Today's Ramble was led
by Linda Chafin.
Here's the link to Don's Facebook album for today's Ramble. (All
the photos in this post are compliments of Don.)
Today's post was written
by Linda Chafin (plants) and Dale Hoyt (animals).
Today’s Focus: Warm
season grasses in the power line ROW.
Announcements:
1. Alice
Woodruff's sculpture and pottery show – “Warrior Women” – is opening Friday
evening, October 5, at OCAF, 34 School Street, Watkinsville.
2.
The
seat plaque unveiling for seats that the Nature Ramblers purchased will be
Tuesday, October 9, at CINE.
3.
Pam
announced that Don will have a show of his woodworking at Viva! at the
Bottleworks.
4.
The
invitation to lunch at Dr. Ali’s home, scheduled for October 11, has to be
rescheduled. The new date will be announced in the future.
5.
The
Connect to Protect Native Plant Sale is happening Thursday, Friday, Saturday,
October 4-6, and October 11-13. Weekdays 4-6 pm, Saturdays 9-11.
6.
Eleven
Ramblers met after today’s ramble to organize the NR book group. Our next
meeting will be after the October 18, 2018, ramble. At that time each member should bring at least one book
recommendation, but not more than three. We will vote on the recommended
books to determine which ones we read. For more
details please go to our Announcements page.
Show & Tell:
Richard
brought a rambutan fruit to show the group.
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| Rambutan fruit cut open to reveal what's inside. |
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| Swamp Sunflowers |
Today's readings:
Linda
read the introductory passage from Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself, Section 31:
“I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the
stars.Bob recited a poem he composed in his pre-Nature Ramble days, A Close Encounter with an Old Field.
Today's
Route: We walked down the road to the White Trail,
taking the trail toward the power line ROW, first visiting the Prairie Test
Plot and then going up the hill in the ROW. We went about half way up before
heading back to the Visitor Center and Cafe Botanica, where we enjoyed
refreshments and conversation.
Observations:
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| River Oats |
 | |
| River Oats spikelet |
 | |
| River Oats floret |
River Oats is a good grass species
to learn on–its reproductive parts are larger than most other grass species.
What some folks think looks like a fish dangling from a pole is the basic unit
of a grass reproduction, the spikelet. The spikelet is made up of florets,
which are small (sometimes microscopically tiny) flowers. The florets have all
the necessary parts for reproduction – pistils and stamens – but they are very
reduced in size and number. River Oats spikelets contain from 6-17 florets.
 | |
| Purple Fountain Grass |
Purple Fountain Grass is still found around the
edges of the powerline right-of-way (ROW), hanging on since the days when this
area was a display bed. It is native to open, scrubby habitats in East Africa,
tropical Africa, Middle East and SW Asia. It is a widely planted ornamental species
with many cultivars that have become invasive.
 | |
| Bigtop Lovegrass spikelets |
Bigtop
Lovegrass is at the extreme opposite end of the size
continuum from River Oats. Its spikelets are minute (3-4 mm long), with six or
fewer florets, and are held at the tips of delicate, spreading branches. The
flower cluster (or seed head) is open, airy, and sparsely branched – and up to 2½
feet tall – hence “bigtop.” A close relative we did not see today is the
beautiful Purple Lovegrass (Eragrostis
spectabilis). While its flower clusters are less than 2 feet tall and a
beautiful shade of pink. When the plants fill a long stretch of roadside ditch,
they are indeed “spectabilis!”
 | |
| Crab Grass with stamens and pink, fuzzy stigmas. |
Crab Grass is one of three abundant
exotic grasses in the ROW, along with Bermuda Grass and Fescue. It’s blooming
now and the tiny stamens can be seen dangling from the florets along with the
pink, brushy stigmas that comb pollen out of the air.
How do you know if a
grassy looking plant is a grass or an imposter? One way to tell is to
roll the stem between your fingers. If the stem has 3 sides or edges and is
filled with pith, it’s a sedge, a member of the Cyperaceae family. If the stem
is round or slightly flattened (with 2 edges) and is hollow, it is likely a
grass. Rushes (Juncaceae family) have round stems too, but their stems are
filled with pith.
The
experimental prairie planting plot has been overrun with a White-and-Yellow
sedge, a native that is obviously capable of aggressive growth.
 | |
| Silver Plume Grass (very tall grasses in the background) |
 | |
| Silver Plume Grass seed heads |
Silver Plume Grass is the most conspicuous
grass along Georgia’s Piedmont roadsides. Its stems are up to 10 feet tall,
erect, and stout. The single seed head is conspicuous at the top of the stem.
It starts out in late summer as a silvery pink fan with many spreading
branches. After pollination takes place, the fan contracts into a narrow
spike-like shape as the seeds mature. Once the seeds are ripe and ready to
disperse, the seed head opens in a large, hairy plume (up to 12 inches long and
4 inches wide) waiting for the wind to come along and blow the seeds in every
direction. Each spikelet is equipped with long, silky hairs and stiff, twisted
bristles that aid in dispersal.
Vasey Grass, also know as Dallis
Grass, is one of many exotic invasive grasses in Georgia; this one is native to
South America. It has many short branches at the top of its stems, each bearing
stacks of round spikelets.
 | |
| Purple-top seed head |
Purple-top or Greasy Grass is past its prime, having flowered several weeks ago.
The delicate arching branches are still obvious though, and some of the seed
heads still have the wax-coated spikelets that give them that greasy feel. Most
of the plants we examined are infected with Black Smut Fungus.
 | |
| Splitbeard Bluestem; note the V-shaped seed head |
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| Splitbeard Bluestem showing the red and green colored bands on the stem. |
Splitbeard Bluestem is just coming into
flower now, and the characteristic pair of V-shaped spikelets has not fully developed.
