Leader for today's Ramble: Linda
Authors of today’s Ramble report: Linda and Don. Comments, edits, and suggestions for the report can be sent to <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: 22
Today's emphasis: Seeking what we find, in mid-spring, along the Purple and Orange Trails.
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| Rachel Carson |
Reading:
Richard read a quote
by Rachel Carson: “Humankind is challenged, as it has never been challenged
before, to prove its maturity and its mastery, not of nature but of itself.” Don delved a little further into this quote,
curious as to the reading’s origin. He found this article by Maria Popova,
“How
to Save a World: Rachel Carson’s Advice to Posterity," which places
the quote in the context of Carson’s life:
"In June 1962, five days before the first installment of Silent Spring made its debut in The New Yorker, the terminally ill Carson summoned the remnants of her strength to take her very first cross-country jetliner flight and deliver a long-awaited commencement address at Scripps College in California… She titled it “Of Man and the Stream of Time” — hers, after all, was an era when every woman, too, was “man.” It was a crystallization of Carson’s moral philosophy, a farewell to the world she so cherished, and her baton-passing of that cherishing to the next generation. She told graduates:
‘Today our whole earth has become only another shore from which we look out across the dark ocean of space, uncertain what we shall find when we sail out among the stars.… The stream of time moves forward and [hu]mankind moves with it. Your generation must come to terms with the environment. You must face realities instead of taking refuge in ignorance and evasion of truth. Yours is a grave and sobering responsibility, but it is also a shining opportunity. You go out into a world where [hu]mankind is challenged, as it has never been challenged before, to prove its maturity and its mastery — not of nature, but of itself. Therein lies our hope and our destiny.’” Link to the full text of Carson’s speech.
Show
and Tell:
Richard brought Cross-vine flowers he’d collected in his yard and kept refrigerated for
several weeks. Cross-vine blooms in April, just as Ruby-throated Hummingbirds
arrive in the Piedmont. The four pollen-laden anthers, held at the tips of arching
filaments, and the pistil are all clustered near the mouth of Cross-vine’s
tubular flowers, right where the foreheads of hummingbirds make contact as they
probe for nectar inside the base of the tube. The common name comes not from the
four leaflets at each node, as I long thought, but from the phloem (tissue that conducts sugars from leaves to roots) which forms
an “X,” visible in cross-section, inside the stem.
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|
Stamens
clustered at the mouth of a Cross-vine Flower. |
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| Cross-section of Cross-vine stem showing four wedges of phloem forming something like a cross. Photo by Eugene Wofford, courtesy University of Tennessee Herbarium |
Linda
brought flowers from a yellow-flowered Wild Indigo to demonstrate how only hefty, large bees can push apart the petals to
provide access to the pollen and nectar. Here is a nice summary of the way bumblebees pollinate bean family flowers.
Announcements/Interesting
Things to Note:
Snake Day is coming Saturday, May 13! Sandy Creek Nature Center, noon to 4:00
pm. Don’t misssss it!
From the Athens C-Change Conversation: "Uncertain About the Impact of Warming Temperatures? Attend the “C-Change Primer,” a non-partisan, multimedia presentation about the science and effects of climate change on Monday, May 15, at Ciné Theater, 234 West Hancock Ave, in Athens. Doors open at 4:30 for a reception, followed by a presentation and Q&A from 5:00-6:30. Free and open to the public, with free popcorn. The 'C-Change Primer' presents clear, unbiased information that helps people understand how climate change will impact the things we all value: jobs and a sound economy, health and personal safety, and geopolitical stability. It has been widely hailed as an intelligent, dispassionate introduction to, and illumination of, the topic. The Primer was developed in conjunction with independent climate scientists and public policy specialists and has been presented to nearly 17,000 people in 32 states."
Saturday, May 20, 2 – 4pm, Georgia nature author, Janisse Ray, will speak at the Sandy Creek Nature Center in honor of the Nature Center’s 50-year anniversary. Author of works such as "Ecology of a Cracker Childhood" and "Wild Spectacle: Seeking Wonders in a World Beyond Humans," Janisse is a writer, naturalist, and environmental activist whose deep love of Georgia shines through on every page. She will speak outside at the picnic pavilion, so bring a blanket or lawn chairs. Her talk will be followed by a reception and an opportunity to speak to her and purchase her books.
Today's Route: We left the Children’s Garden and headed across the Flower Bridge. We passed the China and Asia Section, then passed through the Threatened and Endangered Plants bed to reach the Purple Trail. We took it down to the river and headed across the beaver marsh boardwalk, then turned left onto the Orange Trail, which we took back to the parking lot.
