Ramble Report September 21, 2023

Leader for today's Ramble: Linda

Authors of today’s Ramble report: Linda and Don. Comments, edits, and suggestions for the report can be sent to Linda at Lchafin (at) uga.edu.

Insect identifications and natural history: Don Hunter, Heather Larkin
Fungi and lichen identification: Don Hunter

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: 26

Today's emphasis: Fruits, flowers, and insects in the Middle Oconee River floodplain.

The Middle Oconee River on a beautiful Fall day

Announcements/Interesting Things to Note:

On October 6, Roger Collins will present “Before there Was the Garden,” the fascinating landscape history of the last 12,000 years of what we know as the State Botanical Garden to the Friends First Friday breakfast. The registration deadline is Noon on Friday, September 29. $10 for Friends members, $12 for non-members – registration fee includes breakfast. Link to registration.

The Oconee River Land Trust will be celebrating their 30^th Anniversary on Sunday, October 8th, 3:00-6 p.m., at Smith Wilson’s house on eastern Clarke County. The event will be catered by Lee Epting, with music, adult beverages, hikes, and mule-drawn wagon rides. More information is at the land trust's web site.

Here is a nice essay In praise of late summer wildflowers. The author of this essay, Margaret Renkl, will give a reading at the Athens Clarke County Library on Monday, October 16, from her new book The Comfort of Crows.

Today's Route: We headed downslope along the White Trail extension to the floodplain, walked toward the river on the ADA trail, and turned right (upriver) on the White Trail. We followed the White Trail along the river to its junction with the Blue Trail. We followed the Blue Trail to the Mimsie Lanier Center and returned along the service road to the paved entrance road.

OBSERVATIONS:

The Hinoki False Cypress next to the arbor has been draped with the vines of Purple Passionflower all summer. Now, the vines are nearly defoliated, the leaves having been consumed by the caterpillars of Gulf Fritillary. Even some of the fruits have been nibbled. The overall effect is of a rather bedraggled Christmas tree.

Last of the Gulf Fritillary caterpillars on the Purple Passionflower vine (left) and an empty Gulf Fritillary chrysalis (right).

The floodplain continues its annual explosion of late summer color and diversity. Many species in the Composite/Aster family – Wingstems, Rough Sunflower, Tall Ironweed, Camphorweed, Tall Goldenrod, bonesets – are in flower and fruit as well as various smartweeds, and morning-glories. This year, Wingstems and Crownbeards – both plants are in the genus Verbesina – dominate the view; both support a variety of insects. 

Variegated Fritillary caterpillar near the top of a Southern Crownbeard plant. Photo by Heather Larkin.

Common Wingstem with Fall Webworm Moth caterpillar.

Daddy Longlegs perched in one of the Southern Crownbeard inflorescences

Southern Crownbeard leaves nearly covered with Silvery Checkerspot caterpillars.

Tucked away in the sea of wingstems, Maryland Wild Senna has flowered and fruited in several places in the floodplain. Senna species are the host plants for the caterpillars of several species of sulphur butterflies.

Late instar of a Marmorated Stink Bug on a Maryland Wild Senna leaflet

Late-flowering Boneset, aka Late-flowering Thouroughwort, is one of the many fall-flowering Composite/Aster family species that lacks ray flowers; the disk flowers are so numerous and their style branches so conspicuous that these species attract a wide range of insect pollinators even without showy ray flowers.

Avis provided some insight into the origin of the name “boneset,” originally applied to Common Boneset, Eupatorium perfoliatum, another white-flowered species in this genus. Its leaves were brewed as a tea used to treat the mosquito-borne viral infection “breakbone fever” (now call dengue fever) that causes severe bone and joint pain. The leaves of Common Boneset appear to be “run through” by the stem – hence the other common name for this group of species:  thoroughwort, meaning “through leaf.” (As in “thoroughfare.")

Leaf of Common Boneset – the bases of two opposing leaves are fused so they appear to be one leaf perforated by a stem.
Photo by Arthur Haines, GoBotany

Camphorweed is another Composite/Aster family species with showy disk flowers and no rays. It is beautiful in flower, almost as beautiful as it is malodorous. Its stems, leaves, and flower heads are covered with microscopic glands oozing chemicals that smell a whole lot like a catbox.

Small White Morning-glory flowers come in two colors: white and lavender-pink. A key identification feature is the purple color of the stamens.

The leaves of Small White Morning-glory are even more variable than the flowers, appearing in several variations ranging from three-lobed to heart-shaped to arrowhead-shaped.
Photo by Dan Tenaglia

Members of the Smartweed or Buckwheat family, Polygonaceae, are almost as numerous as Composite family species in the floodplain. Most of the species in this family in our region have “ocrea” at the point where a leaf attaches to a stem. An ocrea looks like a tiny sleeve that wraps around the stem and the base of the leaf stalk. It may be white, green, brown, or colorless; tiny and nearly indiscernible or much longer; hairy, bristly, or smooth. Whatever the details, its presence is a reliable indicator of the family.

