The turnout today was astonishing, almost
30 (28) people joined us. Today's report is authored by Hugh Nourse, with
photographs selected from Don Hunter's facebook
album.
The reading was supplied by Hugh and is
from John Burroughs, "The Art of Seeing" as printed in American
Earth: Environmental Writing Since Thoreau, p. 153,
The
book of nature is like a page written over or printed upon with different-sized
characters and in many different languages interlined and cross-lined, and with
a great variety of marginal notes and references. There is coarse print and fine print; there
are obscure signs and hieroglyphics. We
all read the large type more or less appreciatively, but only the students and
lovers of nature read the fine lines and the footnotes. It is a book which he reads best who goes
most slowly or even tarries long by the way.
He who runs may read some things.
We may take in the general features of the sky, plain, and river from at
the express train, but only the pedestrian, the saunterer, with eyes in his
head and love in his heart, turns every leaf and peruses every line. One man sees only the migrating waterfowls
and the larger birds of the air; another sees the passing kinglets and hurrying
warblers as well. For my part, my
delight is to linger long over each page of this marvelous record, and to dwell
fondly upon its most obscure text.
Our ramble today started on the white
trail down thru the Dunson Native Flora Garden, thru the Power Line Right of Way,
and then out the tree trail. We short
cutted the tree trail by taking the red trail cut-off, met up with the white
trail, and returned on the green trail.
Our first stop was to notice that a lot
of the greenery along the trail are actually tree saplings, not
new shrubs we
have to learn. In a five foot square
area there was a sourwood sapling (Oxydendron
arboretum), a strawberry bush in bloom (well it had shed its petals), also
known as "Hearts-a-bustin" (Euonymous
americanus), oak saplings (Quercus
sp.), muscadine grape(Vitis rotundifolia),
hickory saplings (Carya spp.),
virginia creeper (Parthenocissus
quinquifolia), redbud (Cercis
canadensis), chalk maple (Acer leucoderme), American beech (Fagus grandifolia), and more.
 | |
| Hearts-a-Bustin' developing fruits |
Farther down the trail we found the
remains of pale yellow trillium (Trillium
discolor). The black cohosh (Cimicifuga racemosa) from last week had
not
changed much, still budding. Then we
looked up at the
champion (for Clarke County) mockernut hickory tree (Carya
tomentosa). The deciduous wild ginger(Asarum canadense) was in a huge patch, and in amongst, Ronnie
and Tim saw the remains of the perfoliate bellwort (Uvularia perfoliata).
Horse-balm (Collinsonia canadensis)
was up, but its bloom will come much later.
On the way out of the Dunson Native Flora Garden, we wondered what the
big white flower was on top of the shooting stars (Primula meadia). They were
little netted bags to catch the seeds, so the research group at the Garden
could propagate these plants. The best
was left for last, well maybe; it was a blooming Indian Pink (Spigelia marilandica).
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| Wild Ginger |
 | |
| Indian Pink |
Going up the hill from the road on the
way to the power line right of way we talked about the flower garden moving
from this area over to the more formal gardens near the Visitor
Center--the
rose garden, the butterfly garden, the day-lily garden, and the dahlia garden.
Things left behind included Virginia spiderwort (Tradescantia virginiana), Lenten Rose (Helleborus orientalis), something that resembled a thimble weed (an
anemone?) and bottlebrush buckeye (Aesculus
parviflora). We are looking forward
to when they start planting the prairie plant beds in this area. Crossing the power line right of way, we
stopped to think about the plants fading in the meadow: field madder (Sherardia arvensis), Venus
looking glass (Triodanis perfoliate),
hop clover (Trifolium campestre), and Small's ragwort (Packera anonyma). The mullein (Verbascum
thapsus) was just a rosette, but will shoot up later.
 | |
| Ragwort and Mullein |
Entering the woods, redbud saplings (Cercis canadensis) lined the path. Our first big stop here was to observe the
difference in bark between the mockernut hickory and the pignut hickory (Carya glabra). Actually, foresters think of the forest in
the natural areas of the Garden as a swarm of hybrid hickories (Carya glabra x C. ovalis). Along the path are lots of hop
hornbeam trees (Ostrya virginiana) with their bark that
looks like a cat scratched it. During
this last section a spittle bug was found.
Dale said that the spittle probably had sugar from the plant sap in it, so that it might taste sweet. He tried it, but it didn't,
and he also had to spit out the spittlebug nymph.