OBSERVATIONS:
China
and Asia Section:
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| Voodoo Lily plants in flower |
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| Voodoo Lily leaves photographed by Don in June 2018. Each large leaf consists of many leaflets arranged in a horse-shoe shape. |
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| Whitebark Magnolia, a native of Japan with leaves up to 20 inches long, is a “sister species” to our Bigleaf Magnolia. |
Threatened and Endangered (T&E) Plants
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| Indian Pink is not actually endangered (thank goodness!), but nevertheless lights up the T&E garden every spring. If only it were called “Firecracker Plant”….it is not pink, obviously, and is not in the Pink Family (Caryophyllaceae) either, and the word Indian is always a bit suspicious when applied to plants, often indicating that the namer thought the plant was not the “real thing” they knew from Europe (similar to calling something "false." |
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| Cooley’s Meadowrue female (pistillate) flowers on the left, male (staminate) flowers on the right. This species is listed as Endangered by both U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Georgia’s Department of Natural Resources. |
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| Black Cohosh in bud |
Purple Trail
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| The trail was littered with newly fallen leaves and twigs, evidence of the high winds we’ve had in the last week. |
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| Among the fallen twigs was this one from a Beech bearing an immature Beech nut (no relation to the chewing gum). |
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| This standing dead tree has supported many birds, small mammals, insects, fungi, and lots more since it died. |
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| Annual quiz: what is the darkest tree in the Garden's forest? |
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| Christmas Fern produces spores on the uppermost leaflets of its fertile fronds. |
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| Close-up of the spore-producing structures (sori) on the lower surface of a Christmas Fern leaflet |
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| A Basswood leaf, almost but not quite heart-shaped, was found on the path and prompted a search
for the tree, never before noted along the Purple Trail –– turns out there were
at least two in the vicinity. |
%20leaf%20-%20lower%20leaf%20surface%20felty%20white%20-%20Stephen%20J.%20Baskauf%20Bioimages.jpg) |
| The lower leaf surface of our variety of Basswood (var. heterophylla) is densely felted with white hairs. (Photo by Stephen J. Baskauf, Bioimages) |
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| Basswood with many root sprouts Photo by Stephen J. Baskauf, Bioimages |
Several ramblers pointed out that the easiest way to spot a Basswood in the woods is to look for a ring of young stems that almost invariably sprout from the base of a mature tree. World-traveling ramblers mentioned that European species of Basswood are known as Linden in Europe and Lime Tree in England and Ireland.
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| Sourwood leaves look pretty generic – unless you turn them over and run your finger down the line of stiff hairs along the midvein. |
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| We heard the songs of Summer Tanagers off and on throughout the
ramble–listen here. Photo by T. Cantrell |
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| Hook Moss covered the trunks of many Musclewood trees along both the Purple and Orange Trails |
Orange Trail
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| The beaver marsh is dominated this time of
year by Duck-potato, known to the Cherokee as wapato, an important part of their
diet before European colonization. Later in the summer, Rice Cut-grass will overwhelm the marsh. |
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| Duck-potato (above) shares marsh habitat at the Garden
and in most of its range with Arrow Arum (below). Although their leaves are
similar in shape, they are in different plant families and, while Duck-potato is edible,
Arrow Arum is toxic. These photos illustrate the difference in their leaf
venation. All of the main veins on Duck-potato leaves originate at the base of
the leaf stalk. Most of Arrow Arum leaf veins (below) spread from the central midvein while a separate vein
follows the leaf margin. (Click on the photo or tap your screen to enlarge photos.) |
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| Arrow Arum leaf |
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| Duck-potato leaves are covered with a fine coating of hairs. Arrow Arum leaves are hairless but sometimes have a waxy coating. Both are strategies that help protect their leaf surfaces and stomata (breathing pores) from being “swamped. |
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| An iridescent sheen is often seen on the surface of water in marshes and lakes and may appear to be a petroleum-based pollutant. |
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| Thanks to Roger, who has been researching the land use history of the Botanical Garden, we now know that the stream which the Orange Trail follows was named Humphrey's Spring Branch in an 1826 deed. Evidence of the January storms is still seen all along the branch. |
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| Once we crossed the boardwalk and turned left onto this section of the Orange Trail, we began to see Wild Onions in flower. |
This is the only native species of Allium where the flowers share space with bulbils at the top of the stem. In a process similar to that of Egyptian Walking Onions, Wild Onion bulbils reach the ground when the stem withers and flops over. If conditions are right, the bulbils will sprout roots and establish new plants. The shadier the habitat, the greater the number of bulbils relative to flowers.
You may be wondering: bulbils? Bulblets? Bulbils are produced along with, or in place of, flowers at the top of a stem. Bulblets are offsets from the underground bulb. Both are forms of asexual reproduction that produce clones of the parent plant.
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| Mayapple Rust infects the leaves of many of
the Mayapples we saw along the Orange Trail. The upper leaf surface is speckled
with yellow or light green (Don’s photo, left), caused by orange spore-producing pustules on the lower surface (photo, right, by Donald C. Drife, The Michigan Nature Guy’s Blog) |
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| Mayapple fruit |
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| Sanicle or Black Snakeroot is not a showy woodland wildflower but like most wildflowers can be pretty dramatic up close. The trick is to have a 10x hand lens. |
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| Broad Beech Fern, officially known to Ramblers as the Fox-head Fern |
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| Myrna captured a small American Toad. These toads are usually brown or gray in color, although some individuals may be olive green, tan, or reddish (as here).There are only two toads in our area, according to Dale, American Toad and Fowler's Toad, which is distinguished by the presence of three or more warts within dark spots on its back. |
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| Fruits of Wild Geranium |
Wild Geraniums, abundantly flowering in early April, are now in fruit. Species
in this genus are sometimes called Crane's Bills or Heron’s Bills because of the long,
pointed shape of the fruit. When the fruits ripen, they split from the bottom into
five sections that curl rapidly upward, hurling their tiny seeds several feet
away. In the lower right corner of Don's photo, you can see a fruit that has already ejected its seeds.
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| Solomon’s Plume in flower |
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| Witch Grass flowers with brushy stigmas and oval anthers tipping the stamens |
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| Ramblers consulting the Merlin app to identify the birds whose songs and calls accompanied us along the Orange Trail. According to Merlin, we heard lots of Summer Tanagers, Northern Cardinals, and Tufted Titmice as well as Blackpoll Warblers, Wood Thrushes, Acadian Flycatchers, and several others. |
SUMMARY OF OBSERVED SPECIES:
Cooley’s Meadowrue Thalictrum cooleyi
Mayapple Rust Puccinia podophylli, synonym Allodus podophylli
Wild Onion Allium canadense
