Ramble Report March 24 2022

Leader for today's Ramble: Dale

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.

Number of Ramblers today: 34

Today's emphasis: Dunson garden

Reading:  Anne Brightwell read a poem, ”why I feed the birds”, by Richard Vargas. You can find the text of this poem at this link.

Show and Tell:

Kathy holding a Tiger Lily.

Kathy Stege brought a Tiger Lilly bulb and bulblet to give away. She then told us about its history. Native to Korea, where it is diploid, the variety grown here is triploid and is therefore sterile. That makes the plant less invasive and it reproduces mainly by  bulbs and bulblets.

Richard Saunders shared a Walt Cook story.

Today's Route:   We left the Children’s Garden, via the Shade Garden path by the comfort station, exiting onto the mulched path leading down to the Dunson Native Flora Garden (Dunson Garden).  We wandered through the paths in the Dunson Garden and walked toward the river, exploring the woody edges on both sides of the power line right of way. We returned to the Children’s Garden via the White Trail Spur.

 

OBSERVATIONS:

Dunson Garden:

Allegheny Spurge
Male flowers bear white stamens at the top of the flower stalk, female flowers develop below.the males.

Allegheny Spurge can be an important source of pollen for bumble bees and early emerging solitary bees. They need pollen for its protein content, nectar being mostly sugar. 

Dwarf Crested Iris

 

Walter’s Violet

Walter’s Violets.have flowers that are smaller than those of the common blue violet. Their leaves are smaller, too, and have a duller surface. It spreads by runners that can detach from the parent plant.

Christmas fern fiddlehead unrolling.

Christmas Ferns remain green throughout the winter but develop new leaves early in spring.

Sweet Betsy Trillium

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Sharp-lobed Hepatica

Sharp-lobed Hepatica leaves come to a point, insead of the rounded lobes of the other hepatica species. This species prefers calcareous soils. In Georgia it is much more abundant in the northwestern part of the state where limestone deposits provide the calcium. 

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Celandine Wood Poppy

 

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Georgia Dwarf Trillium
As the petals age they develop a pink color before dropping off.

Mayapples grow as a clonal group. Most individuals have a single leaf, but those that have enough energy produce two leaves with a single flower bud between them. All the parts of the plant, except the fruit, are toxic.

Virginia Bluebells
Unopened flower buds are pink, then turn blue as they open
The pigment is contained in the cell vesicles and is pink under basic condidtions but changes to blue when the vesicle turns acidic, like litmus paper.

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Common Blue Violet
There are two extremes in color, blue and white. Intermediate forms can be found.

Dimpled Trout Lily.
There are two species of Erythronium in the Dunson Garden. They can be distinguished by examination of the fruit. One kind has a dimple at the end, the other doesn't.

Atamasco Lily
In spite of its common name it is not a Lily, it belongs to the Amaryllis family.

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Virginia Spring Beauties
Note the slender, grass-like leaves.

Carolina Spring Beauty
Note the broader leaf blade than in the Virginia Spring Beauty.

 

Rafinesque’s  Viburnum

ROW & NEARBY WOODS:

Carolina Jessamine
Vine with yellow flowers high in tree

 

Yellow Fumewort

Eastern Redbud

 

Butterweed
Related to Golden Ragwort, but is an annual.

Black Cherry in bud.

Black Cherry bark

The tree is just beginning to flower, with many racemes of flower buds. The bark has many horizontal slits in the bark. These are called lenticles and they allow oxygen to diffuse into the cells beneath the outer layer of bark.

Beaked Corn Salad
Note the terminal clusters of four flowers.

Several ramblers wondered why the common name was "corn salad," since it didn't appear to have anything to do with corn. The answer is found in English around the 15th -- 16th century. At that time the word "corn" referred to any grain crop grown for human consumption. In England corn was what we now call wheat. In Scotland, it was oats. When English colonists encountered they called the Native American grain crop "Indian Corn." It later became known simply as "Corn." The plant we call Corn Salad was a European weed that grew in wheat fields and provided an early green salad for the colonists.

 

Ground Ivy

Ground Ivy is a naturalized Mint family plant of European origin. It was used to prolong the shelf life of beer before being replaced by Hops.
 

Purple Deadnettle

Purple Deadnettle is another naturalized European weed. The "deadnettle" refers to its resemblance to stinging nettles, but it lacks the stinging hairs (tricomes) on its leaves.

White Trail Spur:

Bark of Silverbell tree.'
Note the light-color stripes.

Silverbell flowers

Decumbent or Trailing Trillium has a flowering stalk that lies against the ground.

OBSERVED SPECIES:

 

Woodland Phlox     Phlox divaricata
Forsythia     Forsythia sp.
Carolina Anole     Anolis caroliniensis
Bloodroot     Sanguinaria canadensis
Sweet Betsy Trillium     Trillium cuneatum
Chattahoochee Trillium     Trillium decipiens
Allegheny Spurge     Pachysandra procumbens
Dwarf Crested Iris     Iris cristata
Virginia Spring Beauty     Claytonia virginica
Black Cohosh     Acataea racemose
Walter's Violet     Viola walteria
Christmas Fern     Polystichum acrostichoides
Sharp-lobed Hepatica     Hepatica acutiloba
Celandine Wood Poppy     Stylophorum diphyllum
Georgia Trillium     Trillium georgianum
Leatherwood     Dirca palustris
Mayapple     Podophyllum peltatum
Seersucker Sedge     Carex plantaginea
Virginia Bluebells     Mertensia virginica
Common Blue Violet     Viola sororia
Dimpled Trout Lily     Erythronium umbilicatum
Golden Ragwort     Packera aurea
Atamasco Lily     Zephyranthes atamasca
Carolina Spring Beauty     Claytonia caroliniana
Rue Anemone     Thalictrum thalictroides
Rafinesque's Viburnum     Viburnum rafinesquianum
Carolina Jessamine     Gelsemium sempervirens
Yellow Fumewort     Corydalis flavula
Eastern Redbud     Cercis canadensis
Butterweed     Packera glabella
Tufted Titmouse     Baeolophus bicolor
Black Cherry     Prunus serotina
Beaked Corn Salad     Valerianella radiata
Ground Ivy     Glechoma hederacea
Purple Deadnettle     Lamium purpureum
Southern Chervil     Chaerophyllum tainturieri
Silverbell     Halesia tetraptera
Decumbent Trillium     Trillium decumbens
Cranefly Orchid     Tipularia discolor
Coral Honeysuckle     Lonicera sempervirens
Solomon's Plume     Maianthemum racemosum
Buckthorn Bully     Sideroxylon lyciodes