Ramble Report April 6 2023

Leader for today's Ramble: Linda

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

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. Photos may be enlarged by clicking them with a mouse or tapping on your screen.

Number of Ramblers today: 33

Today's emphasis: Seeking what we found on our way to and along the Purple Trail and the Purple Trail Spur.

Reading: Bob recited one of his poems that he presented at the Sandy Creek poetry event last week. As always, we are awed by Bob's gift for capturing the essence of changing seasons. For more of Bob's poems, check out his website.

Through the Windows of Spring

When nights drift through open windows

and you wake to mornings enveloped in green,

the world is a nursery with you again

 

the grass-stained boy hopping rocks

by a slow creek that winds through

the idylls of childhood. Or the lithe girl

 

in scruffy jeans clutching a rough trunk

halfway up the side yard plum

which thrives on the edge of an unruly lawn.

 

The aroma of onion grass spikes the air

as you weave a bouquet of dandelions

and skip to a medley of mockingbird tunes.

 

You wander once more through living woods

where tangles of jessamine hang from the trees

and armies of iris encircle the ponds.

 

You gaze in wonder at street-side weeds

where scattered arcs of Dove’s-foot flowers

make lavender galaxies tangled in green.

 

And you rest again on a carpet of clover

woven with tendrils of purple vetch

in the spell of a flowering dogwood.

 

You are the boy now covered in mud,

the girl with a jessamine necklace.

You slip through the windows of spring.

Announcements:

Susie mentioned that the Piedmont Gardeners' annual Tour of Gardens will be held on Saturday, April 15, 10am - 4pm. The six gardens featured this year include a pollinator garden, the Armitage garden, and four other really beautiful and interesting approaches to urban and suburban gardening. Tickets can be purchased online here and at various locations around town: Cofer's, Farm 441, State Botanical Garden, Appointments at Five, Athens Feed and Seed, Wild Birds Unlimited, and Athens Interiors Mart. Proceeds from the ticket sales support scholarships for horticulture and landscape architecture students.

Two recommended online resources were mentioned and/or used during the course of the ramble today:

1. Merlin is a bird identification app developed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the premiere source for bird information and conservation in North America. The app can be downloaded at this link. The app includes the usual visual bird guide (outstanding) AND also a guide to bird calls and songs. You can click on the "sound ID" button, hold your phone so it "hears" the bird sound, and the app supplies an identification. It will list all the birds heard during that session. Amazing!

2. The Flora of North America Online is a continuously updated online distillation of the 22 volumes published over the last 30 years of information for North America plants. Type the scientific name (common names sometimes work too but not as reliably) into the search box at the top of the page, and away you go into a deep dive about that plant, including a state distribution map and beautiful line drawing illustrations (for many but not all species).

Today's Route: Approaching the International Garden through the American South Section, we walked over the Flower Bridge and through the Chinese Section to reach the head of the Purple Trail. We explored the Purple Trail down to the Purple Trail-Flower Garden spur and returned uphill through the Flower Garden and the Heritage Garden to the Visitor Center.

Ramblers examining the native flora bed along the path into the American South section

Jason Young, new Director of Horticulture and Grounds at the Garden (left), and Joey Allen, longstanding Curator of the Dunson Native Flora Garden

Special Guests: Joey Allen, Curator of the Dunson Native Flora Garden and the Shade Gardens, and Jason Young, newly hired Director of Horticulture and Grounds joined the Ramble gathering this morning. Ramblers expressed our appreciation for the incredible treasure and resource that the Dunson Native Flora garden is. Joey talked about his current priority, which is to spread out the existing populations of native plants so they are more evenly distributed throughout Dunson and the Shade Gardens (including the sidewalk areas leading down from the parking lots). He is also focused on improving the two bogs in Dunson and on removing the Spanish Bluebells, an aggressive alien that is well established (volunteers welcome!).

