Leader for
today's Ramble: Linda
Author of today's Ramble Report: Linda
Insect and fungi identifications: Don Hunter, Bill Sheehan, Heather Larkin
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, with two new ramblers -- welcome, Mary and Robin!
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| Bumper crop of ramblers today! |
Reading: “The Dragonfly” by Louise Bogan, from The Blue Estuaries: Poems 1923-1968.
You are made of almost nothing
But of enough
To be great eyes
And diaphanous double fans;
To be ceaseless movement,
Unending hunger,
Grappling love.
Link between water and air,
Earth repels you.
Light touches you only to shift into iridescence
Upon your body and wings.
Twice-born, predator,
You split into the heat.
Swift beyond calculation or capture
You dart into the shadow
Which consumes you.
You rocket into the day.
But at last, when the wind flattens the grasses,
For you, the design and purpose stop.
And you fall
With the other husks of summer.
But of enough
To be great eyes
And diaphanous double fans;
To be ceaseless movement,
Unending hunger,
Grappling love.
Link between water and air,
Earth repels you.
Light touches you only to shift into iridescence
Upon your body and wings.
Twice-born, predator,
You split into the heat.
Swift beyond calculation or capture
You dart into the shadow
Which consumes you.
You rocket into the day.
But at last, when the wind flattens the grasses,
For you, the design and purpose stop.
And you fall
With the other husks of summer.
**************************************
Show and
Tell: Kathy brought a stem of Poke Salad (aka Pokeweed), its leaves skeletonized by... ...what? As it turns out, Poke is one of the many plants that the caterpillars of the Giant Leopard Moth feed on. (Here is a list of its many other hosts as well as some other good info about this species.) The Giant Leopard Moth is an elegant black-and-white creature, and its larvae are the caterpillars known as Giant Woolly Bears. Kathy extolled the virtues of the "lowly" Poke Salad plant because its deep taproots have broken up the hard clay subsoil in her garden and converted it to black topsoil. She commented that the seeds remain viable in the soil for up to 40 years, which may explain why we see Poke Salad showing up in sunny openings in what otherwise appear to be intact forests.
Bill brought a Skiff Moth Caterpillar, left, which is in the Slug Caterpillar Family (Limacodidae), as its inactivity this morning seemed to reflect. Below is a photo of the adult moth.
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| Photo by Andy Reago and Chrissy McClarren |
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| Still snip from Don's video of the parasitoid wasps |
Bill
also brought an actively hatching mass of parasitoid wasp eggs, safely ensconced
in a small clear plastic viewing case. Many
tiny wasps, recently hatched, could be seen moving around in the case. The wasp eggs were lain inside the eggs of another insect, and when the wasp eggs hatched, the wasp larvae consumed the egg
contents, destroying the original inhabitants. Here is a link to a video that Don shot of the tiny wasps swarming over the eggs. No telling whose eggs those once were.
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| Closeup photo of one of the parasitoid wasps, no larger than a gnat |
Dr. Sher Ali
brought a hat from Elandan Gardens, in Bremerton, Washington, where he and
Barbara recently visited on their tour of the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. Elandan is famous for its world-class
bonsai collection and lushly
landscaped gardens on the shores of Puget Sound.
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| Gorgeous blue Cobalt Crust Fungus brought in by Carla |
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The sale closes on Sunday so here's hoping you are reading this in time!
Today's
Route: We visited the International Garden and Physic Garden, before heading downslope on the Purple Trail. We returned via the Purple Trail Connector through the Flower
Garden and the
Heritage Garden.
Today's emphasis: Seeking what we found in the International Garden, Herb and Physic Garden, Purple Trail, Flower Garden, and Heritage Garden
OBSERVATIONS:
A patch of Cherokee Sedge, native to the southeastern U.S., is beginning to shed its seeds. It's a sedge in the genus Carex, which is distinguished by the tiny sacs that surround each even-smaller seed. In Cherokee Sedge, the sacs are held in drooping clusters near the top of a three-sided stem. It was time to revisit the old jingle about the stems of grass-like plants: "Sedges have edges, rushes are round, and grasses have joints [or knees] all the way to the ground."
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| Cherokee Sedge occurs in many Piedmont bottomlands. It flowers in the spring and sheds its seeds in late summer and fall. The seeds are held in the tiny sacs that make up the lower cluster; the spent male flowers are in the two clusters above. |
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| Clasping Heliotrope is a pretty but weedy species found in many of the beds at the Garden |
Looking down on Chamber Bitter, you think these plants resemble mimosa and must be in the bean family, right? Surely that's a compound leaf with many leaflets along a rachis? And the leaves fold up, just like mimosa! But
flip over what appears to be a single leaf, and you'll see a line of
minute flowers that belies our assumption. Each of those flowers arise
from what we now realize is a stem – not a midrib – bearing numerous flowers and leaves.
