Ramble Report April 18, 2024

 Leader for today's Ramble: Catherine

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

Insect identifications: Don Hunter

Gall identifications: Bill

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. Not all of Don's photos from today’s ramble made it into the ramble report, so be sure to check out his Facebook album at this link.

Number of Ramblers today: 23

Today's emphasis: Using watercolors to capture shapes and surface details of leaves and flowers.

Fringe Tree, aka Grancy Graybeard, is in full flower in the Children’s Garden

Each flower is divided into four, thread-like segments. The oval, blue-black fruits that appear on female plants in late summer and fall betray this species’ membership in the Olive Family. In the wild, it occurs in habitats as diverse as rock outcrops, pine-hardwood forests, and shrub bogs.

Reading: Cathy read a poem by MK Creel, “Give yourself permission, let go of worry.”

It could be the rain
that gives permission

to let go of worry, forgive
the body, its pain, shift

awareness outside
this cracking vessel.

Maybe it’s the rum cherry,
its pendulous fortress

of branches, scaling bark
& wands of white flowers,

the shock of lemon-yellow
goldfinches, suck of mud

beneath your bare feet,
stepping with purpose

to keep from bruising
wild violets & tiger moths.

If skin was toxic bark
& the heart, pith & xylem

would we be any stronger?
If brain synapses were as

fibrous as mycorrhizae
tunneling through dark earth,

if we lived above & below,
flowering & fruiting after

every winter, could we better
accept what comes next?

Show and Tell:

Karen couldn’t join the ramble today but sent in photos of “fuzzy white things” she found on her sidewalk. Photos by Karen Porter.

Bill identified the fuzzy things as shredded Wool Sower galls and took this photo of one of the galls attached to a White Oak twig. Bill suspects that squirrels took the galls apart in search of a larval meal; birds are also known to feed on the inhabitants of Wool Sower galls. These galls are created by tiny (1/8 inch) gall wasps in the family Cynipidae. The female wasp lays her eggs only on White Oak trees early in the spring. The tree responds by forming a fuzzy gall of plant tissue around the eggs. The gall contains hardened, seed-like structures that enclose the eggs and, later, the larvae. After the eggs hatch, the larvae eat the gall material as they mature into adults. Bill says, “Each spherical wooly cluster contains 15 or 20 little seed-like capsules, inside of which a juicy wasp larva develops. So, somebody had a good meal….” More information on Wool Sower galls is here. Photo by Bill Sheehan.

Roger provided an update on his investigation into diabase (bluestone) dikes in the Athens area (learn about his ongoing geology research here). While at a job site in Madison County last week, he discovered that the owner had a huge collection of bluestone boulders including one that was more than five feet tall, in the photo above. Diabase is a mafic rock, high in magnesium, calcium, and iron. It often weathers to form a soil with a circumneutral pH that supports plant species rarely seen in the Piedmont’s typically acidic soils.

Announcements and other interesting things to note:
The Athens/East Piedmont chapter of the Georgia Native Plant Society will be holding its annual native plant sale on May 4, 10am – 2pm, at the Sunrise Nursery, 550 Athens Road, in Winterville. More than 160 native species will be for sale, including 100+ herbaceous perennials, six grass species, ten fern species, 26 shrub species, six vine species, and eight tree species. Many of these were grown or rescued by GNPS members. More than 1300 plants will be available–bring a wagon!

Sandy Creek Nature Center’s next work day is Saturday, May 4, 10am - noon (you can go to the plant sale afterwards!). Volunteers will help with removing invasive plant species and maintaining the Nature Playscape.  Participants should bring water and wear comfortable, weather appropriate clothes and closed toe shoes.  All tools, including gloves, will be provided. Sign up here.

You already knew this! A Little Bit of Dirt Is Good for You!

Earth Day was April 22. Test your knowledge of the ways our choices and actions impact the earth.

Today's Route: We remained in and around the Children’s Garden arbor as we gathered leaves and settled in to paint.

OBSERVATIONS:

Between taking shots of ramblers’ artwork, Don looked for pollinators in the Children’s Garden.

An Eastern Carpenter Bee searching for nectar in a mustard flower (above). Mustard family flowers (below) are often yellow, but may be pink, white, purple, or orange.
 

Members of the Mustard family (Brassicaceae) have similar flowers, each divided into four petals that form a cross – plants in this family are often called crucifers, meaning cross-bearing. Hugely important economically, the Mustard family includes not only mustard, but also turnip, broccoli, collards, cabbage, brussels sprouts, rapeseed, radish, horseradish, kale, cauliflower, and more. Most of the plants in this family have strong smelling sulfur compounds in their leaves, well known to anyone who has ever over-cooked a batch of collards.

A Honeybee explores a flower of ‘Extrakta’ Garden Sage, a cultivar of Common Sage, a European native long used for medicine and cooking. The species name, Salvia offinalis, refers to the storeroom, the officina, in monasteries where herbs and medicines were stored.

Catherine and helpful ramblers prepping our outdoor studio.

Today was an Art Ramble led by Catherine, who introduced us last year to printing and weaving. Catherine said about today’s art, “Our activity was essentially printing leaves with watercolor paint. We used simple watercolor palettes and painted our leaves, then pressed them onto copy paper or watercolor paper. The idea was to play with the paint and see what could happen. Pretty soon, everyone got creative by layering prints, adding painted details, or just painting nature on their own. I loved seeing everyone's creativity and unique approach to produce such lovely results. My resource for printing activities is a wonderful book, Hand Printing from Nature by Laura Bethmann, which is available at the Athens library. Tips for good results: pat leaves dry before painting, some leaves take paint better than others, use a sheet for practice prints, keep one water container for washing brushes and another for clean water. Play around with your materials and keep trying!

Catherine brought with her several beautifully illustrated children’s books from the Athens public library to inspire our artistic efforts this morning.

Myrna and Betsy sharing a watercolor palette

Tom and Carol painting

Dortha sharing her technique with Susie

Jennie’s work in progress

Halley painting

Gary’s painting

Susie and Linda hard at work

The results of our efforts were colorful, varied, and beautiful.

SUMMARY OF OBSERVED SPECIES:

Fringe Tree (Grancy Graybeard)    Chionanthus virginicus
Wool Sower Gall           Callirhytis seminator
White Oak           Quercus alba
Mustard               family Brassicaceae
Eastern Carpenter Bee          Xylocopa virginica
Extrakta Sage     cultivar of Salvia officinalis
Western Honey Bee     Apis mellifera
Carolina Anole              Anolis carolinensis

No Nature Ramble is complete without a Carolina Anole; this one was seen ambling along the paved path through the Children’s Garden.