The spittle is protective covering to keep predator wasps from getting
to these insects. Going up the white trail, Ronnie found an american toad. Dale became magician palming the toad and
appearing to eat it. We thought we had
found a turkey tail mushroom on a downed log, but Dale said it was a false
turkey tale after looking at the back side for pores. We also talked about the
difference between the white and red oaks (Quercus
alba and Quercus rubra). Leaves
of the white oak do not have bristles on the tips, but red oaks do. A Carolina wren serenaded us along this
stretch of the white trail. The dead
black cherry (Prunus serotina) gave
us a chance to talk about the way the bark changes with age on black cherries
from smooth bark with lenticels to burnt mashed potato chips. Also black cherries are more common in the
successional forest with more pine trees than in the later hardwood
forest. Before going through the gate we
admired the fresh shiny green leaves of sweet gum (Liquidambar styraciflua). I
love the latin name Liquidambar, which describes the leaves in fall.
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| Spittlebug inside spittle |
Walking down the slope we stopped at a
scarlet oak (Quercus coccinea) to note
that it has the
same ski slopes on the bark as the northern red oak (Q. rubrum), and we looked around the
ground for leaves to show how the scarlet oak leaves are much more incised than
the northern red oak. The scarlet oaks tend to grow on the drier ridges than in
the ravines or lower slopes as the american beech (Fagus grandifolia) does.
Looking down on the ground Avis found a partridge berry (Mitchella
repens). Usually, they make a nice ground cover, but
there were only a few, and only one in bloom. However, this gave us a chance to
talk about the two forms of the flowers.
Some have dominant anthers (four) with a hidden forked pistil; others
have a dominant forked pistil and hidden anthers. The purpose here is to keep pollinators from
pollinating the same plant with its own pollen.
Had to stop for the common script lichen (Graphis scripta). No one
seemed to be able to translate the Egyptian hieroglyphics. With a wonderful slope of beeches and a ridge
with sourwoods, the ramble here was gorgeous.
Did stop for a black gum (Nyssa
sylvatica), and talked about the way the sourwood twists and turns in the
woods to reach the light. Tim told us
that many places in the mountains are named Bee Gum Gap, or have bee gum as a
name. The reason is that the trunk is
hollow and made a good place to
raise bees.
At the short-leaf pine (Pinus echinata), we stopped to look at the
resinous pits in the bark that distinguish it from the loblolly pine (Pinus
taeda). Looking on the ground we found
small cones which you can squeeze in your hand without getting stuck with
prickles. The loblolly pine cones are bigger and have prickles that you would
not want to squeeze. Also the loblolly's
longer needles are in bundles of 3, whereas the short-leaf needles are shorter
and are in bundles of 2 or 3 on the same tree.
Avis noticed a nice patch of mosses, probably some of it was Bryoandersonii with whitish tips, the
rest was a type of star moss. With the
mosses was another of many galls (Oak Apples) that we found today. The insects in all of them had departed.
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| Scarlet Oak |
 | |
| Partridge berry |
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| Shortleaf Pine pitch pockets |
We turned on the red trail spur to the
giant sourwood, noticing a number of black gums along the way. But right at the beginning of the red trail
Ed showed us an autumn olive plant (Eleagnus umbellata). The leaves are silvery
on the back side. The plant is very
invasive. So much so, that the Garden
has established a group of rangers, including Ed and Gary, that roam the
trails, cut off these plants and paint the stems with roundup, trying to
eliminate this pest. After oohing and
aahing over the size of the sourwood we
found a young black gum with the typical perpendicular limbs of this species.
Next was a tuliptree. I was taught not to call it a yellow-poplar, but I notice
that Duncan in his tree book gives yellow-poplar as the first common name. Dale thought that it was called poplar
because the soft wood could be worked in the same way as poplar trees.
 | |
| Hickory Leaf Galls |
Getting to the intersection of the spur
with the white trail again. we counted the rings in a fallen northern red oak
tree that had
been sawed through exposing its rings. It was at least 75 or 80 years old. More excitement, however, was generated by
Emily's find of hickory galls and fallen leaves partly rolled up with
caterpillars enclosed. With some
difficulty Dale opened the gall to reveal quite a lot of aphids inside. Some of the galls showed holes on the
underside where the aphids escaped. It
seemed okay to unroll the caterpillars because the leaves had fallen from the
trees.
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| Aphids inside gall |
A dead oak tree had lots of sawdust
around the base. Someone wondered it
that was termites, but Dale said that would not happen with termites because
they digest the wood and use what is left over in their tunnels, so it would
have to be wood-boring beetles or carpenter ants, etc.
Turning on to the green trail we found a
muscadine grape actually budding. There
was only one cluster of buds. Avis
remarked that she didn't think they would bloom or produce grapes so low on the
ground. They need to be higher in a
tree, or with more light. We will come
back to this.
