Ramble Report July 20, 2023

Leader for today's Ramble: Roger Nielsen

Authors of today’s Ramble report: Roger and Don Hunter

Insect and fungi identifications: Don Hunter

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: 27

Today's emphasis: Seeking what we find along the White, Orange, and Purple Trails with a quick stop in the lower Flower Garden.

Ramblers exiting the Children's Garden via the Fallen Giant Chestnut tunnel

 

Reading: Roger read excerpts from “July,” a chapter in “Moods of the Ohio Moons: An Outdoorsman’s Almanac” by Merrell C. Gilfillan (1991, Kent State University Press). Gilfillan was a wildlife biologist with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife and later a freelance writer.

“July is the first full month of summer, yet it comprises the heart of the summer season with its dog days intensity of heat and humidity. It was known to the Indian tribes as the Thunder Moon or the Heat Moon… During the Thunder Moon, the great summer storms build up and roll across the land. Rural people will run out to stand in the rain, finding delightful, tactile pleasure in the caress of the raindrops and the cooling breeze the rain brings… In July… events are already pointing to autumn. At the start of the month, tree foliage, which has attained the solid, glossy look, indicates that it has reached its full growth for the season, until drought and the chemistry of autumn changes its appearance. Summer gardens are beginning to display their brightness. Hollyhock blooms climb the stalks as summer strengthens… Dry maple samaras are still falling or being eaten by squirrels. Beechnut burrs change from green to gold… But the outstanding feature of summer vegetation is the tall, bright wildflowers; they seem to reflect the bright energy of the day star in their blossoms… Fields of chicory are a blue haze, perhaps dotted with Oxeye Daisies, Queen Anne’s Lace, and Black-eyed Susans. Joe Pye Weed, Teasel, sunflowers, magenta and yellow ironweeds, and the striking orange of Butterfly Weed are noticeable… July birds are quieter than during the nesting and rearing season… Late in the month, they will molt and be private for a time. To the Cree and Ojibway, July is the Moon When Birds Cast Their Feathers… July is host to a number of beautiful insects—the butterflies and moths. These brightly colored creatures command wide attention as they dance over garden and meadow, visiting flowers… But perhaps the givers of most romance and beauty are the fireflies. Has there ever been a child who didn’t run through the dusk, pursuing and catching fireflies to keep in a bottle—a living light for a few hours?”

Announcements/Interesting Things to Note:

Some of you may remember Joan West, who was a Nature Rambler in 2013 and 2041 and is now a National Park employee at Arches National Park in Utah. She just let Don know that she has completed her final remaining section of the Pacific Crest Trail. She began the hike in 2014, shortly after leaving the Nature Ramblers, but had to withdraw in the fall of that year due to a stress fracture. She says Hi! and sends best wishes to everyone she knew before leaving for the West.

Two articles of interest caught Linda’s eye this week…
How Do Plants Remember Experiences?

Urban Meadows Hold the Key to Pollination Prosperity

Today's Route: From the Children's Garden, we walked through the Fallen Giant Chestnut tunnel, down the White Trail to the Orange Trail, then downstream on the Orange Trail to the beaver marsh. From there we turned uphill on the Purple Trail and wound up in the Lower Flower Garden. We chose this route to be mostly in the shade and mostly downhill or level.

OBSERVATIONS:

Don got to the Ramble a little early to look for an interesting photo or two...

Broken-backed Bug on Maximilian sunflower

Darkling Beetle on leaf of Short-toothed Mountain-mint

Ramblers were hoping to find Crane-fly Orchid in flower along this stretch of trail but found only two plants with flower stalks, both with immature buds. However, Don spotted a nice Old Man of the Woods mushroom growing in what is probably an Armadillo burrow.

Old Man of the Woods mushroom

Black Locust seedlings are uncommon along the heavily wooded trails at the Garden. Black Locust is an early successional tree, its seedlings quickly claiming disturbed areas, natural or unnatural, with abundant sunlight. Unless a gap opens in the canopy here, it's unlikely this seedling will grow much longer.

We saw lots of Ebony Spleenwort, and discussed the arrangement of their fronds. According to Ferns & Fern Allies of the Smokies by Murray Evans, “Spleenworts are mostly small rock ferns growing in tight clumps from compact, branching, scaly rhizomes...The vegetative leaves are short, compact, and arching close to the substrate. The fertile leaves are much taller (up to 1 foot long) and erect.”