With a little teasing, we were able to separate the young seed heads into a
pair. More obvious, and also diagnostic for this species, are the bands of
color that encircle the stems. The leaf sheaths are blue-green and the exposed
stretches of stem between sheaths are reddish, so “red stem” would be a more
accurate name than bluestem (but Ramblers are more than inured to the vagaries
of common names by now). We compared the stems to those of its near relative,
Broomsedge, which lacks the colored bands–its stems are solid green color.
Broomsedge is weeks away from flowering, but we’ll be back for it.
 | |
| Beaked Panicgrass; each spikelet has a short beak |
Beaked Panicgrass has a large seed head
made up of two-flowered spikelets carried at the tips of spreading branches.
Each spikelet has a short beak.
 | |
| Velvet Witchgrass |
Velvet Witchgrass is one of the few Witch
Grasses that are easily recognized in the field: its leaves, stems, and leaf
sheaths are covered with soft, short hairs.
 | |
| Late Purple Aster |
Late Purple Aster is in flower, with its
beautiful purple ray flowers and yellow disk flowers that will turn red with
age.
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| Praying Mantis on Silver Plume Grass seedhead |
 | |
| Praying Mantis on camera for size comparison |
Praying Mantis. Autumn is the time of
year when we begin to notice Praying Mantises, not because they make their
first appearance then, but because they are so small earlier in the year. In
the fall the female mantis lays an egg case that contains approximately 50 +/-
eggs. In the following spring the eggs hatch and all the tiny mantises disperse
and begin eating other insects, slowly growing through five molts to reach the
size of the mantis we saw today.
A
mantis is a “sit and wait” predator. It selects a spot that is frequented by
potential prey, like a grass seed head or a cluster of flowers. Then it waits
for an insect to visit. When its prey is within striking distance the mantis
captures it with its raptorial fore legs. (Called raptorial because they serve
the same function as a raptor’s clawed feet.)
A
praying mantis is often recommended as a pest control solution for the garden.
But mantises are not selective, eating whatever they can catch. In other words,
they don’t discriminate between harmful and beneficial garden insects.
 | |
| Banded Garden Spider on its web Compare with the Golden Garden spider, below. (Note bands on legs, appearence of stabilimentum) |
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| Golden Garden Spider on its web Compare with the Banded Garden spider, above. (Note bands on legs, appearence of stabilimentum) |
Banded Garden Spider. Today’s surprise find
was what we first thought was a Golden Garden Spider on its web among the grasses.
But a more careful look revealed that it was a related species – the Banded
Garden Spider. This is the first time we’ve seen this species on a Ramble.
 | |
| Banded Garden Spider with captured grasshopper at lower left |
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| Captured grasshopper showing the silk wrapping |
Just
after we had finished looking at the spider a grasshopper blundered into its
web. The spider rushed over and enswathed the grasshopper with wide bands of
silk. Many orbweavers wrap their prey up in silk and then bite it after it is
securely bundled up. The bite injects a venom that typically paralyzes the
prey. When prey are abundant a spider can collect several and eat them when
they are less busy.
Spiders
have several kinds of silk glands; orb weavers as many as six types. Each type
of gland produces a silk with different properties. The glands open into spinnerets
from which the liquid silk is pulled by the spider’s feet. It rapidly
polymerizes as it is pulled out. Different silks are produced for different tasks:
draglines, web frames, wrapping silk, stabilimentum silk, sticky spiral silk and
silk for constructing egg sacs. glue glands. Silk has very high tensile
strength and performs better than Kevlar, the material used in body armor. This
has been known since the work of a Dr. Goodfellow, of Tombstone, Arizona. (Dr.
Goodfellow was the physician in Tombstone at the time of the Gunfight at the OK
Corral.) He reported several instances in which a bullet failed to penetrate
silk handkerchiefs.
“The
third patient was shot through the neck at close range from a Colt 45-caliber
revolver. Dr. Goodfellow attributed the patient’s survival to the loosely tied
silk handkerchief around his neck. The entrance wound was so severe it had
exposed his right carotid artery, and any liquids he drank flowed out of the
wound for several weeks into his recovery. However, once again the silk was
drawn into the wound but was uncut by the bullet.” (Lee, J.K. (2016).
Bulletproof Silk: Observations of Dr George E. Goodfellow, the Gunfighter’s
Surgeon. J Am Osteopath Assoc 116, e97–e98.)
Spider silk should perform even
better.
SUMMARY
OF OBSERVED SPECIES:
River
Oats
|
Chasmanthium latifolium
|
Purple
Fountain Grass
|
Pennisetum setaceum
|
Bigtop
Lovegrass
|
Eragrostis hirsuta
|
Crab
Grass
|
Digitaria sp.
|
Perilla
Mint
|
Perilla frutescens
|
Sedge
|
Carex sp.
|
Silver
Plume Grass
|
Erianthus alopecuroides
(= Saccharum alopecuroides)
|
Praying
Mantis
|
Mantodea:
Mantidae
|
Vasey
Grass
|
Paspalum urvillei
|
Purpletop
Grass/Grease Grass
|
Tridens flavus
|
Splitbeard
Bluestem
|
Adropogon ternarius
|
Banded
Garden Spider
|
Argiope trifasciatus
|
Beaked
Panicgrass
|
Panicum anceps
|
Velvet
Witchgrass
|
Dichanthelium scoparium
|
Late
Purple Aster
|
Symphyotrichum patens
|
Yellow
Star Grass
|
Hypoxis hirsuta
|