Arrow-leaved Tearthumb, a common wetland plant, has arrowhead-shaped leaves and small white or pink flowers held in clusters. Most notable are the stiff, down-pointing barbs that line the stems and leaves (below).

Arrow-leaved Tearthumb ocrea, outlined in blue
Photo by Paul Rothrock, Consortium of Midwest Herbaria

Climbing Buckwheat vines sprawl across other plants near the riverbank. Their eye-catching fruits (above), each with three frilly white wings, outshine the inconspicuous green and white flowers.

Climbing Buckwheat flowers
Photo by Dan Tenaglia

Climbing Buckwheat ocrea outlined in blue
Photo by Dan Tenaglia

Cinnamon Vine, an invasive species in the Yam family, is invading the River Cane patch by the river. It flowers and produces seeds but spreads mainly by dropping these aerial bulbils, each of which can sprout several stems.

Cinnamon Vine leaves
Photo by James Miller

Also twining among the River Cane, Sand Bean is a native member of the Bean family, with typical pea-shaped flowers and legume fruits.

After rounding the corner at the river and crossing the footbridge, we began to walk upstream and encountered large patches of Stinging Wood Nettle along the trail.

Stinging Wood Nettle in flower

Close-up of stinging hairs on a Wood Nettle stem

Stinging Wood Nettle, native to eastern and central North America, grows throughout the floodplain at the Garden. It has separate female and male flowers, with the male flowers in small clusters in the leaf axils and female flowers in large clusters at the top of the stem. The individual flowers are small and green, not at all showy. Stinging Wood Nettle gets its name from the stinging hairs found all along the stems and leaves and even in the flower clusters (I have seen hairless plants at the Garden, but they are uncommon). The hairs are brittle and hollow, and break off when touched, releasing a witch’s brew of irritating compounds – formic acid, histamines, and serotonin – that wise mammals learn to avoid. We don't love the stinging hairs and their painful effects, but we do love the beautiful Red Admiral butterfly that uses this and other nettle family species as a larval host. We didn't see Red Admirals today, but here are some good photos from the internet.

Red Admiral butterfly and caterpillar
(left photo by Iain Leach, right photo by Ken Dolbear)

Red Admiral caterpillars are unharmed by the stinging hairs that provide the plant with protection from other herbivores. Stinging Wood Nettle usually grows in high pH soils – the abundance of this species along the trail here supports Dan Williams’ finding of amphibolite bedrock in this area of the Garden. Also common in the Middle Oconee River floodplain is False Nettle, a nettle without stinging hairs that also supports Red Admirals. (Note: true nettles are not related to Purple Deadnettle, the spring-flowering weed in the mint family.)

The native Virgin’s Bower has beautiful spiraling heads made up of many individual fruits with long curving tips covered with hairs. The hairs dry, spread, and catch the wind, carrying the seed some distance from the parent plant. The flowers and seed heads resemble those of the non-native invasive Sweet Autumn Clematis, but the leaflets are different. Virgin’s Bower leaflets are toothed; Sweet Autumn Clematis leaflets are not.

Surprise! A Green Heron posed for several minutes on a log near the river bank. This is typical hunting behavior for this species – they don’t wade as much as other herons nor do they scare as easily. Its neck is tucked in while scouting for fish, but extends many inches when it strikes. Green Herons have actually been observed fishing with bait. The patience and persistence of this tool-using bird is pretty amazing.

Slender Orange-Bush Lichen is rare in Georgia, and found mostly in the Coastal Plain.

Pretty Ruffle lichen shared the twig with Orange Bush lichen

Ceramic Crust Fungus on a downed tree next to the trail

Appalachian Mock-orange

Sometimes called English Dogwood, this shrub does not resemble orange trees or dogwoods, and it definitely isn’t English. Native to eastern and midwestern North America, it has brittle, red, peeling stems rising in a clump and opposite, toothed leaves. Beautiful flowers with five white petals and golden yellow stamens appear in late spring. The flowers have no fragrance, hence the species name: inodorus. The similar European Mock-orange often shows up near old homesites; it has fragrant flowers.

Hearts-a-Burstin’ (aka Strawberry Bush) in fruit

 

Chinese Privet removal in the Middle Oconee River floodplain is a long-term work-in-progress, first begun about 20 years ago with Jim Hanula’s experimental removal plots. Staff at the Mimsie Lanier Center have followed that effort with gyrotrack mulching and herbicide applications over the years. The transformation of the floodplain has been astonishing, with insect and plant species diversity greatly increasing. The most recent effort took place in January along this stretch of the White Trail when Gary Crider led a privet removal project by employees from the new-to-Athens REI store. Forty-two REI folks showed up on a Sunday morning, along with a half-dozen Garden staff. Using the cut-and-paint method, they cleared two acres of large privet (2-6 inches in diameter). By summer, the privet monoculture was transformed into a diverse, pollinator-friendly landscape.

