Leader
for today's Ramble: Don Hunter
Authors of today’s Ramble report: Don, Bill Sheehan, and Linda. Comments, edits, and suggestions for the report can be sent to Linda at Lchafin@uga.edu.
Insect identifications: Don Hunter
Fungi and slime-mold identifications: Bill, Don
Link to Don’s Facebook album for this Ramble. All the photos that appear in this report, unless otherwise credited, were taken by Don Hunter. Photos may be enlarged by clicking them with a mouse or tapping on your screen.
Number of Ramblers today: 29
Today's emphasis: Early summer wildflowers in the prairie and rainy season fungi and slime-molds in the woods.
Today's Reading: Bob Ambrose shared another of his wonderful poems with us.
On Early Summer Elderwalks, Athens,
Georgia, June, 2023
I hike through my neighborhood
in the guise of an old man
with just a hint of a gimpy hip.
Gripping a gnarled walking stick,
I’m out before the heat,
huffing up hills,
passed by young runners
and mothers rolling strollers.
They nod in my general direction
or smile past the half-seen elder.
We share the same street
but live in different worlds.
I walk as much in memory
as in the searing moment.
I slip through years,
misplace whole decades.
I zig-zag through shadows
and pause in a pool of shade.
A warm breeze sifts the mimosa
and I breathe its pink sweetness.
I scan the borders of ragged lawns
telling sumac from senna,
cats-ear from dandelion,
wild petunia from woodland phlox.
Stopped by calls of 'Hey Mr. Bob'
from a yard full of children at play,
I watch their beloved Wally
snatch a flying frisbee in stride.
As morning warms, a low drone fills
the distance. With sun high on my back,
I saunter home through the green
aroma of fresh-mown grass.
On the other side of sunset,
I watch a field full of fireflies
tracing seductive J-shaped loops
as signs of love in the failing light.
In the spell of affection, I nudge
a young snake with the tip of my stick.
The copperhead coils, then flows
off the asphalt into the night.
Show
and Tell:
Bill found two species of milk mushrooms in the woods on his way down from the parking lot. He pointed out two characters used to identify milk mushrooms: milk and taste. Fresh specimens ooze milky juice when you cut across the gills or into the cap. The milk may be scant or plentiful; it may be white, yellow, orange, blue, or clear, and may even change color. Milk mushrooms are not poisonous, but a few of them taste acrid or bitter, an important feature for identifying the mushroom. You nibble a tiny amount on the tip of the tongue then spit it out.
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| The larger orange milk mushroom on the left has an acrid taste that takes a while to present (Gary tasted it and can verify its bitterness). The smaller white mushroom produced white milk which shortly turned bright yellow. |
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| Sher showed us his cap from the trip he and Barbara recently took to the Cumberland Island National Seashore trip and shared how they learned a lot of its past history. Some of that history can be read here. |
Today's Route: We left the Children’s Garden, taking the entrance road down to the White Trail spur that leads to the right-of-way. In the ROW, we turned right on the service road and walked through the Nash Prairie all the way to the top of the ridge. We then walked west across the prairie into the woods to the Green Trail, then to the White Trail, and hence to the parking lot.
OBSERVATIONS:
Don arrived at the Children's Garden early and photographed some of the many insects visiting the flowering plants near the arbor as ramblers gathered.
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| A species of Wedge-shaped Beetle exploring Mountain-mint |
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| Lemon Cuckoo Bumble Bee |
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| A species of Ambush Bug (left) visiting the flower head of a Rattlesnake Master (right). Aubrey did some post-ramble research on these odd-looking insects and reports that “they don't move around like their cousins the assassin bugs. They can eat prey ten times (!) their size by holding and stabbing it, digesting it, then sucking up the yummy stuff. It’s not advisable to pick them up. They are ‘true bugs’ in the order Hemiptera, although a subclass Badassera might be appropriate!” |
The White Trail spur that connects the entrance road with the right-of-way follows the edge of old perennial beds that were planted in the late 1970s and 1980s. These were relocated or abandoned over the last 20 years but some holdovers remain, including Stinking Hellebore, Bottlebrush Buckeye, and others.
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| Stinking Hellebore |
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| Bottlebrush Buckeye |
Native species along the White
Trail access spur are also in flower.
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| Wild Petunia |
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| Smooth Spiderwort has been blooming for weeks and is still looking fine. This flower has attracted a Tumbling Flower Beetle. |
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| Trailside, the Hop Hornbeam trees are heavily laden with fruit clusters that resemble those of Hops, with each fruit enclosed in a pale green sac that is tipped with a tiny mucro |
Native wildflowers are entering their full summer glory now in the Nash Prairie.
