbeam

Young Hophornbeam have smooth bark that resembles that of a young Black cherry tree. As the tree ages the bark changes in texture, becoming shredded, as if a cat scratched it to sharpen its claws.

Variable shapes of young Water Oak leaves

Young oak trees are often difficult to identify because their leaves don't resemble the shape of the more mature tree. Mature Water Oaks have leaves that have expanded ends with the slight suggestion of two lateral lobes. The young sapling often has long, unexpanded leaves that resemble those of willow trees or Willow Oaks. Sometimes the leaves are divided into two or three thin lobes. So most of the small saplings we saw were probably Water Oak, especially since at the head of the island there is a larger Water Oak producing lots of small, spherical acorns.

But there was one large sapling, about 15 feet high, that still retained the juvenile leaf shape. This may have been an actual Willow Oak or Laurel Oak. Willow Oaks are commonly planted as a yard tree; you can also see several along the sidewalks in downtown Athens.

Yaupon holly leaves & ripe berry

 

A Yaupon Holly shrub with a few unripe (green) and ripe (red) berries started a discussion about caffeine.  Richard mentioned that among young people it has become the rage make a tea of the ground, fermented leaves of Yaupon. Ed maintained that fermentation was not necessary – all you needed to do was roast the leaves and make the tea as usual.

Ed also pointed out that Yaupon is the only North American species that contains caffeine. (A really good discussion of the scattered appearance of caffeine in flowering plants can be found here.)

Black Cherry bark beginning to change to mature bark

Young Black Cherry with smooth bark

Black Cherry is another tree that, like Hophornbeam, changes its bark as it ages. In its youth it has smooth bark with horizontal slits, called lenticels, scattered about the trunk. As it ages the bark darkens and takes on the appearence of, according to Emily, "crushed, burnt potato chips." You could see this change displayed by the younger branches in contract to the lower part of the trunk.

American Beech leaves have wavy edges with sharp points

Just inside the start of the Orange Trail is an interesting American Beech tree.  One branch of the trunk is bent down, horizontal to the ground level and several vertical shoots, like small Beech trees, emerge from this branch.  Someone commented that it looked like an old Native American tribal property marker tree but the tree is much too young to have served that purpose.

This part of the Orange Trail has a mixture of pines and hardwood species that is typical of the early stages in conversion of former agricultural land into a forest.

Immature Loblolly pine cone; each cone scale has a sharp prickle

Most of the pines here are Loblolly. Their needles grow in bundles of 3 and are longer than three inches. The trunk of the mature tree is covered with large, reddish plates of bark and the cone scales carry sharp "prickles."

Shortleaf pine bark with resin pits

 

Scattered along the trail are a few Shortleaf pines with similar looking bark, but each plate bears pencil lead sized rosin pits. Shortleaf pine needles grow in groups of two and their length is less than 3 inches. The cones are small, round in shape and are retained on the tree for many years after they have opened.

Crossvine leaves

There was a  Crossvine growing up a dead hardwood next to the Shortleaf Pine and not far away was a mature Sourwood with deeply ridged bark and twisting growth form.

We had tarried too long and had to rush to the bridge to take the trail back to the Flower Garden. Just before the trail meets the Flower Garden sidewalk there is an American Beech with very warty bark. (Cause of the warts is unknown; perhaps the tree was disturbing toads?)

Beechdrops

 

On our Ramble three weeks ago we noticed large numbers of Beechdrops, a parasitic plant that grows on American Beech roots, that had unopened flower buds. We hoped to find some flowers this week, but were disappointed. If you wonder what these flowers look like this short video will give you a good look.

But wait, there's more! It turns out that Beechdrops have two types of flowers: those on the upper part of the stem that open and those on the lower part of the stem that never open. The lower flower buds self-fertilize and produce most of the seed. The upper, showy flowers, are mostly sterile and only rarely produce any seed. Even more unusual is the possible pollinator: ants. Very few plants are pollinated by ants (only three or four species are known, worldwide, to have ant pollinators). In one study researchers found Beechdrop pollen adhering to the bodies of ants that were climbing around the plant, so it seems a possiblity.

Angeli and Richard found a few opened beechnut husks, each containing a single seed from the cluster that the husk had originally held. American Beech doesn't seem to produce many seeds here in the garden.

SUMMARY OF OBSERVED SPECIES:

Sourwood	Oxydendrum arboreum
Yellow Poplar	Liriodendron tuipifera
Callery Pear	Pyrus calleryana
Winged Elm	Ulmus alata
Sweetgum	Liquidambar styrachiflua
Wax Myrtle	Morella cerifera (=Myrica cerifera)
American Hophornbeam	Ostrya virginiana
Water Oak	Quercus nigra
Laurel Oak??	Quercus laurifolia
Willow Oak	Quercus phellos
Yaupon Holly	Ilex vomitoria
Black Cherry	Prunus serotina
American Beech	Fagus grandifolia
Loblolly Pine	Pinus taeda
Shortleaf Pine	Pinus echinata
Crossvine	Bignonia capreolata
Beechdrops	Epifagus virginiana