Spanish Bluebells

Edna's Trillium (Trillium persistens)

Joey also mentioned that poaching is an ongoing problem in Dunson, with the latest victim being the patch of Edna's Trillium (Trillium persistens). This species is state and federally listed as Endangered and is being safeguarded here at the Botanical  Garden, so its theft is significant. If you would like to share your ideas about the Native Flora garden with Joey, or just express your appreciation, his email address is <jsa42@uga.edu>. If you would like to volunteer with him, contact Andrea Fischer, volunteer coordinator, and specifically mention working with Joey. Her email address is <afischer@uga.edu>

Jason Young came to the Botanical Garden from Thomas Jefferson's Monticello in Virginia, where he managed the gardens, grounds, and trail systems. Jason has degrees in horticulture, biology, and art. He began by saying that his main goal is to promote good planning for the future use and development of the Garden, and is excited to implement some of the many ideas he has. He recognized the Nature Ramblers as a resource and repository of extensive knowledge about the natural areas of the Garden and would like for the Garden to take advantage of this knowledge. He can be reached at <Jason.Young@uga.edu>.

TODAY'S OBSERVATIONS:
The path into the American South section of the International Garden is lined with native plants.

Georgia Rockcress is one of the rarest plant species in Georgia, with an odd distribution in counties along the border with Alabama. Typically found in rocky sites, it flourishes in rich soils at the Garden.

A cultivar of Blue Star with unusually narrow leaves

Wild White Indigo, with its leafless, metallic-purple stems, is one of the most striking of spring wildflowers.
Wild White Indigo flowers are typical of many plants in the Bean Family (Fabaceae). There is a large-ish banner petal at the top of the flower (flared backwards on this species) and two wing petals along the side that enclose a canoe-shaped petal called a keel. The pistil and stamens are inside the keel petal. Reaching them is hard work and only large bees, such as bumble bees, can handle it.

Virginia Bluebells

Ramblers were surprised to notice for the first time several Bald Cypress "knees" emerging in this bed. Cypress knees provide stability in the shifting soils of floodplains and ponds, as well as allowing oxygen to enter a plant's submerged roots.The knees were surfacing 10-20 feet from the trees.

Cypress knees frequently reach several feet tall, the largest on record being 14 feet tall. These have a long way to go.

Each compound leaf of Yellowwood has 7-11 leaflets. Mature trees produce large, drooping, wisteria-like flower clusters with many, very fragrant, white flowers every few years. These stump sprouts may not reach flowering age for another ten or more years.

Roger is searching for old fruits in order to determine if this gorgeously flowering tree is a Two-winged or Four-winged Silverbell.

Two-wing Silverbell flowers have a bell-shaped corolla divided nearly to the base of the flower so that it appears to have four separate petals.

With this view of last year's fruit, you can see the two prominent wings that characterize the fruits of Two-wing Silverbell; also visible are two low ridges on opposing sides of the the fruit. Four-wing Silverbell, aka Common or Mountain Silverbell, has four large wings per fruit and a flower that is barely lobed.

[Photos may be enlarged by clicking them with a mouse or tapping on your screen.]

 

Oconee Azalea in flower beside the Flower Bridge

Native hollies are in flower now with female and male flowers on separate shrubs.

Female holly flowers have conspicuous green ovaries (each topped with yellow-green styles) that mature to red fruits in the fall. Rudimentary, infertile stamens are often present in female flowers, as seen here.

Male holly flowers have showy stamens and infertile pistils.

This female holly shrub has retained last year's fruits while producing this year's flowers. Flowers and fruits are produced at the tips of short shoots. Each bump on the short shoot represents a year of growth.

Chinese Green Dragon emerging from its underground tuber
At this point, these plants look like early arrivals of an alien invasion, but once in leaf and flower (midsummer), it's easy to see their resemblance to our common Jack (or Jill) in the Pulpit. Both are in the family Araceae.

Chinese Green Dragon leaves (left) and inflorescence (right)
The familiar "pulpit" stands erect behind the flowering spike with its tight cylinder of yellow male flowers and cluster of green fruits below. Only an inch or two of the "dragon's tail" is shown in this photo of the whip-like, 7 to 10-inch "dragon's tail" that extends above the flower spike.
Photo credit: Kew Royal Botanic Gardens

Madame Squirrel finds a soul mate in Kathy!

As does Oli Earthworm with Gary!

Lesser Swine-Cress, an invasive South American weed, is new to the Garden. Its leaves have a strong, unpleasant odor.