American Toad

American Toads are common throughout eastern North America, except in the southeastern Coastal Plain. They are usually brown or gray, but may be olive, tan, or even brick red. There is always a light stripe down the middle of their backs. This is the frog whose call is so frequently heard along the river in late winter and spring; its call is "a long, high-pitched, musical bu-r-r-r-r that is 6-30 seconds in duration."

Mountain Silverbell trees are abundant in the Middle Oconee River floodplain at the Garden. Sometimes called Common or Four-wing Silverbell, this species' fruits have four vertical wings (left). Like the two other species of Silverbell in Georgia, this one also has dark gray-brown bark with tan vertical stripes (right).

Silverbell trees are one of many host plants for the gorgeous Promethea Moth (Callosamia promethea)
Photo credit: Andy Reago & Chrissy McClarren

A mystery Viburnum, probably an escapee from a Garden landscape planting, possibly Linden Viburnum which is planted in several places throughout the cultivated beds in the Garden.

Hop Hornbeam trunk festooned with Crossvine in the bottomland along the river.

Roger discussed how vines have evolved to reach the sunlight without having to expend massive amounts of energy to make the thick, tall trunks of trees that carry their canopies into the sunlight. Vines just sort of “tag along” with trees, using tendrils, twining stems, or sticky pads to attach to a tree which carries the vine's leaves as well as its own upward to the sun.

The trail was covered with seed sacs shed by Hop Hornbeam trees.

Painted Buckeye fruits mature as the leaves begin to fade

We stopped at a couple of small Painted Buckeye shrubs whose leaves were already beginning to change color and fall to the ground. Roger pointed out that buckeyes are among the first trees and shrubs to leaf out in the spring and the first to lose their leaves in the summer – one of the “events already pointing toward autumn,” that Gilfillan mentioned in his "July" essay.

Arrow-shaped Orbweaver suspended across the leaves of a Painted Buckeye.

Bitternut Hickory bark, leaves, and nut

Bitternut Hickory occurs in bottomlands, seepy streamheads, and rich, moist forests, nearly throughout Georgia. It is a close relative to Pecan but its bitter-tasting nuts are not edible by humans. Its bark resembles that of Mockernut Hickory, with conspicuously braided ridges, but the leaves have 7-9 leaflets and the nuts are thin-shelled with low wings along the sutures.

The Middle Oconee River floodplain on July 20

The floodplain is relatively dry – there's been little rain in the last 10 days and  higher than normal temperatures have accelerated evapotranspiration - the trees have sucked the floodplain dry. (Thursday and Friday night's storms, after this photo was taken, have corrected this situation.)

Erosion gully carrying sandy sediments onto the floodplain.

Near the junction of the White Trail with the Orange Trail, we stopped to view sandy sediments that had washed down a small drainage, perhaps in the big storms we had June 21-22 (total 7.5 inches of rain). Roger Collins bushwhacked a short distance up the drainage to confirm that the sand had washed down the small drainage rather than being deposited during overbank flooding of the river.

Both the native Virgin's Bower Clematis, left, and the exotic invasive, Sweet Autumn Clematis (right) are abundant in the floodplain and both have compound leaves with 3 or more leaflets. The native species' leaflets are toothed; the exotic species' leaflets have smooth margins and may have white variegation along the veins.

Jewelweed, with its distinctive spurred, orange flowers, is also common in the floodplain.

A U.S. Forest Service website says: “The showy orange flowers of jewelweed must be cross-pollinated by [long-tongued] insects or hummingbirds. However, jewelweed also has inconspicuous flowers that never open. These closed flowers (termed cleistogamous by botanists) fertilize themselves and produce seed without ever exchanging pollen with another flower. Cleistogamous flowers are very small (about 1 mm long) and are borne near the bases of the leaves. Research has shown that seeds produced by the showy, cross-pollinated flowers grow into larger, hardier plants, but the cleistogamous flowers produce seed at a much lower cost to the parent plant. Jewelweed has a long history of use in Native American medicine. When applied topically, sap from the stem and leaves is said to relieve itching and pain from a variety of ailments, including hives, poison ivy, stinging nettle, and other skin sores and irritations. The sap has also been shown to have anti-fungal properties and can be used to treat athlete’s foot.”

Unripe fruits of Pokeweed adorn the many Pokeweed plants in the floodplain.

