Ramble Report March 21 2019

Today's Ramble was led by Dale Hoyt.

Here's the link to Don's Facebook album for today's Ramble. (All the photos in this post are compliments of Don, unless otherwise credited.)

Today's post was written by Dale Hoyt with assistance from Don and Linda.

Today’s Focus:

19 Ramblers met today.

Show and Tell: Linda brought a handful of Red Maple samaras to show the group, pointing out where most were gnawed off of the limb tips by squirrels. Linda is a good Samaritan.

Clusters of Red Maple fruits (samaras).

This type of fruit is called a samara. When it falls from the tree it spins, slowing its descent to the ground. In still air its flight will deviate only a foot or two from a direct fall. But, in a heavy wind, fruits, especially those falling from the upper branches, can be carried more than one hundred feet away. March, when the fruits mature, is noted for its brisk breezes.

Announcements:

1.     Katherine offered up several plants from her native plant garden, including Blue Mist Flower and Showy Goldenrod, among others.

2.     Terry announced that Joe Cook has written a new river guide book on the Oconee River; he will be appearing at Barnes and Noble Thursday April 11^th, 7:00 p.m.

3.     Terry also announced that on Thursday, April 18^th, at 7:00 p.m., Jess Riddles, Exec. Director of the Georgia Forest Watch, will be at Barnes and Noble to sign his new book, Georgia Mountain Treasures.

4.       Gary mentioned that Jess Riddle will also be the speaker at the May 2^nd Audubon Society meeting; he will talk about old growth forests.

Today's reading: Dale read a poem by Robert Wyatt, UGA Professor Emeritus and Director Emeritus of the Highlands Biological Station. (Dr. Wyatt was once a guest leader on an early Nature Ramble.

Sylvan Kaleidoscope

I stand in awe viewing countless Trilliums

flowering profusely, carpeting a hillside

beneath a canopy of towering trees

seeming to extend to heaven.

The scene transcends any canvas

painted by van Gogh or Seurat,

with clumps of many-colored flowers

sublimely arrayed across the forest floor.

Creation of this masterpiece took centuries

and required millions of miniature artists:

ants smaller than a paintbrush,

with no fixed design in mind,

simply eating the fleshy, fat-laden

elaiosomes and discarding the seeds,

often near nests regularly relocated

on short, but unpredictable, time frames.

Moreover, their artwork is kaleidoscopic,

with the pattern transforming through time,

enjoyed by other species, like ourselves,

who played no part in its creation,

either its formulation or execution.

Not for human appreciation

nor even for insects collecting pollen and nectar,

these ants are actors in a long-running play

on the woodland stage, oblivious to

any script, not guided by any director.

                                    —Robert Wyatt

Today's Route: We headed out the back of the Visitor Center and made our way across the International and Heritage Gardens to the Orange Trail Spur. We took the spur to the main Orange Trail and went downstream to the river and made the turn up river, taking the Orange Trail Spur up to a short section of White Trail before heading back to the Visitor Center and Cafe Botanica for the post-Ramble social gathering.

LIST OF OBSERVATIONS:

Orange Trail Spur (from Flower Garden to Hugh-patica bridge):

Cranefly orchid leaves. This common orchid, spends the winter as a single leaf, green above and purple below. By early summer the leaf will disappear and then, in late summer, be replaced by a leafless flowering shoot that bears up to several dozen flowers. The flowers are pollinated by nocturnal moths in the family Noctuidae. Here’s a video that shows a Cranefly orchid leaf and several flowering stalks.

Carolina Lily -- early leaves.

Don spied something new for this area of the garden. Several emergent leaves of Carolina Lily were popping out of the leaf litter on the downhill side of the trail. We will try to watch these and, if they survive the deer, see if they bloom. In the same area were several Yellow Three-parted Violets (blooming) and Wild Geranium plants, not yet in flower.

A clonal colony of May Apples

This cluster of uniquely marked May Apples supports the idea that they are all clones.

May Apples are found along the spur trail and are especially abundant on the adjacent slopes along the Orange Trail. At this time of year the flower buds are beginning to form, but you will only find them on plants that have two leaves. The bud develops at the point where the two leaves emerge from a common stem. It takes several years for enough food to be stored in the rhizome to support development of a flower bud. The fruit will develop and ripen around the beginning of summer. The seeds are dispersed by box turtles that eat the fruit and then defecate the undigested seeds elsewhere. All parts of the plant, except the fruit, when it is ripe, are poisonous.

May Apples are found in groups, suggesting that each plant is a clone and that they are all connected underground by a common rhizome. One cluster of plants we saw had mottled leaves, supporting the clonal idea.

Christmas fern fiddlehead

New growth is emerging from Christmas ferns. The new leaves emerge in a coiled pattern called a “fiddlehead” that unrolls, forming the leaf.

Orange Trail (downstream, along stream):

Rue Anemone often grows in groups.

Rue Anemone leaves resemble Early Meadow Rue

.

Rue-Anemone is abundant on the lower, west-facing slopes along the Orange Trail.

Fresh new leaves of Hepatica

Several Round-lobed Hepaticas along the side of the trail were still blooming. Although hepatica is considered a spring ephemeral it retains foliage throughout the year. Our hepaticas bloom in January and February and new foliage appears at that time as well.

(A note for new Ramblers: We refer to the bridge over the creek as the “Hugh-patica” bridge to honor Hugh Nourse, the first leader of the Nature Ramblers. Hugh walked the trails of the garden almost daily and discovered the hepatica that grows at the foot of the bridge. He made a point of visiting it throughout the winter to determine when it first flowered. Hugh and Carol moved from Athens in 2016.)