Ramblers on the Purple Trail

New growth on the Horse Sugar shrubs on the Purple Trail
Every year we hope to find flowers, every year we are disappointed. This year we also looked for the galls that are frequently found on young twigs of this species and didn't find those either. Last year's Horse Sugar leaves persist through the winter, dropping only after new leaves expand in the spring.

Horse Sugar galls found on new twig growth in March at Rock and Shoals Natural Area. Photo by Linda

New leaves of Sparkleberries earn their name.

Large patch of Violet Wood Sorrel on the Purple Trail

Squirrels have been busy biting the flowers and new growth off of Tulip Tree twigs so they can drink the sweet, vitamin-rich sap. The photo on the left is of a dissected flower bud; the stamens are visible as is the ovary full of immature seeds. The photo on the right is of a newly opened flower with most of the petals removed.

Large patch of what may be Lion's Foot, aka Gall of the Earth. Weakley's Flora of the Southeastern U.S. says: "the species [in this genus] cannot be reliably identified in sterile condition."

In her essay "Upstream," Mary Oliver describes new American Beech leaves "slipping their copper coats; pale green and quivering, they arrived into the year."

A young leaf of a White Oak is already occupied by galls (swellings at the tips of two upper lobes).

We entered the Flower Garden by way of the Purple Trail Spur, where we found a number of native species planted along the southern border, including Green-and-Gold and Red Columbine.

Green-and-Gold

Red Columbine

Rabbiteye Blueberry flowers are too small for large bees to enter, so they resort to slitting open the flower to reach the nectar.

Returning to the Visitor Center through the Heritage Garden.....

Eastern Tent Caterpillar

Kerria cultivar named 'Pleniflora" for its artificially doubled flowers

New twigs of Longleaf Pines are called "candles." They make a dramatic spring display in a Longleaf Pine stand.

Banana Shrub, named for the fruity fragrance and rich yellow color of its flowers, is a member of the Magnolia genus native to China and Korea.

A snowstorm of falling Yaupon Holly flowers in the Heritage Garden.

 

Here's a nice opinion piece in the Washington Post about the ecological value of replacing a lawns and exotic ornamental plantings with native plants.

 

Closing advice from Ludwig von Beethoven: "Stay in the countryside. It's as though, in the country, every tree was speaking to me. Holy, holy! Who can express it all? Sweet quietude of the forest!"  (Thanks to Gary for sharing this.)

SUMMARY OF OBSERVED SPECIES

Thread-leaf Bluestar     Amsonia hubrichtii      

Eastern Bluestar     Amsonia tabernaemontana   

Georgia Rockcress     Arabis georgiana

White False Indigo     Baptisia alba

Virginia Bluebells     Mertensia virginica

American or Kentucky Yellowwood     Cladrastis kentuckea

Two-winged Silverbell     Halesia diptera

Bald Cypress      Taxodium distichum

Climbing Hydrangea     Decumaria barbara

Oconee Azalea     Rhododendron flammeum

Yaupon Holly ('weeping' cultivar)     Ilex vomitoria

Chinese Green Dragon    Pinellia pedatisecta

Plumleaf Azalea     Rhododendron prunifolium

Lyre-leaf Sage     Salvia lyrata

Lesser Swine-cress     Lepidium didymium, synonym Coronopus didymus

Muscadine Grape     Muscadinia rotundifolia

Horse Sugar     Symplocos tinctoria

Violet Wood Sorrel     Oxalis violacea

Lion’s Foot     Nabalus serpentaria, synonym Prenanthes serpentaria

Possumhaw Holly     Ilex decidua

Tulip Tree aka Tulip or Yellow Poplar     Liriodendron tulipifera

Solomon’s Plume     Maianthemum racemosum

Sparkleberry     Vaccinium arboreum

Green-and-Gold     Chrysogonum virginianum synonym Chrysogonum repens

Eastern Red Columbine     Aquilegia canadensis

Rabbit Eye Blueberry     Vaccinium virgatum

White Oak     Quercus alba

Banana Shrub     Magnolia figo synonym Michelia figo 

Longleaf Pine    Pinus palustris

Kerria     Kerria japonica 'Pleniflora'

Eastern Tent Caterpillar     Malacosoma americana