This is a species where there are flowers with pistils only ("female flowers") and flowers with stamens only ("male flowers"). The flowers near the base of the stem are pistillate and have produced fruits (the round green things). The flowers toward the tip of the branch are staminate and are just now developing, which prevents self-pollination. This condition -- where both sexes are on the same plant but in separate flowers -- is termed monoecious (moe-nee-shus), literally "one house." Chamber Bitter is a ubiquitous weed, imported from Asia and once used in treating urinary disorders (check out its scientific name in the list below). It is an annual.
Hops flower clusters are used to flavor beer. They also prevent spoilage and were first used to make casks of beer more "shelf-stable" during long sea voyages (thanks, Don!). Female and male flowers are produced on separate plants, that is, they are dioecious ("die - ee - shus"). The "active ingredients" – resins and essential oils – are produced by special, golden-colored glands found only on female flowers.
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| Common Olive planted in the Physic Garden. The fruits are the source of olive oil and the many types of olives we eat. The differences in color and taste are due to the time of harvesting and the type of processing the fruits receive. |
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| Feverfew tucked in among other plants in the Physic Garden. A native of the Balkan Peninsula, Anatolia, and the Caucasus, it has a long history as a medicinal plant used for fevers, headaches, and many other ailments. Here's a link to an interesting article about the medicinal uses of this species. |
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| Hops vine with female flower clusters twining on an arbor between the Physic and Heritage Gardens. |
Hops flower clusters are used to flavor beer. They also prevent spoilage and were first used to make casks of beer more "shelf-stable" during long sea voyages (thanks, Don!). Female and male flowers are produced on separate plants, that is, they are dioecious ("die - ee - shus"). The "active ingredients" – resins and essential oils – are produced by special, golden-colored glands found only on female flowers.
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| Mulberry Weed is a common weed in the Athens area – even though it's an herb, it really is in the mulberry family. A native of SE Asia, it was likely introduced with horticultural plants. |
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| Giant Hyssop, a member of the mint family, in the Physic Garden. It is native to parts of the upper Midwest and Great Plains, and was used medicinally by Native Americans to treat a number of ailments. |
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| Aerial roots descending from a Muscadine branch |
Heading down the Purple Trail, we encountered a favorite Rambler sight: a
curtain of aerial roots descending from a Muscadine vine. They are possibly the result of freezing injury.
Although we've stopped by these aerial roots for many years, we've
never seen any reach the ground and actually root. Someone speculated
that this is due to deer browsing. Left unbrowsed, they would reach the
ground, take root, and anchor the vine in place.
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| Loblolly Pine cone demolished by a Gray Squirrel |
Gray Squirrels love tender, green, unripe pine cones! The whole cone (except the core) is nutritious – loaded with fiber and vitamins – but the real treat is the high-protein seed tucked between, and protected by, the cone's tightly closed scales. Squirrels will even stash the green cones; they don't rot and the seed stays fresh and nutritious through winter's scarcity. Here's a fun video of a Gray Squirrel eating a green cone. I recommend turning off the sound on the video and turning up the sound on this as you enjoy the squirrel (Thanks to Gary for musical expertise!)
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| A very well camouflaged American Toad |
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| An equally well camouflaged Crane-fly Orchid |
Wondering: are the muted, woodsy colors of Crane-fly Orchid a type of camouflage that protects the flowers from indiscriminate browsers (i.e. deer) and/or from day-flying insect visitors that might remove nectar without pollinating the flowers? (Crane-fly flowers can be pollinated only by night-flying noctuid moths.)
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| Possumhaw Holly's fruit, borne at the tip of a "short shoot," will turn bright red in the fall. |
A number of our native trees and shrubs have "short shoots," like Possumhaw's, that grow very, very slowly and bear leaves, flowers, and fruits in clusters at their tips, in addition to normal "long shoots." In the photo above, you can count at least 10 growth rings on the short shoot, each 1 or 2 mm long, and each representing a year's growth. By concentrating the leaves, flowers, and fruits at the tip of the shoot, the carbohydrates produced by photosynthesis in the leaves are more readily available to the energy-expensive processes of flowering and fruiting.
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| Holly definitely won the award for the sharpest eyes when she spotted this caterpillar resting on a short shoot of the Possumhaw Holly. |
Returning through the Heritage Garden, we came upon some Loofah vines bearing fruits that make a nice meal when fresh and an even nicer sponge when dry, below.
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| Photo by Rik Schulling, TropCrop - Tropical Crops Services |
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| A Heritage Garden fly gave Don the opportunity to apply his macro chops |
Giving Holly a run for her money in the sharpest eyes category, Bill made an exciting find, noticing four bits of leaf in the shape of tiny party hats side-by-side at the edge of an Indigo leaf. Under each “hat” was an even tinier yellow caterpillar. Bill posted Don’s photos to bugguide.org. The ID that came back was “Skipper - perhaps Epargyreus clarus” (Silver-spotted Skipper). Larvae of this common butterfly indeed feed on leguminous plants, and leaf-tying (note the silvery silken threads in the first photo) is a common trait among Skipper caterpillars. In the second photo below, the caterpillar has made its first cut toward constructing the protective "hat."