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| Carolina Desert Chicory is in flower, with its distinctive lemon yellow ray flowers; there are no disk flowers in this species’ flower heads. In the center of the flower head, you can see many pale yellow styles, their bases enclosed by dark stamens. This species has an identity issue; actually, it's a common name problem: it’s not a chicory, it’s not found in the desert, and it’s not exclusive to the Carolinas but occurs north to Pennsylvania and west to Nebraska and Texas. In Linda’s wildflower book, she called it False Chicory – what was she thinking? |
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| Little-leaf Sensitive Briar’s flower clusters are a big clue to its placement in the genus Mimosa. Each of the many flowers that comprise the head have up to 10 pink stamens, but no petals and only a tiny calyx. |
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| Wild Bergamot aka Appalachian Bee-balm |
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| Woodland Coreopsis (or Tickseed) used to be called Whorled Tickseed because the pair of leaves at each node are so deeply divided into three leaflets that they appear to be a whorl of six leaves. Photo by Janie K. Marlow, Name That Plant.net |
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| Mountain-mint's flowers are held in clusters surrounded by small leaves and bracts that are densely covered with white, woolly hairs. |
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| White Boneset flower heads are just beginning to open at the top of very hairy stems. When the heads are fully open, long style branches will give the heads a fuzzy appearance. |
A low rutted area in the ROW road stays wet most of the year and has become a popular mud wallow with a family of Nine-banded Armadillos.
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| Numerous three-toed foot prints and belly and tail drag marks left by the resident Armadillos |
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| At least two burrows could be seen along the bank forming one side of the wallow. |
Once we entered the woods, Bill shifted into gall mode and found two types of galls on Mockernut Hickory leaves.
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| The galls on the lower leaflet shown in the photo above (Caryomyia persicoides) are round and fuzzy (below left) and seen to be nearly solid inside when dissected (below right). |
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| Photo on left by Don Hunter; dissection and photo on right by Bill Sheehan |
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| The galls shown on the upper leaflet (Caryomyia striolacrustum) are smaller and shiny green with a depression on the upper surface. In the photo on the right, the gall is dissected to show the gall midge larva inside. Photos and dissection by Bill Sheehan |
Given the amount of rainfall we’ve had lately, Don predicted that we’d see lots of fungi and slime-molds today – and was he right! These photos were taken in the woods near the White and Green Trails.
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| An Amanita species known as the Blusher Mushroom There are 900-1000 species of Amanita mushrooms worldwide, only nine of which are known to produce poisonous amatoxins. One species alone, the Destroying Angel (Amanita bisporigera), accounts for 90% of all mushroom poisonings. |
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| Amanitas are distinguished by, among other things, an enlarged base and remnants of the veil clinging to the cap and the base of the stalk. |
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| Chanterelles are abundant during wet summers. |
Photos by Bill Sheehan
2.jpg)
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| Coral Slime-mold |
SUMMARY OF OBSERVED SPECIES
Milk mushroom Lactarius sp.
Milk mushroom Lactifluus sp.
Lemon Cuckoo Bumble Bee Bombus citrinus
Wedge-shaped Beetle Macrosaigon flavipennis
Ambush bug species Phymata fasciata, family Reduviidae
River Oats Chasmanthium latifolium
Yellow Crownbeard Verbesina occidentalis
Stinking Hellebore Helleborus foetidus
Smooth Spiderwort Tradescantia ohiensis
Tumbling Flower Beetle Mordella sp.
American Hop Hornbeam Ostrya virginiana
Wild Petunia Ruellia caroliniensis
Bottlebrush Buckeye Aesculus parviflora
Carolina Desert Chicory Pyrrhopappus carolinianus
Little-leaf Sensitive Briar Mimosa microphylla
Heal-all Prunella vulgaris
Wild Bergamot/Appalachian Beebalm Monarda fistulosa
Eastern Redbud Cercis canadensis
Woodland Coreopsis/Tickseed Coreopsis major
White Boneset Eupatorium album
Mountain-mint Pycnanthemum pycnanthemoides
Nine-banded Armadillo Dasypus novemcinctus
Mockernut Hickory Carya tomentosa
Midge Gall No. 1 Caryomyia persicoides
Midge Gall No. 2 Caryomyia striolacrustum
Blusher mushroom Amanita amerirubescens
Smooth Chanterelle mushroom Cantharellus lateritius
Candy Cap/Maple Syrup Mushroom Lactarius camphoratus
Coral Slime-mold Ceratiomyxa fruticulosa
Red Raspberry Slime-mold Tubifera feruginosa
Dog Vomit Slime-mold Fuligo septica