Dried bracts of a Musclewood flower and fruit cluster

At last we reached the Green Dragon fruits that Linda had promised. The leaf and stem of the plant have withered, leaving the fruit cluster on the ground for animals to eat and, hopefully, disperse the seeds.

Green Dragon is a sister species of Jack-in-the-Pulpit – both are in the genus Arisaema. While JIP typically has one leaf with 3 leaflets (sometimes 5) held more or less upright, Green Dragon has one leaf with 7-13 leaflets held horizontally in a semi-circle.

Green Dragon leaf with many leaflets held in a semi-circle
Photo by Janie K. Marlow

Both Green Dragon and JIP arise from an underground storage organ called a corm (sort of like a solid bulb). Like JIP, Green Dragon plants change sex from year to year based on the amount of energy (carbohydrate) stored in the corm. Female plants produce fruit, an energy-expensive undertaking; male plants produce pollen, a less demanding process. Good soil nutrient levels lead to larger plants – with more leaflets to conduct photosynthesis – and with more carbohydrates stored in the corm to support fruit production. A plant that has exhausted its resources one year in fruit production may return the next year as a small male plant or one with a mix of female and male flowers. Only the largest plants are exclusively female. In plants with both female and male flowers, the two flower types are spatially separated, with male flowers at the top of the flowering stalk, female below. The male portion withers after pollen is released so it’s impossible to tell from a mature fruit cluster if it came from a female-only plant or a mixed-gender plant. The size of this fruit cluster suggests it may have been a female plant.

Woodland edge at the Mimsie Lanier Center for Native Plants

Just past the Green Dragon, we turned east on the Blue Trail, heading for the Mimsie Lanier Center for Native Plants. As always in the fall, the Center's grounds were bursting with Composite/Aster family plants in full flower.

Appalachian Sunflowers are six-feet tall with large flower heads and densely hairy stems (below).

Stone Mountain Daisies

Red-spotted Purple puddling in the drive to the Center
The spots are actually orange and the purple is really blue but who's quibbling?

Heather noticed a red-shouldered Eastern Leaf-footed Bug nymph on the white fruits of American Beautyberry cultivar growing along the drive.

SUMMARY OF OBSERVED SPECIES:

Purple Passionflower     Passiflora incarnata
Hinoki Falsecyress     Chamaecyparis obtusa
Gulf Fritillary (caterpillar and vacated chrysalis)    Agraulis vanillae
Immigrant Fruit Fly    Drosophila immigrans
Maryland Senna     Senna marilandica
Yellow Crownbeard     Verbesina occidentalis
Common Wingstem     Verbesina alternifolia
White Crownbeard     Verbesina virginica
Wild Grape     Muscadinia rotundifolia
Variegated Fritillary (chrysalis)     Euptoieta claudia
Brown Marmorated Stink Bug (nymph)     Halyomorpha halys
Camphorweed     Pluchea camphorata
Tall Ironweed     Vernonia gigantea
Late-flowering Boneset     Eupatorium serotinum
White Morning Glory     Ipomoea lacunosa
Littlebell Morning Glory     Ipomoea triloba
Arrow-leaved Tearthumb     Persicaria sagittata
Dotted Smartweed     Persicaria punctata
Climbing False Buckwheat     Fallopia scandens
River Cane     Arundinaria gigantea
Trailing Fuzzy-bean/Sand Bean     Strophostyles helvola
 (Stinging) Wood Nettle     Laportea canadensis
Fall Webworm Moth (caterpillar)     Hyphantria cunea
Virgin’s Bower Clematis     Clematis virginiana
Green Heron     Butorides virescens
Slender Orange-bush Lichen    Teloschistes exilis
Pretty Ruffle Lichen    Parmotrema austrosinense
Southern Tussock Moth, tent. (caterpillar)     Dasychira meridionalis
Ceramic Parchment Crust Fungus     Xylobolus frustulatus
Common Moonseed     Menispermum canadense
Mock Orange     Philadelphus coronarius
River Birch     Betula nigra
Perilla Mint/Beefsteak Plant     Perilla frutescens
Daddy Longlegs     Order Opiliones
Hearts-a-Burstin’/Strawberry Bush     Euonymus americanus
Green Ash     Fraxinus pennsylvanica
American Burnweed     Erechtites hieraciifolius
Silvery Checkerspot (caterpillar)     Chlosyne nycteis
Yellow Passionflower     Passiflora lutea
Green Dragon     Arisaema dracontium
False Boneset     Brickellia eupatoriodes
Appalachian Sunflower     Helianthus atrorubens
Stone Mountain Daisy     Helianthus porteri
Dwarf Sumac     Rhus michauxii
Georgia Aster     Symphyotrichum georgianum
Geometer moth (caterpillar)     Family Geometridae
Eastern Leaf-footed Bug (nymph, late instar)     Leptoglossus phyllopus
American Beautyberry, white-fruited cultivar     Callicarpa americana
Red-spotted Purple butterfly     Limenitis arthemis