Of Pokeweed, the U.S. Forest Service says: “American Pokeweed is a species of open or edge habitats, especially those where birds are able to roost. It is found at forest edge, in fence rows, under power lines, pastures, old field, forest openings, and other similar areas. The entire plant is poisonous causing a variety of symptoms, including death in rare cases. The berries are especially poisonous. Young leaves and stems when properly cooked are edible and provide a good source of protein, fat and carbohydrate.” (Knowledgeable Ramblers pointed out that the leaves should be eaten ONLY before the flowers appear; otherwise they are poisonous.)

Immature spikelets of River Oats

Of River Oats, the Missouri Department of Conservation website says: “River Oats is one of the major food plants for the caterpillars of the northern pearly-eye (Enodia anthedon), a beautiful woodland butterfly that is grayish brown with several dark eyespots. A number of skipper species also use river oats as a caterpillar food plant...A variety of rodents and seed-eating birds, including turkey and quail, eat the seeds of River Oats. Deer eat the seeds and foliage. Bottomland and stream-edge plants [such as River Oats] play important roles in preventing erosion by floods. The network of strong roots helps hold the soil in place, and the thirsty, growing plants absorb excess moisture from the soil.”

River Cane plays an important role in the floodplain. It lives on the levee and its extensive network of rhizomes and roots holds the soil (mostly sand) in place during floods. River Cane is a host plant for the caterpillars of two butterfly species, Enodia creola (Creole Pearly Eye) and Enodia portlandia (Southern Pearly Eye).

Southern Pearly Eye
Photo by Judy Gallagher

In the weeds around the River Cane, Don spotted these possibly mating Two-lined Spittlebugs, both of which were exuding beads of spittle.

On the levee, a Green Ash that is clearly in distress, probably a victim of the Emerald Ash Borer, which has been documented at the Garden.

Green Ash in fruit, each cluster containing many paddle-shaped fruits.

Common Wingstem (the alternate-leaved wingstem species) is just beginning to flower and will continue blooming until frost. Roger pointed out that one of its common names is Yellow Ironweed, which Gilfillan mentioned in the "July" essay that Roger read.

Red-headed Ash Borer was seen on Yellow Crownbeard (the opposite-leaved wingstem). It's a native insect that attacks dead, injured, and dying trees. It typically targets Ash, Oak, Hickory, Persimmon, and Hackberry trees.

At the junction with the Purple Trail, Roger pointed out the American Basswood tree, noting how the base of the heart-shaped leaf is asymmetrical.

The North Carolina Extension Service says: “Historically, Boneset was included in medicinal herb gardens and used as a folk medicine for treatment of flu, fevers, colds, and a variety of other maladies. Some authorities claim the name Boneset refers to a former use of the plant to aid the healing process for broken bones; others claim that the name is in reference to the plant's use as a diaphoretic in the treatment of an 18th century influenza called break-bone fever.” Roger added out that although Boneset extends east of the Rocky Mountains from Canada to Texas and Florida, it is uncommon in the Southern Appalachian Mountains.

In our hot and steamy return through the Lower Flower Garden, we stopped to admire Boneset in bud. Its paired leaves are fused at the base and appear to be a single leaf perforated by the stem. The stems are incredibly hairy.

A well-camouflaged Carolina Anole hiding amid the Boneset foliage.

Carolina Anoles are abundant throughout the southeast except in the Blue Ridge.

SUMMARY OF OBSERVED SPECIES:

Darkling Beetle        family Tenebrionidae
Broken-backed Bug        Taylorilygus apicalis
Short-toothed Mountain-mint    Pycnanthemum muticum
Cranefly Orchid            Tipularia discolor
Jack-in-the-Pulpit         Arisaema triphyllum
Ebony Spleenwort         Asplenium platyneuron
Black Locust            Robinia pseudo-acacia
American Toad            Anaxyrus americanus
Unknown Viburnum        Viburnum sp. possibly V. dilatatum
Bitternut Hickory            Carya cordiformis
Four-wing Silverbell        Halesia tetraptera
Hop Hornbeam            Ostrya virginiana
Crossvine                Bignonia capreolata
Wing-stem                 Verbesina alternifolia
Painted Buckeye         Aesculus sylvatica
Linden Viburnum            Viburnum dilatatum
Virgin’s Bower            Clematis virginiana
Sweet Autumn Clematis    Clematis terniflora
Redheaded Ash Borer        Neoclytus acuminatus
Elderberry                Sambucus canadensis
Jewelweed             Impatiens capensis
Pokeweed                 Phytolacca americana
River Oats                 Chasmanthium latifolium
American Basswood        Tilia americana
Boneset                Eupatorium perfoliatum
Carolina Anole            Anolis carolinensis