Lion's Foot

Newly emergent leaves of Lion's Foot can be seen coming up here and there along the Orange Trail. The shape of the leaves is highly variable. The plant flowers later in the summer.

Solomon's Seal will flower soon

Young stems of Solomon's Seal are newly emerging from the leaf litter.

Coral Honeysuckle young growth

Walter's Violet

Common Blue Violet

Yellowroot

Coral Honeysuckle, Walter's Violet, Common Blue Violet, and Yellowroot were seen near the edge of the trail.

Pained Buckeye inflorescence

Just before we turned upstream on the riverside Orange Trail, we saw a Painted Buckeye that had just started blooming

Hophornbeam with sap wells made by Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. Older holes are surrounded by dark colored bark; more recent holes are surrounded by light colored bark.

Hop Hornbeam that was riddled with both older and fresh sapsucker holes. The Yellow-bellied Sapsucker is a winter visitor. It makes these holes, called sap wells, to attract insects. When the tree blocks the holes a new set of holes will be excavated. This tree was literally covered with sap wells, new and old, from the ground up.

Orange Trail (upstream, along river):

Sand deposits on the Orange Trail

The most noticeable change to the Orange Trail is the sand deposits on the levee. All this sand results from the recent flooding of the Middle Oconee river. When the river is flooding it carries more and larger, heavier particulate matter. As the water level rises it eventually overtops the levee and the water spreads out. As it spreads its velocity decreases and the heavier particles fall out of suspension. This is the origin of the sand on the levee portion of the trail. As flood water spreads beyond the levee it slows even more and the lighter particle, like clay, are deposited. This enriches the soil in the flood plain.

Silverbells a'blooming

Several Silverbells are blooming in the floodplain between the trail and the hillside.

Catkins (staminate flowers) on an Ironwood tree

Pistilate (female) flowers are on the opposite side of the twig from the staminate (male) catkins

Linda pointed out the catkins, male flower clusters, hanging from an Ironwood tree.

Butterweed in bloom

Soon the dense patches of Butterweed will explode with blossoms

We soon noticed many Butterweed plants along the trail and out in the floodplain; a few have begun to bloom.

Ruby Crowned Kinglet foraging for insects

A female Ruby Crowned Kinglet was darting around in one of the shrubs between the trail and the river.

A cluster of insect eggs

Richard brushed against a twig and noticed it had some orange eggs of most likely some kind of insect.

Pennsylvania Bittercress

An abundance of small, slender plants with tiny, white flowers border the Orange Trail along the river. These are likely Pennsylvania Bittercress, a close relative of the more common European species, Hairy Bittercress.

Indian Strawberry; the fruit is tasteless

We also saw several round, yellow buds of Indian or Mock Strawberry, a native of Asia (the name “Indian” refers to India, not Native Americans). Its fruits are bright red, like edible Wild Strawberries, but are pithy and unpalatable.

Kidney-leaf Buttercup

We noticed several examples of Kidney-leaf Buttercup, a weedy native, before turning right onto the Orange Trail Spur to connect with the White Trail.

Orange Trail Spur (from river up to White Trail spur):

Don’s “Three Amigos,” Purple Dead Nettle, Ground Ivy, and Henbit, are all in flower (or just past) now. These European species thrive in sunny, disturbed areas but don’t seem to pose much of a threat to native habitats.

Chattahoochee Trillium

Several plants of Chattahoochee Trillium are blooming along the hillside above the Orange Trail Spur. Doubtless spread here from the Dunson Garden, this species of trillium is found naturally only in the Coastal Plain of SW Georgia, SE Alabama, and adjacent north Florida.

Decumbent Trillium

Decumbent Trillium is also on this hillside, another escapee from Dunson. It’s likely these were brought to this slope in the feces of deer, who are known to eat trillium fruits. (See last week’s Ramble Report for a discussion of trillium seeds passing through the deer digestive tract.)

Plaza:

Coral Honeysuckle

On the wall, near the steps to the Plaza, the Coral Honeysuckle is in bud.

SUMMARY OF OBSERVED SPECIES:

Cranefly Orchid	Tipularia discolor
Carolina Lily	Lillium michauxii
Yellow Three-parted Violet	Viola tripartita
Geranium	Geranium sp.
Mayapple	Podophyllum peltatum
Christmas Fern	Polystichum acrostichoides
Round-lobed Hepatica	Anemone americana syn. Hepatica nobilis var. obtusa
Lion's Foot	Prenanthes sp.
Solomon's Seal	Polygonatum biflorum
Coral Honeysuckle	Lonicera sempervirens
Walter's Violet	Viola walteri
Common Blue Violet	Viola sororia
Yellowroot	Xanthorhiza simplicissima
Painted Buckeye	Aesculus sylvatica
Ironwood	Carpinus caroliniana
Silverbells	Halesia tetraptera
Butterweed	Packera glabella
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	Regulus calendula
Pennsylvania Bittercress	Cardamine pennsylvanica
Mock or Indian Strawberry	Duchesnea indica
Kidneyleaf Buttercup	Ranunculus abortivus
Purple Dead Nettle	Lamium purpureum
Ground Ivy	Glechoma hederacea
Henbit	Lamium amplexicaule
Chattahoochee Trillium	Trillium decipiens
Decumbent Trillium	Trillium decumbens