Through the gate of the deer fence we
stopped to discuss the southern red oak (Quercus falcata). The leaves are bell shaped toward the base
and often crescent shaped with a terminal lobe that is strap shaped. Nearby were more black gum trees.
Proceeding down the green trail we came
to an opening in the canopy with a great deal of light. Amazingly there was a muscadine vine crawling
over the top of a sapling hop hornbeam.
Sure enough as Avis predicted there were many clusters of buds on the
vine. This one might actually produce
grapes!
Next was the shaggy bark of the shagbark
hickory (Carya ovata). Toward the end of
the green trail a beech had brownish leaves that Dale thought might be some
kind of fungus.
As we passed through the power line right
of way, the birders spotted a Mississippi Kite and a
hawk. The hawk was probably the immature red
shouldered hawk that hangs around that area.
Carol and I have often seen it there.
We stopped at a tree by the old flower garden to observe an oyster
mushroom. Gary confirmed that that was
what it was, but it was too high to get to.
I am sure he was thinking about how he might get it, but the tree is
covered with poison ivy. Then best of
all, as we stood there, not moving as usual, a black rat snake was observed
climbing down the tree. Dale tried to
catch it, but failed this time.
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| Black rat snake descending tree |
We returned to the Arbor and retired to
Donderos' for refreshment, thinking what a great ramble we had today.
Hugh
SUMMARY OF OBSERVED SPECIES:
|
Common Name
|
Scientific Name
|
|
|
Sourwood
|
Oxydendron arboreum
|
|
|
Muscadine
|
Vitis rotundifolia
|
|
|
Sweet gum
|
Liquidambar styraciflua
|
|
|
Redbud
|
Cercis canadensis
|
|
|
Chalk maple
|
Acer leucoderme
|
|
|
Hearts-A-Bustin'
|
Euonymus americanus
|
|
|
American beech
|
Fagus grandifolia
|
|
|
Pignut hickory
|
Carya glabra
|
|
|
American holly
|
Ilex opaca
|
|
|
Virginia creeper
|
Parthenocissus quinquefolia
|
|
|
White oak
|
Quercus alba
|
|
|
Faded Trillium or Small Yellow Toadshade
|
Trillium discolor
|
|
|
Black cohosh
|
Actaea racemosa
|
|
|
Mockernut hickory
|
Carya tomentosa
|
|
|
Deciduous Wild Ginger
|
Asarum canadense
|
|
|
Perfoliate Bellwort
|
Uvularia perfoliata
|
|
|
Indian Pink
|
Spigelia marilandica
|
|
|
Foxglove
|
Digitalis sp.
|
|
|
Thimble Weed
|
Anemone virginiana.
|
|
|
Spittlebug
|
Cercopidae Family
|
|
|
Bottle brush buckeye
|
Aesculus parviflora
|
|
|
Spiderwort
|
Tradescantia sp.
|
|
|
Smalls Ragwort
|
Packera anonyma
|
|
|
Venus’ Looking Glass
|
Triodanis perfoliata
|
|
|
Thistle
|
Carduus nutans
|
|
|
Common mullein
|
Verbascum thapsus
|
|
|
Field madder
|
Sherardia arvensis
|
|
|
Low hop clover
|
Trifolium campestre
|
|
|
Greenbrier
|
Smilax rotundifolia
|
|
|
Rattlesnake fern
|
Botrypus virginianus
|
|
|
Red Maple
|
Acer rubrum
|
|
|
Wild Yam
|
Dioscorea villosa
|
|
|
White Oak
|
Quercus alba
|
|
|
False Turkey Tail mushroom
|
Stereum ostrea
|
|
|
Black Cherry
|
Prunus serotina
|
|
|
Scarlet Oak
|
Quercus coccinea
|
|
|
Partidge Berry
|
Mitchella repens
|
|
|
Pencilmark lichen
|
Graphis scripta
|
|
|
Blueberry
|
Vaccinium sp.
|
|
|
Maple Leaf Virburnum
|
Viburnum acerifolium
|
|
|
Black Gum
|
Nyssa sylvatica
|
|
|
Short Leaf Pine
|
Pinus echinata
|
|
|
Autumn Olive
|
Elaeagnus umbellata
|
|
|
Tulip tree/Yellow Poplar
|
Liriodendron tulipifera
|
|
|
Southern Red Oak
|
Quercus falcate
|
|
|
Hop Hornbeam
|
Ostrya virginiana
|
|
|
Black rat snake
|
Elaphe obsoleta obsoleta
|
|