More great fungal diversity today! Here's a gallery of some of the fungi we saw.
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| Fairy Parachutes live by decomposing woody litter on the forest floor. |
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| Another view of a Fairy Parachute, showing the stalk attached to woody root |
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| Golden-gilled Gerronema is another wood-decaying species. It ranges in color from creamy white to orange. It would be a mistake to confuse this toxic species with orange Chanterelles. |
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| Golden-gilled Gerronema, glowing on the forest floor. |
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| Marasmius sullivantii, no common name |
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| Fragile Dapperling: best mushroom name ever |
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| For the second week in a row, Don found a nice example of a Shaggy Stalked Bolete. |
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| I know it looks like a Christmas cookie left outside for 8 months, but it's actually a fungus called Rounded Earthstar. |
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| Ramblers in the Heritage Garden gazebo |
SPECIES OBSERVED
Cherokee Sedge Carex cherokeensis
Clasping Heliotrope Heliotropium amplexicaule
Chamber Bitter Phyllanthus urinaria
Common Olive Olea europaea
Mulberry Weed Fatoua villosa
Feverfew Tanacetum parthenium
Hops Humulus lupulus
Mulberry Weed Fatoua villosa
Clasping Heliotrope Heliotropium amplexicaule
Chamber Bitter Phyllanthus urinaria
Common Olive Olea europaea
Mulberry Weed Fatoua villosa
Feverfew Tanacetum parthenium
Hops Humulus lupulus
Mulberry Weed Fatoua villosa
Giant Hyssop Agastache foeniculum
Agrimony Agrimonia sp.
Indian Pink Spigelia marilandica
Muscadine/Wild Grape Muscadinia rotundifolia
Hop Hornbeam Ostrya virginiana
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker Sphyrapicus varius
Eastern Gray Squirrel Sciurus carolinensis
Loblolly Pine Pinus taeda
Fairy Parachute Marasmiellus candida
Fragile Dapperling Leucocoprinus fragillisimus
Golden-gilled Gerronema Gerronema strombodes
Marasmius sullivantii (no common name)
Horse Sugar Symplocos tinctoria
Shaggy Stalked Bolete Boletellus betula
Crane-fly Orchid Tipularia discolor
Possumhaw Holly Ilex decidua
Coral Slime Mold Ceratiomyxa fruticulosa
Southern Grape Fern Botrychium biternatum
Chalk Maple Acer leucoderme
Eastern Redbud Cercis canadensis
Pandora Sphinx Moth Eumorpha pandorus
Rounded Earthstar mushroom Geastrum saccatum
Creeping Cucumber Melothria pendula
Loofah Vine Luffa aegyptiaca
Common Eastern Bumble Bee Bombus impatiens
Wild Indigo Duskywing skipper Erynnis baptisiae
Butterfly Weed Asclepias tuberosa
Large Milkweed Bug Oncopeltus fasciatus
Article of the Week: "Which ornamental plants perform best for pollinators?
And another, here, by Charlie Seabrook, environmental journalist for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Nature Rambler, writes about galls and Bill Sheehan's iNaturalist project, Galls of Clarke County, GA, USA.
Agrimony Agrimonia sp.
Indian Pink Spigelia marilandica
Muscadine/Wild Grape Muscadinia rotundifolia
Hop Hornbeam Ostrya virginiana
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker Sphyrapicus varius
Eastern Gray Squirrel Sciurus carolinensis
Loblolly Pine Pinus taeda
Fairy Parachute Marasmiellus candida
Fragile Dapperling Leucocoprinus fragillisimus
Golden-gilled Gerronema Gerronema strombodes
Marasmius sullivantii (no common name)
Horse Sugar Symplocos tinctoria
Shaggy Stalked Bolete Boletellus betula
Crane-fly Orchid Tipularia discolor
Possumhaw Holly Ilex decidua
Coral Slime Mold Ceratiomyxa fruticulosa
Southern Grape Fern Botrychium biternatum
Chalk Maple Acer leucoderme
Eastern Redbud Cercis canadensis
Pandora Sphinx Moth Eumorpha pandorus
Rounded Earthstar mushroom Geastrum saccatum
Creeping Cucumber Melothria pendula
Loofah Vine Luffa aegyptiaca
Common Eastern Bumble Bee Bombus impatiens
Wild Indigo Duskywing skipper Erynnis baptisiae
Butterfly Weed Asclepias tuberosa
Large Milkweed Bug Oncopeltus fasciatus
Article of the Week: "Which ornamental plants perform best for pollinators?
And another, here, by Charlie Seabrook, environmental journalist for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Nature Rambler, writes about galls and Bill Sheehan's iNaturalist project, Galls of Clarke County, GA, USA.
